Day 21 - 0 KMs, Pucon, Chile - Local exploration day 1

Local Pucon - exploring day #1

I woke up nice and rested today. Oh I think I will be up around 8:30 AM feeling really good because I'm sleeping on a nice bed.   I woke up brush my teeth wash my face and I went down to get my breakfast that was included in the cost of the room.   It was nothing my fancy but it was nice.   It was bread some bacon and eggs, porridge, some sort of large drink and coffee of course.   Drinking my coffee did not really appeal to me now because I wanted to go to a local café and try the coffee there instead.    

I went back to my room and get a little more packing; Well mostly my gadgets that belong in the black rolling carry-on bag.  To make things funny, my carry-on bag which is supposed away lesson 7 kg however it must wait at least 11 kg but no one ever bother to check it on my entire journey here.  I guess I'm lucky.   It's amazing almost 11 kg of gadgets camera gear and etc.  Anyway, I went downstairs to the hair salon right next door to the hostal.   I desperately want to get a haircut because at my age I don't have a lot of hair left, even I look young, but I wanted to get it shaved off like I normally do back in New Zealand.   When your guy over 40 and you don't have a lot of hair left, It's receding, Iyou to shave your head it's easier to maintain and you don't need a towel to dry your hair.  There are some good advantages of having a shaved head like to sport of swimming; this means hydrodynamics.

Shedding 40+ days of hair growth on a hot day was better
than getting a massage today!  Oh yeah - HAPPY!

Anyway enough about that, the salon then open for 30 minutes so I went back to my room and pack a little more.   I went back to the salon and I was first one in line.   Again I had to use Google translate to talk to the people, the Latina women hairstylists.  To rather try to explain what I wanted in Espanol, I just grab the clippers from her workstation and mimicked the motion of shaving my head.  She smiled and nodded her head; She knew what I wanted.   So she sat me down, put that thingy around me so no cut hair would get on me and got to work.   The hair that I had on my head was very thick.  I had about 40 days without a haircut.  This was about 20 days longer than normal.   So as the friendly Spanish woman shaved my hair off, I instantly started to feel cooler and more relaxed.  This is how it's supposed to look :-).    My haircut was going to cost me 9000 pesos, I didn't know if that was expensive or reasonable for the area, but I really didn't give a shit as I just wanted to haircut so desperately.   I was really in a good mood, the weather was nice, the locals are friendly, and mostly I was happy because I didn't have to drive the van anywhere today!  Yes that means 0 km entry for my blog!!  That's a good thing in itself.

My van's parking spot for 2.5 days with Volcan Villarica

Anyway after I got my haircut, if you brushed off the hair from my neck she then got me by the hand and pulled me to the sink.  This this was like she wanted to wash my hair as in standard procedure at a hair salon, however LOL, I don't have any hair so what she going to do?  She place my head down into the sink as expected, and spread lukewarm to hot water on my freshly shaven head.   She put on my head what felt like warm oil.   I'm thinking oh my this feels good.  That she started giving me a head/scalp massage.   Now this feels really good!  I looked into the opposite mirror and I saw that she was enjoying yourself.   She looked at me for the opposite mirror into my eyes and I could've sworn she said the word RICO to her colleague(??).   As you know from my last blog entry from about two days ago, the word RICO means 'sexy guy' in Spanish.   I could've been imagining it but maybe I wasn't?  Who knows really.  I was going to ask what she said, so I was one with it/go with the flow.  

Yummy lunch right near my accommodation.. fresh blueberry
squeezed drink. Oh mmyyy!  

She continued to massage my scalp for about 10 minutes or more, she was looking in the mirror smiling at me looking like she was enjoying it more than me.   She then proceeded to actually massage my neck.  Holy shit wow I'm thinking.  I have some single friends/ buddies back in New Zealand who would kill for the sort of treatment by a latina female.  So the hairdresser finished up,  off my head and neck and I went over to the cash register to pay.  I gave her a 10,000 peso note, as she smiled and "muchas gracias".  She gave me back 1000 pesos as change, but I gave it back to her as a tip.  She was so thankful she gave me a hug and friendly kiss on the cheek.  The kiss on the cheek is common in Argentina and Chile for all sorts of things so I thought nothing of it.

After getting my haircut and the head massage, I went back to the hostel to gather my maid would do it for me.    I said to him "are you sure about that? I'm happy to myself.".  He replied as," no worries going to enjoy your day here in our lovely town!".  I replied back, "okay but I may not be back till 9 o'clock tonight… now what?".  He replied again, "no worries just going to enjoy your day Will wash your clothes dry them and place them by your room door! Have fun out there today!".  While I'm thinking on what is going to cost me?  5000 pesos, 10,000 pesos?  But well it's worth it because I remember I paid a lot for my laundry in Ushuaia to be done by the house maid. 

So I went down to the post office to try to find out where my package was that I sent from Punta Arenas to my home in New Zealand.   I went down there and the line was short but took forever.  Once I got my turn, I use Google translate to tell her," I sent a package from down south along time ago and it never got my home.  Additionally the shipping status hasn't changed in three weeks?  Can you please tell me where my packages because I spent a lot of money for this to be shipped in New Zealand."
 

Pucon, Chile evacuation plan:
Just in case the shit hits the fan?

Unfortunately she didn't have the ability to use Google translate. So she pulled someone over who spoke better English to talk to me.  That was not enough so I asked me to hold on - Un Momento. Somebody came in who work for the local paramedics, he knew he was quite well and he was talking to me.  I explain the problem to him, then he talked to the local post office people.  That didn't work well either.  So I got all my paperwork and went with this paramedic guy to a local bar.  Local bar was own by an Ex-Pat US citizen who also speak Spanish.   

The paramedic explained the problem of Spanish to them but then I said "wait they speak English".  So I showed US citizen guy my paperwork from the shipping is that it never got there, in the shipping status is all fucked up because it hasn't changed  and three weeks.   He told me sometimes packages being shipped by Chilean Pst out take forever.  

Pucon, Chile - lovely volcanic town

He said that sometimes he sends the package back to the U.S. and it takes two months to get there.  Told me to have patience and wait.  He said that it two months go by and it doesn't arrive in file that insurance claim and get your stuff back.  I thanked him for his help and wished him well in his new life here in Chile.  I also thanked the paramedic for his help too, , But inside I was still not satisfied. I want to know where my fucking package was because I spent over NZ$150 to have it shipped from Chile to New Zealand.

Local birds trying to shit on tourists eating lunch below them
 at a street-side cafe..  LOL!

Anyway so I walked backed for city center and found a tourist place where I could sign up for local tour;  like one of those five hour bus ride tours where they take you to 4 or 5 local touristy things in one day.  So I signed up for a very much discounted 3 PM to 8 PM tour where I will be taken to like five different places.  These are a paper flower shop, an aboriginal sort of place, in view of a lahar live mudflow on a riverbed left over from the recent volcanic corruption, stop over at a nice natural Hot Springs (yeah) interview point where I would see three different volcanoes in the region.  


Sounds like fun doing a bus day trip, although I'm not used to being a tourist who's being a shuttled around on a bus.  However though it's all good because I didn't have time for much other things and I didn't feel like driving very much.

So after signing for the 3 PM bus tour, I went to a café for lunch and to work on my blog.  I found a nice place on a main street in order to chicken burger chips and apple cider.  I sat down in the shade under tree on the outside part of the café because it was too hot to go inside.  I had a nice seat; it was good I could do people watching.  The food was not good sadly, but that cider tasted really good because it was cold.  I finished a lot of writing while I was there actually.  

A regional beach on a lake during a 37c day.

So after my lunch and doing some writing, I packed up my laptop and walked back to the hostel.  I still had about an hour and a half before meeting up with the tour group. So I plug in my phone to charge it because the battery really sucks, and I plug my laptop in the charge that as well.  I set my alarm on my phone and I took about an hour nap.  I felt good to sleep. Anyway I'll I got up half hour before I had to be at the tourist place.  Wash my face and got changed.  

Turn around from the lake beach and see the volcano looming
in the distance..  nice!

I pack my swim shorts for the spa and all my camera gear I wanted to bring for the afternoon.  Nobody was a backpacker so I just left without saying about anybody.  I really don't know where they were.


The bus ride was interesting all kinds of people but nobody really speaking English.  Likely one of the tourists spoke English.  He was showing his family, mostly all Germans visiting from Europe, around with his German wife.  He told the bus driver/guide that he would translate everything for me. He was quite a nice guy.   Anyway we for stopped at a paper flowers place.  It was a store that looked like a flower shop, but all the flowers in the shop were made out of paper.  Wow that's amazing because it looks real.  I was asked if I wanted to buy one for anybody.  I basically replied no thank you because I have to bring it back to New Zealand and it will get destroyed in the process.  However I was very impressed very very impressed with the quality of artwork done.  

Aboriginal housing near Pucon, Chile...  

After this, we then went onward to an aboriginal place which was fenced off.  We were instructed to hop over the fence in sneak inside by the guide.  I'm thinking okay --what the fuck?  Is tourists thing was close but the guy told us to go inside.  I guess since we're in Chile it doesn't really matter and nobody cares.  Anyway rather interesting place, but rather kind of boring.  We Will drop back in the bus and drove about 30 more minutes to a new spot.  This is rather interesting because this was the leftover mudflow from the recent volcanic corruption.  The hot steamy mud was still flowing downstream from the all volcanic eruption about 7 days ago.  Rather fascinating I found it.  Was so fascinating that a local News TV station was filming it.  I guess that this is worthy of a tourist stop.

Volcanic ashflows from the recent eruption 6 days ago

It seemed to me that everybody on the bus was getting tired because the heat of the bus;  it was a so hot outside.  Our next up we went to a place where there was a lot of trees, waterfalls and shade.  For the life of me I don't recall the name of this place because I never took a picture of it/ never took a picture of the sign that is.  What the waterfall and the coldwater river below was pretty.   I so wanted to jump into it but we're not allowed to.   Jumping into it would mean I would have to jump 10 m down into the water.  Oh don't I wish, but then again 10 m is quite high jump. No thanks. Ha ha.  I would've like to just dump into the local stream just to cool off, but that's not allowed here.  I took a few photos of the waterfall and etc.  Check it out...

Lovely waterfall with icy water..
Can I jump in please? I am
dying of heat here..  :-)

Anyway after the waterfall place we took off to go to the Hot Springs.  I wasn't so sure this was a good idea because it was already so hot already outside so what's the point of going into hot water pool?   At perhaps I made a mistake by going this thing, is guided tour.  That was a brief thought of my mind but then again I nothing else to do so I want to see the area at least.  Along the way, bus driver stopped unannounced at a queso stop.  To this day I never had a queso. I think it's some sort of cheese  locally dish that's made locally.  Anyway Time was ticking away and I was wondering how we were going to have enough time to go to the Hot Springs and also go to the viewpoint of the three volcanoes.   We eventually got to the Hot Springs and it was well-made place very nice.  Look like expensive but this was included in the cost of our tour.  We were each given a little skull beanie to where the water, but for me where it was kind of ridiculous because I don't have any hair left it was just shaved off earlier.  Ha ha!  

Natural hot spring spa...very nice! Too bad the weather is warm while we're
there..

Anyway were there for about two hours up until about 7:45 PM.  During that time  I sat there alone in the pool and didn't really talk anybody.  Why do you ask? Well I don't speak Spanish or German so I was shit out of luck and just enjoy it and just enjoyed the experience alone until this woman, about maybe 47 years old, started talking to me who was on our bus.  She was friendly, but her friend also from Santiago, spoke no English so she translated everything I said her from English to Spanish.  Was nice to talk to somebody at least.  Across the pool these two girls who look like they were 33 years old or near to that age for smiling at me. I smell back of course, but never went over to talk to them.

Eventually after our time was up at the Hot Springs, or so I thought it was, I went back to the bus but nobody was there except for the driver.  He told me and limited English that I was 15 minutes too early.  Oh well I'm here so I will just relax and sit here in the front seat where my assigned seat was anyway.  I offer some cookies, Oreo type things, to the driver and his friend and they graciously accepted.  In about 10 minutes later, the two girls who were in the pool or walking up to the bus finished for the night.   They put their bags in the back of the van, and came around and started talking to me.  

They both speak some English which was nice, but the shorter girl spoke better English than the taller girl.  Anyway it seems they're interested in getting to know me because I wasn't really talking to anybody on much of the trip and it was obvious that I'm traveling alone.  They asked overall what I was doing in South America.   So I simply replied that I was in Antarctica and a Patagonia solo road trip from Punta Arena to where I am now.  They seem fascinated by the fact that I was in Antarctica.  I told the girls that I've got mountains of photographs on my laptop if they want to see them later or tomorrow.  There're definitely keen and they're very experienced international travelers or so it would seem.  

So the bus left eventually and now we are driving in the dark back towards Pucon.  I am a little pissed off because we never saw the view of the three volcanoes that we all each paid for.    If I knew Spanish I would've asked the driver why we didn't get to see that?  But my Spanish is very limited so I gave up.  Anyway we made it back to Pucon in the two girls got off the bus first in a place that was not in the center of town.  So they said we should meet at the information center at 10 AM tomorrow morning.  I agreed and told him to have  a good night with a smile on my face.

About three minutes later the bus finally stopped at the information center where we started from originally.  I left the bus, I shook the driver's hand and said "muchas gracias, buenos noches" to him. The information center was only a five minute walk from my hostel, and I quickly made it back to my temporary home.  Anyway I was starving because we never really had dinner.  

I cooked some pasta and some sauce from the leftover cache of food I had from my van.  It was nothing fancy but it tasted good because of fill my belly.    While I was eating the owner of the hostel and his wife sat down to eat dinner themselves.  Said hello to them, however left them in piece to enjoy their dinner.  Once I finish my meal, I wash my dishes and quietly went upstairs to my room.  And what are you know! All my clothes were now nicely balanced on the handrail, folded and clean.  Wow talk about service with a smile!  I really need to thank the hostel maid for her help tomorrow morning.

Canned strawberries for dessert..

I quickly washed my face, brush my teeth, and started getting ready for bed.  However prior to going to bed, I updated in my daily paper blog with the highlights from today.  At this point I'm really tired and I'm going to bed, but I need to set my alarm clock just in case I don't sleep in too late.  After all I'm to meet those two girls from Spain tomorrow morning at 10 AM to show them my photos from Antarctica.  Anyway pretty good day, but I'm bummed out that I didn't get to see the view of the three volcanoes.

That's water under the bridge, and now I'm going to bed.

Daily Summary

It was nice to wake up and eat a breakfast without worrying about having to drive anywhere today.  I was just going to sit around the accommodation, however I will I did want to go out and do things. Dealing with the post office was a pain the ass.  I paid over NZ$130 to ship a box home with some clothing  to make space souvenirs in my backpack.   Getting out of the town and being a tourist was kind of funny.  Back home in New Zealand I always mocked those KIWIE buses shuttling tourists around. Anyway it's all good because I met some cool people and saw some cool things. Pucon, Chile is a magnificent town; I'd love to live here if possible.