Saturday in Pucon

It's a beautiful evening in Pucon, Chile. I'm sitting on the deck of our little cabana, overlooking Lake Villarica, the largest lake in Chile. The days are long and warm here now. The sun will set at about 8pm. Trees are new green and things are blooming everywhere. Mountains ring the north east side of the lake and behind us is the snow covered volcano Villarica. We all went swimming in the lake today. I'm guessing the temperature was in the mid ot high 50's. It was knumbing but not painful and when we got out we all felt like we were living in another dimension. It was a great way to the day. Yesterday we hiked about 8 miles in one of the national parks that is nearby. The first 4 miles were mostly straight up to a series of lakes above the snow line. Liza struggled but she made it and we ate a picnic lunch next to one of the lakes before heading back. Today, everyone but Liz went on a canopy adventure. It's a series of ziplines through a forest and over a couple of rivers. It was a riot, scary at first but once we felt comfortable that our equipment was reliable, it was shear enjoyment. This was our second canopy adventure. We went on one two days ago and had such a good time, we decided to try another. There are several different courses in the area. This is certainly my favorite place in Chile so far but we are fortunate to be here off season. Pucon is one of Chile's most popular summer vacation spots and I gather things get pretty crowded in December.

Well, I've got to head in to help make some dinner so I don't have time to catch up on Peru and Argentina. After dinner, I'm teaching Chilean history. It will be a short course. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to catch up a bit further. I will try to post new pictures tomorrow as well.