Drive to Pucon

We set the alarm for 5.15am ready for a 6am departure. However, we were amongst the last to get our bags down to the truck as I had missed a message last night about the truck being ready for 5.30am. Yet another consequence of losing my phone - I haven't yet managed to get my WhatsApp up and running!

So, we didn't get our first choice of seat. In fact, I had to ask one of the newbies to move so that we could sit together! With 790 kilometres to go to our destination, we had an extremely crowded truck full of unhappy people! We were now 34 passengers on a 36-seater truck. With all of our bags on board, it felt very, very cramped!

It was still dark as we left Santiago. We ate our packed breakfast and headed south. While we were still in the city environs, I tried to take advantage of a wifi signal to sort things out. However, it wasn't too successful and I was forced to give it up as a bad job!

We drove along the Chilean wine route. It is summer here, so the vines were all full of ripening grapes. We missed any opportunity to do some wine tasting out of Santiago. Perhaps we'll get the chance in Argentina?

We drove on through acres and acres of fruit orchards and passed lots of fruit processing (canning) plants. The brand Dole appeared on several factory signs. The entire area was lush and green.

We had several toilet stops at service stations. Each time, Ritchie told us to be quick as we had such a long way to go!

On the truck, we talked to Edward from Cambridge. At 82, he is the oldest of the newbies who have just joined us. He told us that he was robbed in Santiago, too!

We had a lunch stop. Mark and I had sandwiches we had brought with us. We talked to a couple more of the newbies. I think there is only one I haven't spoken to now - a lady called Barbara.

After lunch, we continued at speed along the highway. The landscape was very flat with lots of wheat fields. There was little to see. Each time we stopped, Ritchie apologised for the speed and the nature of the drive, but assured us it would be worth it as Pucon was one of the best stops on the entire trip!

We finally arrived at Camping La Poza in Pucon at around 6pm. The space allocated to us for all our tents was really small. We had no option but to pitch our tents virtually on top of each other! We are here for three nights. There are no upgrades, so we just have to make the most of it!

At 7pm, Nikki walked us all into town to show us where everything is. She took those who are interested to an activity centre to find out about what's available. Quite a few people are planning to climb Villarrica, the snow-capped volcano that dominates the town's skyline. We don't intend to do much apart from trying to get my online life back!

I wasn't overly impressed with Pucon. It looks like an Alpine lake resort transplanted in South America - very bizarre!

There aren't many photos to accompany this footprint as I haven't fathomed out how to use the camera on Mark's phone yet!Leer más