A beautiful place, but a very sad at the same time. We started looking for a couchsurfing host a while ago in Santiago and came across a very interesting profile of Dima and Vaini. Dima is from Russia and Vaini from China, both of them living in Pucon. Three days before we were due to leave Santiago, Vaini contacted us saying that Dima and two of the couchsurfers left to climb the Volcano and haven’t come back yet. Three days had passed already and she said that she probably won’t be able to host us and we should look for a different place to stay. We responded to her that we understand and if she needs any help she can count on us. We have been following the news about the boys for all of the following days but no positive news came. A day before we were going to leave Santiago for Pucon, another message from Vaini came saying that she is feeling positive and we should come and stay with her if we still need a place.
On the 13th of November we took a night bus down to Pucon. The journey took us 10 hours, during which I slept amazingly well. We arrived in Pucon at 9 am and just as we got out of the bus we started talking to a German guy who came on the same bus. Just as the bus left the station, I asked Alex to give me the wallet to get some money for the bathroom at the station, and guess what, the wallet wasn’t there. We were terrified; we really didn’t look forward to going back to the situation in Cuba, even worse, this time we would have had to block the cards as well. After the minute of shock has passed I run into the bus station to find out if it is possible to contact the bus company or the bus itself and they told me that the bus is still in Pucon, across the road from the station. I ran there and to my relief it was still there! Luckily the driver had found it already.
After the money issue was resolved we left our luggage at the station and went to explore the town and search for food. We found a great bakery on the main street and had a nice coffee with cake and never failing empanadas.
Not to waste any time we decided to rent bikes for the day, together with Paul (the German guy we met earlier. The centre of Pucon was really easy to navigate and we soon managed to find a hostel for Paul and also a bike rental.
We decided that our first stop is going to be the famous waterfalls Ojos del Caburgua. The road to the falls was not an easy one, a lot of ups and downs, but extremely beautiful. I think it was about 15 km ride.
The falls were definitely worth it, probably the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen (I haven’t seen many). They were not tall, but it seemed like the crystal clear water is coming from all directions. The water was freezing, but still my crazy boyfriend decided to dive in.
Now, we had a choice either to return back to Pucon or continue further to the lake, which would have been another 10 km. We decided that the idea of the lake was great and set on to cycle again. That was a mission! I think about 5 km of the journey was a gradual uphill, I really felt like quitting and going back, but eventually we made it there. The sight was absolutely beautiful, huge lake surrounded by mountains! Completely drenched with sweat I ran for the water, cold but hey it was worth it!
The day was amazing so far, but we couldn’t forget that tonight we are staying with the girl who lost her boyfriend, possibly forever. We really didn’t know how she is gonna be and if it was a good idea to stay there, if we are going to be a help or a burden… Earlier that day we spoke on the phone and it seemed like she was happy to hear from us and is looking forward to meeting up. But you never know, until you meet in person.
But back to our biking trip. We had a nice picnic by the side of the lake and decided it is time to embark on a cycle back, another 25 km to go…The first 5 km of the journey was great, all downhill, I don’t think I have ever ridden a bike that fast. But there were still 20 km to go, the only way to finish it was to look at the amazing views and try not to think of how much was left to go.
Well, we made it, really proud of myself, 50 km ride after a night on a bus. We returned the bikes and had a rewarding beer together with Paul. Meanwhile we were waiting for Vaini to join us, without really knowing what to expect. She joined us in about half an hour and indeed it seemed like she is feeling positive, extremely talkative and even able to laugh at things. Vaini told us a lot about Dima and how we will have lots of fun together when he is back… I wish I had a character like this, if I were her I would have been all over the place.
After the beer we met a friend of Vaini with a daughter and went over to the house. We had a great dinner together and a well-deserved rest.
The guys had a room for couchsurfers with one single bed and a bunk bed. The freaky thing was that the belongings and backpacks of the guys lost on the volcano were still there. Despite the strange atmosphere we fell asleep really quickly, I guess the night bus and 50 km bike ride took their toll.
The following day we woke up later than planned, got hold of Paul and headed off for the national park Huerquehue. We managed to catch the bus out of Pucon and got to the park around lunchtime. We were told that we can only walk up to the waterfalls, but do not have time to walk to the lakes and catch the last bus. This was a bit upsetting as we really wanted to see the lagunas.
We started tracking through the forest, which really looked like it belongs to a fairy tale with its humongous trees and little streams.
We reached the first waterfall and started talking about how it would be a shame coming all this way to miss the lagunas. I suggested we hitch-hike back (our first experience). I think Paul wasn’t too convinced with the idea but the desire to explore won and we all continued for the lakes. The exhausting walk was definitely worth it. The pictures speak for themselves.
We had lunch on the second lake and continued to the third and the last one. There we heard another couple speaking English. It was quite late by then and we thought that there might be a chance that the guys came by car. We started a conversation with them, but somehow I don’t think they were too pleased about it, nonetheless we continued pursuing the goal of getting a ride back. Soon we found out that the couple indeed had a car and we asked them if they could give us a ride and I suppose they didn’t have much of a choice as to say ok. They were in a rush and we nearly ran down the path back to the entrance. As we reached the waterfalls, which we hadn’t seen yet we asked the guys if we coul
d have a few minutes to take a quick look. They didn’t seem to mind that much and we literally ran 500m down and 500m back up, taking a few pics on the way. The visit was short but beautiful nonetheless.
We safely returned to Pucon and decided that it is time to have a drink, strangely enough the guys who gave us a ride refused a drink even though we were having it outside of their hostel. In the meantime we got some news from Vaini saying that the police is there and also the parents of one of the boys, so the obvious choice for us was to stay out. We went over to Paul’s hostel to eat and they were serving amazing vegetarian food there. Somehow it got pretty late by the time we made it back to the house and I think we slightly pissed off Vaini for getting back so late. This made us feel really bad, as the last thing we wanted to do is to upset her.
The following day was pretty relaxing; we went for a walk around town, used internet in one the hostels and headed back to cook a nice lunch for Vaini. We opted for making vegetarian wraps. When we came back to the house we were surprised to find a bunch of kids who were learning Chinese songs and dancing while Vaini was cooking a Chinese meal for us all.
We ate together with the kids, who were very keen on learning Chinese. How odd to see this in a small town in Chile. After that we took a rest as Alex was not feeling hundred percent. Later in the evening we got the chance to cook our wraps and also some other people came along to support Vaini. One of the guests was a Brazilian traveller, who was cycling his way through South America. He also contributed to the communal meal by cooking a beef-stroganof which I thought was a Russian dish, but was rather modified in its Brazilian version. Basically it was chicken cooked with loads of mustard sauce and mushrooms. We all had a feast and a good time despite the circumstances.
The next day we had a bit of a shock as we discovered that the wallet somehow magically disappeared again! We looked everywhere but it was nowhere to be seen. We tried to remember what we did the day before and the only place we thought we could have left the wallet was the hostel where we used the internet. We headed down there and oh my god it was there. People working in the hostel found it lying on one of the benches and even looked inside and found a business card of Alex’s dad and send him an e-mail asking what to do with the wallet. How amazing was that!!! We had all the credit cards there, practically everything!!! Very very happy! Twice in the same place we managed to lose our wallet and twice it has been returned to us. You start believing in the good of people after this. The rest of the day was rather uneventful as Alex was still feeling rough. We went for a short walk down to the lake and chilled out afterwards. In the evening the French Ambassador with the dad of the French guy turned up to talk to Vaini, so we stuck to our room not to disturb. After the visitors left a few other people came along for moral support. Vaini was on Skype with Dima’s dad and she asked me to talk with him in Russian. I wish there were some good news to tell, but unfortunately all I could do is relay the information I managed to gather from everyone else.
On our last day in Pucon we decided to visit one of the famous thermal baths. All of the baths were kind of awkward to get to, so we opted for hitch-hiking and it was stupidly easy! We got two rides within 15 minutes each and the second guy even offered us to stay over at his house. We got to the baths and they were extremely overpriced for what they were but hey we still enjoyed ourselves.
In the evening we caught a bus back to Pucon to spend the last night with Vaini and her friends.
Our stay in Pucon was really wonderful and sad at the same time. Vaini asked me to translate the book Dima was writing in Russian and it was really good. I so wish we could have met him in person and share experiences. We tried to support Vaini as best as we could. Cooked some Russian pancakes she was so fond of and in general tried our best to keep her happy. I hope we succeeded at least a bit. Until now, there was no new information about the three missing guys.
