If you are into adventure, outdoors activities and beautiful landscape, Pucòn is your place to go in Chile. We read a bunch of different blogs and talked to other people that been to chile in order to figure out the smartest route to take from south to the north. Pucón (and Villarrica) was almost always on the list of places to see, so we thought – why not check it out. 

We initially thought we could just take a bus from Puerto Natales up to Pucón, were however told that it would take too long if we wouldn’t want to take to many stops in between so we flew up to Santiago first to explore the city because we found cheap flights, then went to Valparaiso for a couple days and finally took a night bus back down (don’t ask haha our route is a “little” zickzack). Eventually we made it there, and thats all that counts, right?! 

Anyways, we got into Pucón in the morning and walked down towards the lake front, which is approximately a 10 minute walk from the Pullmann Bus terminal. We stayed in Chili Kiwi Hostal and really, this is the place to be when you come to the city. It’s right on the lake, the staff is super friendly and helpful with all the tours and the atmosphere is great. If you are looking to stay in a dorm -cool. If you want a little different experience for yourself and your significant other/best friend/whoever, they even offer a treehouse wig view over thfor  lake, a caravan and little hobbit houses to sleep in. They have happy hour and their own bar, but are not a party hostel, to give everybody the chance to get rest before their tours. However, I feel the hostel was very social and got to meet a lot of cool people that we got to spend pur time with. Definitely one of my favorite hostels that we stayed in so far. 

After our intro session upon arrival, where they go through all of the tours that you can do, we decided that we wanted to do Villarrica volcano, canyoning and Hydrospeeding, which sounded like a lot of fun. You can, however, also go and visit the national park, go kayaking, sky diving, skiing, rafting, horseback riding and so on. As I said – city of great adventures. 

Canyoning

Our first tour was canyoning, which was just so much fun. From upseiling to zip lining to jumping and swimming, they definitely showed us a good time. As I said before, I am not very keen of heights, but the guides made me feel extremely safe and helped out as much as possible. They give you a wet suite, helmet, basically everything you need in order to climb and swim safely. We had three guides, who were really nice and responsible, gave us a good safety briefing and off we went. The canyon is approximately 45 minutes from the city and the activity itself takes approx. 2 hours. I can only highly recommend this tour, I’ve never done it before and was very satisfied (still trying to get the videos and pictures transferred to my iPad from my action cam- will follow soon). 

Villarrica volcano 

Second up was Villarrica volcano. After missing out on Torres del Paine, I was really looking forward to finally do a trekking tour, especially because Villarrica is one of the most active volcanos in Chile and last interrupted two years ago. I have to admit, I think I am a fairly fit person, working out and all, but this wasn’t the easiest climb I’ve ever done. It’s a 6 hour trek through the snow and over a glacier, which gets a little steeper towards the end, but it’s definitely manageable. The guides gave us an introductory session the day before, so that we would be prepared in what to expect and especially what to bring. Not only do they provide shoes, jackets and pants but also ice axes and spikes for your shoes, as well as a sled to slide down part of the volcano in the end. It’s hard work to walk up there, but the view is definitely worth it. AND I saw lava for the very first time, which was really exciting. If you end up in Pucón – do it. It’s just beautiful to see and you will be so proud onces you accomplished it. Just word to the wise: do. bring enough water and enough food and don’t overpack the backpack that they are giving you – you have to carry it up and down after all, so pack light. 

Hydrospeeding

Tour three for me was unfortunately a sick day, however Henni and two girls that we met in the hostel went to the Hydrospeeding after all and had a lot of fun, even though it could have been longer. Hydrospeeding is basically like this: you are laying on a floating board with your upper body, your hands are on the inside of the board. The guides gave them a wet suite, helmet and life jackets. At the beginning you are floating on the river to ease in, then the water is going faster and they went through 5-6 rapids, which was the highlight of this tour. In total, the entire tour took 2,5 – 3 hours, however you are only in the water for approximately one hour. Also very recommendable according to the girls. 

So, to sum up, Pucón for me was one of the highlights of this trip so far. It was very unexpected, because I didn’t think too much about it, before coming here and in the end I was for sure sad that we had to leave and would have loved to extended for a little bit longer. As I said, there are so many things to do and the hostel is amazing, so if you planning on coming here, plan enough time to enjoy all that the city and its surroundings has to offer.