After a half day of work, we left Santiago at about 1:30pm and headed south in our Ford Explorer towards northern Patagonia where we would spend the next 12 days in the Lake Districts of Chile and Argentina. 700km later we were in Temuco, Chile where we redeemed 15,000 IHG points per room for 2 rooms (30,000 IHG points total) at the Holiday Inn Express Temuco. We arrived just before 9pm, having stopped for some dinner along the way. We had a good night's sleep and woke up the next morning, had breakfast in the hotel and were on our way to Pucon, Chile in northern Patagonia for our first adventure...river rafting.
Wild peacocks roaming around the restaurant where we stopped to have dinner on the way to Temuco, Chile.
We nearly ran out of gas, and the only place we could find within 50 miles to fill up was somebody's house where they had filled up 3-liter bottles of gasoline...they proceeded to fill up the car one bottle at a time.
Road tripping with our crew...
Nash and Zander chasing peacocks around the restaurant.
After our rafting adventure in Colombia a couple weeks ago, this was fairly mild, but a lot of fun. We enjoyed the class 3 rapids and the kids were able to get over their fears. We hired someone to take pictures of us along the way and we were able to get some pretty good ones right in the rapids.
Our crew, getting ready to hit the rapids.
Nash, excited to start the adventure.
Little penguin, Zander.
Action shot on the rapids.
Rapids in Pucon, Chile.
Raft is almost completely submersed in the rapids.
Calm between rapids in Pucon, Chile.
Rapids in Pucon, Chile.
Rapids in Pucon, Chile.
Rapids in Pucon, Chile.
All smiles after making it through one of the big rapids.
Getting ready for another big one.
Getting soaked.
Coming out of the rapids.
All smiles.
Happy crew.
We headed back to Pucon after the river rafting, got some pizza for the kids and Peruvian food for the adults, checked into our Air B and B 3 bedroom apartment in the center of the city and then headed out for our second adventure of the trip...canyoneering.
Our crew getting ready to rappel down about 100 feet into the canyon, where we would begin our canyoneering adventure.
We started our journey at the base of the active Volcano Villarica, the canyon was one of the outlets for the lava flows from the last eruption...very smooth surfaces made for some good waterslides. We wanted to do a hike up to the top of the volcano, but they would not allow kids under 12...so we will have to wait for next time to do this activity.
Eliza, rappelling down into the canyon.
Ryder, getting ready to rappel down into the canyon.
Sawyer, trying not to be nervous, just before she rappels down into the canyon.
Nash, just before rappelling down into the canyon.
Zander, needing some help for the rappel down...closing his eyes and holding on for dear life.
Cody, rappelling down into the canyon.
A view of the lava canyon from above that we would hike down.
Our crew, swimming and hiking through the lava canyon.
Eliza, zip-lining through a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Ryder, zip-lining through a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Ryder, loving every minute of this canyoneering experience.
Sawyer, zip-lining through a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Two thumbs way up from Sawyer.
Zander, zip-lining through a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Zander, all smiles once he got past the first rappel.
Nash, zip-lining through a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Cody, buried by the waterfall on the zip-line.
Cody, emerging from the waterfall on the zip-line in Pucon, Chile.
Slick lava canyon near Pucon, Chile.
Our crew, posing for a group photo during our canyoneering adventure in Pucon, Chile.
Ryder, jumping off a cliff into a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Sawyer, jumping off a cliff into a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Nash, jumping off a cliff into a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Nash, swimming out of a pool after jumping off a cliff into a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Zander, jumping off a cliff into a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Cody, jumping off a cliff into a waterfall in Pucon, Chile.
Cody, swimming out of the waterfall.
Our crew...Savannah, Sawyer, Ryder, Nash, Eliza, Zander, Cody...canyoneering in Pucon, Chile.
Sawyer, ziplining in Pucon, Chile.
Sawyer, throwing an aerial into the pool while canyoneering in Pucon, Chile.
Nash, jumping into a pool while canyoneering in Pucon, Chile.
Eliza, canonball!
Cody, jumping into the water with Zander while canyoneering in Pucon, Chile.
As you can see from the smiles, this activity was a big hit with everyone. It was a bit cold at the end and we wish we would have brought some warmer clothes to change into, but we survived and loved every minute of the adrenaline.
The next day, we woke up, had some breakfast and then headed out for the shores of Lake Villarica. We hung out on the beach for a few hours and found a floating obstacle course that we played on for about an hour. The shores are all black sand from the volcanoes around the region.
Cody, giving Zander a piggy back out to the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Kids climbing the tower on the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Nash, jumping off the tower on the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Kids climbing around the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Running around the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Sawyer and Savannah playing on the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Cody with Sawyer on top of the tower on the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Ryder, climbing up the inverted wall on the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
Sawyer, jumping off the floating obstacle course on Lake Villarica near Pucon, Chile.
We grabbed some lunch then headed out to Huerhueque National Park, which was a short drive from Pucon. We found some short hikes to some beautiful waterfalls.
View from the balcony of our Air B&B in Pucon, Chile.
Kids exploring Pucon, Chile.
The kids in front of one of the waterfalls in Huerhueque National Park near Pucon, Chile.
No comments:
Post a Comment