Villarrica, Pucon and on to Puerto Varas

After many emails, phone calls, and talking with Terry, we have decided that we will cancel our Argentina trip, but we´ll stay for a few more days to see the part of Chile that we had planned to visit. Mom is doing really well; she sounds strong and, of course, doesn´t want us to cancel any of our trip. But, we could not possibly stay as long as we had originally planned, so after talking with Holly and Heather, and Heather´s being willing to come down to be with Mom, and Marge, our friend Rachel, and my cousin Sandy´s daily vigil, we feel relieved enough to be able to stay another week and will return home on Feb. 4/5.

So, we are staying in Villarrica at a beautiful old inn called Hosteria de la Colina which means "inn on the hill." What a terrific place with a fabulous lawn and flowers. The innkeeepers, Glen and Bev, and their assistants Amber and Alex have been so helpful with phone calls to bus stations, thoughts of how we can shorten our trip and still see much of what we were wanting to, etc.

Most of the last 5 days have been close by Villarrica and Pucon which are two very sweet towns. Villarrica is a very "real" city, as folks here call it, because it doesn´t have a great deal of extras for travelers. The town is set up mostly for the Chilean population with restaurants and coffee shops and some shopping, but not in the context of those coming from great distances to take home piles of souvenirs. Pucon, on the other hand, is pretty much a town for tourists, both South American and out of the arrea. It is a town that is planned for looking good with lots of restaurants, coffee shops, and souvenir shops. We had to go there to get our tickets to fly home out of Puerto Montt, so we had a chance to see some of it. Both towns are on Lago Villarrica which is a lake at the foot of a beautiful volcanic mountain. The water is beautiful and blue and the snow on the volcano reflects off it when it´s calm. We took an hour´s boat rideon the lake and just enjoyed the serenity of it.

Yesterday we went to a hot springs, but right now we have to go to the bus station and get our tickets for Puerto Varras, so I´ll write about that tonight.