Then a forecast of rain for the day put an end to that, so instead I decided to move up my plans for the following weekend: hiking in Conguillio National Park, one of the most active volcanoes in Chile. I'd been planning on a heavily forested trail there, so it seemed like a good wet-weather plan. I would leave Pucon immediately after my hike for the day, head to Temuco, and if I was lucky, catch a bus to Melipeuco (the gateway town to Conguillio) that same night.
Unfortunately, this being the shoulder season, the last part wasn't an option, but I was told that the next bus would leave at 8 AM the next morning, with an hour and a half long express trip to Melipeuco, which would give me most of the day to hike before heading back at 4:30. Unfortunately, a) there was no 8:00 AM bus (this not being the tourist season, I had to wait until 9), and b) the next bus was not an express - it took an hour-long detour to pick up locals on a long and winding side-road.
This meant that it was 11:30 by the time I got into Melipeuco, noon by the time I'd found a fruit-seller's uncle to give me a ride into the park (this not being the tourist season, there were no shuttles or taxis available...), and 12:45 by the time I'd reached the trail. And, because he was going to charge 3 times as much to take me to the trail I'd initially wanted to do, I settled for a closer one. Unfortunately, that one was out in the open, which meant that a) I'd have less than three hours of hiking, and b) it might be pouring rain the entire time, and I'd get soaking wet. It was shaping up to be a disasterous day.
Instead, I got this:
(Trash clean-up on the beach)
Oh, and my host mom made me this for dinner:
Yeah - today was a good day.
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