Villarrica Day 198 04/04/2015

It had rained in the night and we woke to an overcast and drizzly day. We had planned to have breakfast at the hostel but after having a quick look at the rather dismal spread on offer we headed into town to get something to eat. The town was extremely quiet and we walked along the main street waiting for somewhere to open. At 10am the cafes open and so after tea, toast and juice we headed to the bus station to buy our tickets for Saint Martin de los Andes in Argentina where we're planning to go on Monday. The lady at the ticket office was very helpful, although we didn't manage to book our onward tickets for Bariloche but it looks like a fairly main route so hopefully we shouldn't have any problems. The bus leaves at 9am and we asked if we'd be OK arriving at 8.45am, she shrugged her shoulders and said 'es chile'! From here we walked to the tourist information office to see if we could get to Pucon and on to Parque National Huerquehue were it looked like there are some nice walks. Unfortunately not, the earliest bus from Villarrica didn't arrive in time for the onward bus to the park. We had a wander down to the lake shore which, despite the rain, looked very nice, and we were joined by a pack of 4 street dogs. Whilst they are strays they all seem fairly well kept and the pavements are significantly cleaner than they were in Valparaiso. Unlike Pucon, Villarrica is a working town, fairly down to earth and lacks the tourist bedlam associated with Pucon. Despite being a little sleepy it did appear to have woken up a bit by the time we walked back up from the lake to the main street. We stopped off for coffee, a Chilean/German style cappuccino for Simon, before heading back to the hostel. Diane has picked up a hacking cough and was in need of some r&r whilst Simon continued with his Spanish lessons. By late afternoon the evening sun had started to appear and we got our first glimpse of Volcan Villarrica. It's been fairly active recently with an amber warning and a restriction zone in place. We'd decided to stay in Villarrica in preference to Pucon to avoid any transport challenges if it did decide to erupt again whilst we're here. Even in the poor light you could see the photogenic white snow capped peak covered in grey ash. We walked back down to the lake shore for a better view before heading to a nearby restaurant for a mexican dinner. We chatted for a while with the owner, a fellow traveller originally from Santiago now living in Villarrica, before heading back to the hostel.  

A wet lake shore...with friend

Enjoying the delights of one of many German coffee shops

Our first view of the smoking volcano from our bedroom 

Early evening back at the lake shore

The view across the lake