Saturday November 13, 2010 Pucon, Chile

It’s been a long 3 days.  In my excitement to go, I decided we had to leave for the airport WAY to early – like 4 hours early!  Then the flight to DFW had seats like a rock.  Drinks were served, and while the airline stated that something more substantial would be “available” (for sale), none was offered.  Well -that was only 2 ½ hours, so I can live with that, even though the flight attendants were less than professional.  The main flight to Santiago was long (9 hrs), but all things considered, not unbearable.  The food was good, the flight was smooth, and sleep was our best friend.  Weez, unfortunately, had trouble with the sleep part.  Business class would have been a better friend.

In the morning, we immediately ran into problems with the language barrier.  After dis-embarking, the company that transferred us to the hotel said that the transfer was for sometime in Sept.  We tried to explain that they were looking at the time the transfer was scheduled, but when you’re working with only 6 weeks of beginning Spanish, and that was 6 months ago, I probably would have been better off with my rusty Klingon learned from watching too much Star Trek.

Santiago is a beautiful city with too many people and too many cars, surrounded by beautiful mountains that you can’t see because there is too much smog.  Over 5 million people live in the city, and because of that there are many high rise apt buildings that span as far as the eye can see from the top of the city park that overlooks the smog.  The guide for our city tour said that Argentina is just over the mountains to the east, but all you can see of the mountains is the snow capped tops.  The city has thousands of dogs that roam the streets and are protected by law, but that’s a lot better than being overrun by pigeons or insects – none of which were noticeable. 

overlooking downtown Santiago

Pucon is a resort town located on the south shores of Carburgua Lake and nestled beneath the active volcano Villaricca.  This seems to be the right time to visit the city since it is just now waking from its winter slumber.  The crowds will eventually appear to fill the casino, and all the restaurants, hotels, and trinket shops, mixed in with the occasional hiking, kayaking, or paintball destination.  For now, we’re enjoying the lack of “touristas”.

Tomorrow we get the bikes! In our group is one Aussie, one Norwegian, a husband & wife from New Hampshire, and me & Weez.  Louise of course will be riding in the support vehicle while everyone else is on the bike.  In the morning we head out for a trial run up the mountain and cover some gravel roads to see how everyone’s riding ability is.  It’s been about 40 years since I’ve done any real dirt riding, and while I’m curious to see how it all comes back to me (I hope), I really don’t anticipate any problems.  Louise will have to spend the day on her own.  With all these tourist shops to walk through, she’ll be tinkled to death.