Chilean Adventure in Pucon

Pucon, Chile – Towering active volcanos, deep-canyon waterfall repelling, hot natural thermal baths and a party-till-the-piscos-run-dry attitude: that is Pucon.

Nestled between Lago Villarrica and Volcan Villarrica, this little tourist town located in Chile’s Lake’s District puts a little spice back into the life of small town adventure sports. It’s true, the town itself is a little touristy, but call me crazy, I’ll take touristy for a few days if that means landing a good meal (in Chile) after a day of extreme sporting.

One of the biggest draws to Pucon is the Villarrica Volcano which is active and hikable, no that’s not an oxymoron. Tour companies and private guides take adventure savvy travelers on five hour hikes to the snow crested peak of Villarrica where they’re given special sleds and slide down part of the volcano. When there’s more snow people actually snowboard and ski down part of the volcano. Though, my traveling partner (my Mom) and I never made it to the top of the volcano we had a couple adventures worth writing home, or at least online, about.

Canyoning is an adventure that I had to see to believe. I couldn’t quite grasp the idea of exactly what I was getting myself into until I got to the river, and then I was thrilled. After I left my mother back at our hostel I headed towards the Adventure Tourism office to await my chariot of adventure. What pulled up was a white van, three Argentines and Spanish-pop music rolled into one guaranteed adventure.

Our driver skillfully weaved our van down dirt roads with pot holes the size of watermelons deep into the mountains below Villarrica. Finally,when we arrived at what looked like a creek and were told to get out and suit up.

The adventure began with a trek through the forest that included itchy plants, humidity and full body wetsuits, I think you get the picture. The first opportunity to slide into the river was much welcomed and needed by all parties, including our fearless guides. Our hot jungle trek was well worth the temporary discomfort in comparison to the next four hours. We went propelling down waterfalls, cliff jumping and hiking through hidden canyons so deep and pristine that drinkable water runs through the saturated walls as if the someone had switched on tiny faucets in the mountain. That is Pucon. Well, at least part of Pucon.

Canyoning turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime. Luckily, I found that it’s fairly common around the globe if you look in the right spots (I only realized this after I asked if you could go canyoning outside of Pucon and was answered with snickers of laughter). With the low cost in comparison to the adventure, small environmental impact and loads on Indiana Jones like fun, canyoning is definitely an adventure to seek out.

After a long day of hiking, canyoning or participating in one of Pucon’s list of other extreme adventure sports, the natural thermal baths that surround the town are a necessity. We chose to visit a cluster of baths about 40 minutes from the main town. The drive out was so incredibly green and beautiful looking out the window was an activity of its own.

We arrived at dusk, just in time to see the roaring river paralleling the six baths situated in line from hottest to coolest. After a few hours of relaxing in the warm water we felt renewed and that our last night in the charming town of Pucon was well spent.