On the Road Again

House of Pablo Neruds, Valparaiso

Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso, La Sebastiana, is beautiful. Neruda loved the sea, but since he did not know how to swim he brought the ocean to his home. 

Ojos del Caburga

I was also able to visit the house that my mom grew up in. It was turned into a hostal for students and remodeled. The lady who owned the place took us on a tour. She was very friendly and loved to talk. She said that the house was haunted by our families ancestors and that there have been many sightings of ghosts in the house. It was really awesome to see the house that my mother grew up in.
On Friday night I boarded a bus to Pucon. It was a 10 hour trip to Pucon a city at the base of Volcano Villarrica (2847m). Pucon is a small town in the Lake District in Chile. Yesterday I went on a tour of the surrounding area. The first visit was Lago Caburgua. This lake is smaller than lake Villarrica which the town of Pucon is located. 
After I visited the Ojos del Caburga. The Ojos del Caburga are deep blue pools of water that have been created by underground streams through volcanic rock. 

Hot Springs

Our guide was very quiet but he drove very fast through the country roads. fAt times I felt like the whole van was in the air. After the tour a group of us from the hostal headed to a local club to dance. Dancing lasted until 4am. 
At the end we were able to jump out of the boat during the rapid to practice going down in the correct position. In all it was a blast and I would definitely do it again. 
As soon as we got out of the river it began to rain, which was perfect timing. 

I enjoyed Vina del Mar and Valparaiso, I hope to go back sometime soon. The last days in Vina I visited Pablo Neruda's house, ate marisco emanadas, explored more of the city, and hung out with friends and family. 

Along with the Ojos we visited the three saltas waterfalls. It was a bit of a hike to reach the 2nd and 3rd but they were beautiful and well worth the effort. I just think of it as practice for climbing the volcano that I am going to to in the next couple of days. 


After visiting many different natural wonders our group headed to the thermals to warm up. Here you can lounge in natural pools ranging from 27C to 40C. It was really nice to warm up in the pools. By the time we worked our way up to the 40C pool I had a headache from all the heat. To take away the headache you rinse off in cold water. 

Today I white water rafted down the Trancura River which is Class IV+. We suited up in warn down semi-wet suits, jackets that were suppose to keep us dry, life jackets, and helmets. We loaded up into rafts got a 5min tutorial on white water rafting before heading into some gnarly rapids. During one of the first rapids we almost lost a girl but thanks to a speedy shipmate we were able to pull her back in before she fell all the way out of the boat. 

At  one point we had to walk because the rapids were class VI. Then we had to jump from a cliff back into the water to swim to the boats. The water was very cold and the waterpoof jacket didn't help at all. 

Tomorrow the weather will be bad so I might either go zip-lining or horseback riding, since the volcano will be unclimbable and the water in the canyons will be too high to go canyoning. Those I will save for Tuesday and Wednesday which will have better weather.