Okay I generally sleep well last night because of the strange incident that were those three drunken local girls. I also wasn't quite sure whether those drunken girls were telling the truth whether it is simply drunk and being stupid. And told me that I would be arrested if I camped on the beach without paying. In knowing how slow things go and South America I figured that I left early enough I wouldn't get caught by the police or someone else.
So about 630 in the morning arrived, and we were both awake already; We didn't need each other's help. So Alexis took down this text really quickly, well I sorted out the internal part of the van for the next leg of the Roadtrip. I got to say that Alexis was quite a cool guy. He was French but also spoke Spanish, which is quite a rare thing to come across in my history of travel. After we packed we said our goodbyes, but we also noticed that the lake was steaming. Water temperature of the lake in the air was sort of similar so I wasn't sure what was going on. Anyway, in my doomsday/paranoid mindset and considering that we were camping near a volcano, I thought the volcano was waking up. While the odds were against it but you never know. Anyway I said I'm ago and check out the lake about 100 meters away to where it was steaming.
So I started up the van and it started quite well as usual as Alexis tightened down all the four bags on his push bike. I honked and waved goodbye as I rolled down the beach driving southward. I stopped at the lake where I saw some steam coming up from the water and I didn't see any bubbles so I decided just to keep going. I took a sharp left and drove about one kilometer to the main highway. I turn left and quickly got up 110 km/h. After about 30 seconds of driving, I saw pushed bicyclist. This was Alexis. I threw him a good way with my hand in honked my horn twice to him for good luck and safe riding.
Just to note I never had breakfast today and I was starving. But I just wanted to get out of that place as soon as possible. The view of the lake was very nice, But survived those drunken girls put out was not good and I wanted to get out of there without having to deal with the police or anybody else.
After driving for about 35 minutes, I've actually reached Hwy 5 Norte towards Lonoche, Chile. According to my maps should be clearly marked exit for town called "Villarica" however this was way far away, I mean really far away or so it seemed. I eventually found the highway turnoff for this town and after paid really close attention to the road signs because the road took me through some smalltown. In Chilean fashion as I have learned, you can't really trust roadsigns. I'm driving to the town, for what seemed an unnamed town, and suddenly I was lost. There were no signs to the place I want to go, so I'm thinking "oh what the fuck!" and I said it out loud too with the window down. I think someone on the side of the road walking by understands English by the way he reacted ha ha ha ha.
Anyway, like many days before I got the nerves to ask a local where I should go and use my limited skills of Spanish to ask someone. So I pulled out my map, and flag down a nice old Spanish man. Surprisingly he understood some English, well barely, and was able to help me. So up so I took his advice and I eventually found my way out of the own towards Villarica, but not without getting lost one more time. That was my fault because I didn't listen to him hundred percent. Boy am I a fucking dumbass or what!?
Anyway, here's where the fun starts! I'm driving down road, a sealed road, per the directions of the map and suddenly I come to a fork in the road. There's no obvious correctly path and I say this because the road goes from being a sealed road, to two different gravel roads with no road markings whatsoever.
What the fuck??? So I start to try to use my logic here. Are there any indications of which road would be the main road? No. Both roads are equally as rugged looking. This has to be a fucking joke. So I sat there for five minutes and watch for traffic. I figured the one that has the most traffic, should be the main road. So I saw a few cars go down the right side in this should be it. So I got down to the right side on gravel. Will this was a mistake that would piss me off the rest the day. Why you say well I am driving 46 extra kilometres on my fucking way on very rough and dusty gravel road. Have the time I was following local bus so stuck in a perpetual cloud of dust. I was really hoping that after acrossing to the chili the last time that I would have to deal of gravel roads any more or at least for any long-distances. I sure was wrong on that one!
So after driving these extra 46 km, I've only got your road were I saw a sign for the time I want to find in the first place. Villarica is only about 20 km away to the north. How this happen ? How did I get lost? I have no fucking idea. Anyway I was starving and thirsty at this point so I stop at a little convenient store and got a PowerAid Cold drink, and a bag of chips for a snack. Not very healthy but you know what I don't give a shit at this point. Even though I didn't, it feels like I just ran a marathon on a dusty rugged mountain road and I was sweaty hot and miserable.
So while driving through the town of Villarica, I could see that no one really is around. Very quiet. The town seems okay acids sitting on a beautiful lake, but not much really going on really going on really because it's the middle of the afternoon and in local fashion nothing is open as usual this time of day. So I found my way out of this town by the lake road, and headed about 35 kilometers to the town of Pucon, Chile. This town is the one that was evacuated when the Villerica Volcano erupted about six days ago. Even though in theory going to this town could be dangerous, I was quite excited because I never saw a smoking volcano before. The drive in this town was pretty but nothing was really new to me at this point with regards to scenery if you know what I mean.
Once I got to put Pucon, I could tell immediately that this town was special. If you've ever seen the movie "Dantes Peak", well this place looks is a happy like that fictional town in the movie. Incredible. There're quite a few people there, but I could tell many of the locals were still evacuated and hadn't come back home yet. So I quickly asked a local walking down the street if the volcano still active. He told me "No it had sealed itself up" already. Damn! I missed it I'm thinking. So I drove around to try to find a camping site, but I couldn't find anything nearby to anything. So I instantly thought of visitor center and went there. The visitor center guy told me right on the lake at the end of the main road. Of sweet I'm thinking as it would have a view of the volcano. According to the map you gave me this should be easy to find. Boy was I wrong! I drove around for like 45 minutes and couldn't find anything in this is a very small town too. So I has to local who seem to be running a sailboat club, and he said there is no camping on the lake whatsoever. What the fuck? How can information center guy be so wrong. Oh wait I forgot I'm in Chile LOL! :)
So I drove around and I did find a campsite near the lake however it was not on the lake nor did had didn't have a view of anything. It was a hot day and I was getting pissed off. After 30 more minutes of driving around sweating to death, I decided to just go find a backpacker or hostel stay in for couple nights. I had it I was over camping in the van I think or it would seem to be.
I eventually found a hostel smack in the middle of town. Awesome location and I even got to park on the street for free. So I walked in in ask how much it was for private room with my own bathroom. Before getting an answer I asked if I could get a special price option because of the recent volcano eruption option and the and the lack of stuff to do here. We got the front desk told me it was normally about 60,000 pesos per night, however he said he would drop it down to 40,000 pesos per night. So I quickly did the math and I was about 35 or NZ$30 per night. I shook his hand and said "sold". He was a friendly guy and we quickly started talking about volcanoes. I have to do not recall his name which is quite bad of me, but he loves the movie "Dantes Peak". He said this town reminds him of that fictional Movietown. I reminded him in the movie Dantes Peak the town got destroyed by the volcano. He giggled and laughed and said "yes I know". I laughed back at him and said okay with a smile. I think the main point of all this is that this town called Pucon was spectacularly beautiful and the weather was nice. I was just hot because I was driving alot without air-conditioning.
So slowly but surely I moved everything in the van up to my room on the second floor. I had to get everything out of the van in preparation for packing it and getting ready to clean it. Looking at all the shit I had, I have to wonder how I ever packed everything in and in these three bags in the first place. However lucky for me I had my Excel spreadsheet told me where I packed everything originally. This work magically in and I'm glad I was so very organized during my pre trip planning.
Realizing that I was sweaty and nasty, I got a nice cold shower room bathroom. It felt awesome totally fucking awesome!!! I did however obviously turn on the hot water to clean myself that was after I got a cold shower at the beginning. So I got changed and headed out to try to find dinner, but I realized I had shitloads of food left in the van. So I went out to the van got all my food, , Put it into the shopping bags, and brought it all into the hostal. To put it on the shelf for the next three days of meals. There was a friendly Latino couple they're sitting there while I was eating. I try to speak with them, but they did not know English. Big surprise? No.
Anyway, like many days before I got the nerves to ask a local where I should go and use my limited skills of Spanish to ask someone. So I pulled out my map, and flag down a nice old Spanish man. Surprisingly he understood some English, well barely, and was able to help me. So up so I took his advice and I eventually found my way out of the own towards Villarica, but not without getting lost one more time. That was my fault because I didn't listen to him hundred percent. Boy am I a fucking dumbass or what!?
Anyway, here's where the fun starts! I'm driving down road, a sealed road, per the directions of the map and suddenly I come to a fork in the road. There's no obvious correctly path and I say this because the road goes from being a sealed road, to two different gravel roads with no road markings whatsoever.
So after driving these extra 46 km, I've only got your road were I saw a sign for the time I want to find in the first place. Villarica is only about 20 km away to the north. How this happen ? How did I get lost? I have no fucking idea. Anyway I was starving and thirsty at this point so I stop at a little convenient store and got a PowerAid Cold drink, and a bag of chips for a snack. Not very healthy but you know what I don't give a shit at this point. Even though I didn't, it feels like I just ran a marathon on a dusty rugged mountain road and I was sweaty hot and miserable.
So while driving through the town of Villarica, I could see that no one really is around. Very quiet. The town seems okay acids sitting on a beautiful lake, but not much really going on really going on really because it's the middle of the afternoon and in local fashion nothing is open as usual this time of day. So I found my way out of this town by the lake road, and headed about 35 kilometers to the town of Pucon, Chile. This town is the one that was evacuated when the Villerica Volcano erupted about six days ago. Even though in theory going to this town could be dangerous, I was quite excited because I never saw a smoking volcano before. The drive in this town was pretty but nothing was really new to me at this point with regards to scenery if you know what I mean.
Once I got to put Pucon, I could tell immediately that this town was special. If you've ever seen the movie "Dantes Peak", well this place looks is a happy like that fictional town in the movie. Incredible. There're quite a few people there, but I could tell many of the locals were still evacuated and hadn't come back home yet. So I quickly asked a local walking down the street if the volcano still active. He told me "No it had sealed itself up" already. Damn! I missed it I'm thinking. So I drove around to try to find a camping site, but I couldn't find anything nearby to anything. So I instantly thought of visitor center and went there. The visitor center guy told me right on the lake at the end of the main road. Of sweet I'm thinking as it would have a view of the volcano. According to the map you gave me this should be easy to find. Boy was I wrong! I drove around for like 45 minutes and couldn't find anything in this is a very small town too. So I has to local who seem to be running a sailboat club, and he said there is no camping on the lake whatsoever. What the fuck? How can information center guy be so wrong. Oh wait I forgot I'm in Chile LOL! :)
So I drove around and I did find a campsite near the lake however it was not on the lake nor did had didn't have a view of anything. It was a hot day and I was getting pissed off. After 30 more minutes of driving around sweating to death, I decided to just go find a backpacker or hostel stay in for couple nights. I had it I was over camping in the van I think or it would seem to be.
I eventually found a hostel smack in the middle of town. Awesome location and I even got to park on the street for free. So I walked in in ask how much it was for private room with my own bathroom. Before getting an answer I asked if I could get a special price option because of the recent volcano eruption option and the and the lack of stuff to do here. We got the front desk told me it was normally about 60,000 pesos per night, however he said he would drop it down to 40,000 pesos per night. So I quickly did the math and I was about 35 or NZ$30 per night. I shook his hand and said "sold". He was a friendly guy and we quickly started talking about volcanoes. I have to do not recall his name which is quite bad of me, but he loves the movie "Dantes Peak". He said this town reminds him of that fictional Movietown. I reminded him in the movie Dantes Peak the town got destroyed by the volcano. He giggled and laughed and said "yes I know". I laughed back at him and said okay with a smile. I think the main point of all this is that this town called Pucon was spectacularly beautiful and the weather was nice. I was just hot because I was driving alot without air-conditioning.
 |
| Pucon, Chile - The "Queenstown (NZ) of Chile". Volcanic town that resembles the fictional town in the film "Dante's Peak" |
So slowly but surely I moved everything in the van up to my room on the second floor. I had to get everything out of the van in preparation for packing it and getting ready to clean it. Looking at all the shit I had, I have to wonder how I ever packed everything in and in these three bags in the first place. However lucky for me I had my Excel spreadsheet told me where I packed everything originally. This work magically in and I'm glad I was so very organized during my pre trip planning.
Realizing that I was sweaty and nasty, I got a nice cold shower room bathroom. It felt awesome totally fucking awesome!!! I did however obviously turn on the hot water to clean myself that was after I got a cold shower at the beginning. So I got changed and headed out to try to find dinner, but I realized I had shitloads of food left in the van. So I went out to the van got all my food, , Put it into the shopping bags, and brought it all into the hostal. To put it on the shelf for the next three days of meals. There was a friendly Latino couple they're sitting there while I was eating. I try to speak with them, but they did not know English. Big surprise? No.
I did however realize that each of us had android smartphones are hands. So I pulled out my phone and used Google Translate to talk to them. There's an audio portion to the application as well so that people can hear it. They pulled out their phone and used it to speak English. If it's really amazing how technology can help to people who don't know each other's languages to be able to communicate. While this is not perfect, it's a good start. So I say good night to them and that I see them tomorrow. Very friendly couple, they're very nice people.
So I headed back up to my room really tired, well fed and sleepy but I still have to do my blog entries. This is when I realized my room didn't have a good night table lamp. Ouch! All this nice stuff and they forget the important things like an desk lamp. No worry I took out my head torch like I was still camping.
I did the paper blog for today's entry, but did not do any entries into my Microsoft Word blog--this is the detailed one for each day. I was just too fucking tired and needed a good night sleep.
I'm headed to bed it's around 10:45 PM.... Its really good to be in Pucon and I am looking forward tomorrow! See you tomorrow!
Daily Summary
Today was rather interesting day to say the least. Getting out of dodge early in the morning then onward up a quick jaunt via Ruta 5 Norte. As for getting lost and the maps for Chile? Well I expect no less from this trip! LOL! As for the dusty, ratty and dusty ratty 46 KM of shit road, I hope to not see any more gravel roads from the driver's seat of my van from this trip. I am excited to be in Pucon now though as I get relax for almost 3 days.
So I headed back up to my room really tired, well fed and sleepy but I still have to do my blog entries. This is when I realized my room didn't have a good night table lamp. Ouch! All this nice stuff and they forget the important things like an desk lamp. No worry I took out my head torch like I was still camping.
I did the paper blog for today's entry, but did not do any entries into my Microsoft Word blog--this is the detailed one for each day. I was just too fucking tired and needed a good night sleep.
I'm headed to bed it's around 10:45 PM.... Its really good to be in Pucon and I am looking forward tomorrow! See you tomorrow!
Daily Summary
Today was rather interesting day to say the least. Getting out of dodge early in the morning then onward up a quick jaunt via Ruta 5 Norte. As for getting lost and the maps for Chile? Well I expect no less from this trip! LOL! As for the dusty, ratty and dusty ratty 46 KM of shit road, I hope to not see any more gravel roads from the driver's seat of my van from this trip. I am excited to be in Pucon now though as I get relax for almost 3 days.
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