On our way to Patagonia, we could not pass up the chance to stop for a few days in Pucón, gateway to the Chilean Lake District. Famed for the natural beauty that surrounds it and the outdoors activities it has to offer, it is a small town on the shores of Lake Villarrica, overshadowed by the snow-capped volcano of the same name. We visited at the very cusp of the season, so it felt quite deserted (good thing) and was not really geared up for tourists yet (not such a good thing). We were certainly glad that the ominously looming volcano was feeling sleepy though, as it had in fact been erupting earlier in the year

Pucón has it all if you are into adventure sports, hiking or skiing, and its Swiss-chalet style town has numerous options for eating and drinking, although the prices are fairly high. As we only really feel confident eating and drinking, what on earth were we going to do?! The answer to this question was easy for the first two days as it wouldn’t stop raining, but we decided to be brave and rented a car (and what a beauty it was, we had not stepped foot into a Fiat Uno since the late 1980s!) in order to explore by ourselves. Hampered somewhat by a complete lack of signposting and/or misleading information (a common theme in the continent), we bumbled our way through two hikes and visited a thundering waterfall. It’s worth noting that the area is also full of volcanic springs, we are just not very into them (too much faffing about!), so we didn’t include them in our plans.

Lake Villarrica & Pucón

OK, now this one is easy, Pucón town is very small and mostly full of overpriced adventure sports, overpriced clothing shops, overpriced woollen goods and overpriced swanky restaurants. To see Lake Villarrica, possibly the only free activity in the area, you just need to walk to the end of the main street in Pucón. There seem to be pleasure boats and canoes that can be taken out onto the lake, but there wasn’t much activity when we were there, apart from a couple of dogs having a bath.

There is a good little private museum run by a local family containing artefacts from the indigenous Mapuche people. It took us two tries to find it open, but it was worth it.

Ojos de Caburga waterfall

About half an hour out-of-town (or more if you are driving a Fiat Uno), the Ojos de Caburga waterfall is a nice place to visit. It was completely dead when we went there, but it looks like it is set up to be a major attraction during the season, with camping, picnic areas, places to eat and even an overpriced toilet.

National Park Huerquehue

About an hour from town, and way up a mountainside via gravel road, this National Park has hikes of varying lengths. We wanted to do the Sendero Los Lagos and had misunderstood from the internet (it can also be a very unhelpful place!) that it would be an easy 3 ½ hour trail. At the gate to the National Park we learnt it would be 5 hours, up a mountain and we’d arrived in the afternoon. Undeterred and unwilling to go back to our extremely comfortable car just yet, we set off and decided to walk as far as we could with the time available. The trail was quite hard going as essentially you are hiking uphill through forest with little to look at other than trees. That said, the forest here is quite different as it includes bamboo and the mighty araucaria tree which is considered to be a vulnerable species. We didn’t make it to any of the lakes on the trail, but we did manage to get to a nice view-point of the lake we had started at, and the surrounding forest and mountains. We also found a powerful waterfall. We were rather happy when it was time to turn around as we knew it was all downhill, however even that was hard on our knees!

National Park Volcano Villarrica

Volcano climbing at the time of year we visited was not an option, so we decided to drive to the volcano and take a hike called Mirador Los Crateres. After miraculously reaching the base of the volcano in our hi-tech vehicle, we merrily set off through the bleak volcanic landscape under the watchful eye of the snowy volcano. The trail passed over dried up rivers and we were soon into a forested area. Unfortunately we ended up in a forest ravine full of snow, and the trail just ended! After some scrambling (and sinking knee-deep) in the snow we were forced to turn back as the path ended, there were no signs to indicate where we should go next and we didn’t fancy being rescued by helicopter on the brink of hypothermia a couple of days later. The walk was nice all the same, but we left a bit frustrated that there was no signposting to help us complete it.

So Pucón was a bit of a mixed bag for us. We benefited from being off-season in that it was less busy and we had places almost to ourselves. The Lake District is certainly very beautiful and who doesn’t love a volcano, however a lot of things were simply shut or did not seem ready to receive visitors! It’s not an area that should be omitted from any tour of Chile, and if you are heading south to Patagonia from Santiago you simply can’t miss it, but it seems that you need to time the season correctly in order to make the most of it. It also helps if you are an adrenaline junkie as the place seem to be particularly well equipped for extreme sports. For the rest of us, the majestic landscapes, natural beauty and juicy steaks definitely warrant a 2 -3 day stop in the area.