Thursday, December 16, 2010
Not much to say about today since we were on the truck for almost 12 hours. Before checking out of our room, Sameena and I looked out the window and caught a glimpse of the massive vehicle we'll be traveling in for the next three weeks. Peggy, as she's known, is not a bus, but a truck, and boy is she ever. She is huge and yellow! Not a subtle mode of transportation.
 |
| On the truck |
We loaded the truck at 5:45am and set off around 6 for our 800km drive to Pucon. Andy stopped for a coffee break about an hour into the journey with a second bathroom stop at another gas station before reaching Saltos del Laja, a beautiful waterfall where we ate lunch. Lunch is included as part of the tour on long travel days. Ally had purchased some roast chicken, a mix of salad ingredients, cheese, bread, avocado, strawberries and blueberries. A bunch of people pitched in cutting up ingredients and then we all tucked in sitting on tiny fold out chairs.
 |
| Saltos del Laja |
 |
| Lunch time |
Another couple stops along the way and we finally reached Pucon. The scenery along the way varied, for parts of it I was sleeping, so I can’t tell you what it looked like out the window, but there were lots of vineyards, mountains, green fields with a large range of agricultural products. It was pretty, but not the stunning landscape I expect we’ll see further south.
 |
| Peggy, our truck (I'll get a better photo next time) |
When we arrived in Pucon it was too cloudy to see Villarica volcano, but I got a glimpse of the lake. Ally said this is one of the nicest hotels on our trip – we have cute little apartments. The town of Pucon has a very ski resort feel, something which I expected in Bariloche but not here. Lots of short wood buildings with stone details. It’s very cute and nice that we’ll be staying here for three nights.
The group headed to Sol y Nieve to book tours for the next couple days. I’m going whitewater rafting tomorrow and horseback riding on Saturday. Can’t wait! After stopping in the supermarket to buy some breakfast items, I met the group back at the hotel for dinner. Only Kate and Ray declined to join and the rest of us set out at 8pm for a Mexican restaurant with a great happy hour. Sameena and I split happy hour mojitos and I ordered enchiladas y pollo for dinner. Like most group meals, the food took a while, but it was pretty flavorful. The music in the restaurant was somewhat loud though, so dinner conversations were a challenge, and a number of times Nick (who was sitting across from me) completely misunderstood what I was saying. He did tell us about his journey in 1977 from England to Australia overland through places like Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Burma, etc. Pretty incredible. It also turns out that five people are taking cruises to Antarctica at the conclusion of this trip and that many others are spending/spent time in South America. A well traveled bunch.
 |
| The group - Keith, Monica, Richard, Louise, Nick, Steven, Brad, Ted, Terry, Robyn, Sarah, Sameena, Me and Andy |
 |
| Sameena, me and Ally |
No comments:
Post a Comment