Blog post for Thursday, 2 November, 2023

Ten percent of the active volcanoes on earth are in Chile. Volcano Villarrica is very near where we are staying in Pucón.

Luckily it didn’t rain today and we had enough blue sky that we were able to see the volcano. We picked out a hike on the slope of the volcano. When we got to the park entrance and talked to the ranger we learned that the storm Monday had left too much snow to hike our chosen hike. So we hiked up from the entrance station about a mile and a half.

After our hike we went into the town of Pucón and had lunch.

Back at our hotel we rested then played cribbage and Rummikub.

We had pizza for dinner at our hotel.

Blog post for Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Today is All Saints’ Day in Chile. We couldn’t find a place open for coffee but we did find a mini mart where we got some pastries and took them back to our dome where we stayed the last two nights. Then we packed up and drove from Futrono to Ni-Newen Lodge near Pucón where we are tonight. Because of All Saints’ Day every cemetery we passed on our drive had cars parked for blocks around and lots of venders selling flowers.

We ate dinner at the lodge

Blog post for Tuesday, October 31, 2023

This morning we went into town to find some coffee. We didn’t really find a coffee shop but we did find a place that served coffee and we got some very good pastries from the bakery across the street.

In the afternoon we decided to do a nearby hike we found on AllTrails. But when we got to the trailhead it turned out to be a nice dirt road in a beautiful valley. It definitely wasn’t a hiking trail. We walked for about three miles mainly on the road.

For dinner we went to a steak house called Restaurante De Pellin y Coigüe. It had a wonderful view of the lake and mountains.

Blog post for Monday October 30

It rained all day today. We found coffee at a park visitor center not too far from Ensenada then drove to Futrono where we are tonight. Last night at Cabañas Ensenada Bosque Nativo we were in a very rustic small geodesic dome. Bonnie and Brian had to get up every two hours to put wood in the wood stove. Our stove was a bit bigger so we only got up a couple of times.

Tonight we are in a lovely new three bedroom dome with a washing machine and an automatic pellet stove. It’s called Domos Futronhue. We tried to find a place for pizza in town but gave up and ended up cooking grocery store pizza in our oven. We played cribbage, rested and read for the rest of the evening. The big downside of the place we are staying is that there is no wifi.

Blog post for Sunday, October 29, 2023

Sunday morning we took a taxi to the airport and flew an hour and 45 minutes north from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. It was a good thing that the airport was nearby because the taxi had the propane tank it used for fuel in the trunk we each had one of our bags on our lap.

As we approached the airport in Puerto Montt the plane was being bounced by turbulence. Just as I was thinking how glad I would be to be on firm ground the pilot aborted the landing and we went around to try again. It was still pretty rough the second time but luckily we made it.

In Puerto Montt we rented a car, stopped at the grocery store and drove about an hour north to Ensenada. The place we stayed was unique. We stayed in a geodesic dome with a wood stove for heat and LED lights from two 12 volt batteries. It was an adventure. We played cards and had wine, cheese, salami, bread and chocolate for dinner. There was lots of laughter.