Brief Summary of Our Week in Pucón

Mel, Abi, and Ethan walking on the grass outside the main lobby of the Gran Hotel Pucón.

Hey hey! We're back. Did you miss us? I'm ready to tell you all about our week in Pucón.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Pucón, Chile. I wish everyone could come to this beautiful place - I think volcan Villarica is so cool. We had an awesome week and I loved everyday. And that was with 7 kids (7 kids means means we spent a good chunk of time in the Kid's Club room...


(isn't Lily cute) ...which was fine, cause I got a lot of reading done, made great progress in the George Washington book which I wasn't able to read at all on the bus ride..) But still, just imagine if Corey and I had been free to partake of all that this place offers, we would have had an amazing time! So I've decided I'd like to come back someday without the 7 kids. Or atleast without toddlers, kids that don't need naps and promises to keep up with us are welcome to tag along.

But, even with lots of Kid's club time and afternoon breaks for naps, it was great and we'd have loved to stay another week. Actually the kids all said they'd like to stay at that hotel instead of our apartment, and so would I.


We thought we were going to be in a 3 bedroom place, but for some reason we got a top floor unit which means it has an upstairs attic place - so we ended up with 6 bedrooms on 2 floors (kids were so excited to have an upstairs!!!) where there were 2 full beds and 9 twin beds. The kids all had their very own beds to sleep in for the first time since we left the US, boy were they excited. And that still left us with 3 free beds, so they were able to switch it up and change the sleeping arrangements each night.

The vista from our 4th floor living room - looking north with a view of Lake Villarica

Plus it wasn't that nice, physically speaking - Felt like some hotel from the 70's with out dated color schemes and furnishings. The furniture had small tears or holes, walls had dings and scuffs, un-matching dishes - all glass/ceramic, I should have brought our Ikea dishes - we broke something every other day - 4 cups. So aside from freaking out when Lily would go walking around with one of the drinking mugs or cups, we were able to relax and let the kids be kids more than we've been able to in our apartment with it's furnishings in "estado perfecto" and more than we let them in Costa Rica. We have a dining table in Santiago, but it's so nice and it's out side of the kitchen, so we all just eat in kitchen around the little breakfast nook with most of us standing or walking about. Here in Pucón we had sit down meals again!

And we would even set the table! It was nice and we felt a little more normal having room to breath.

I've never been to Germany, but Pucón seemed to me like a little German town with the additional exotic touch of a volcano. I'm going to do some research, we did see a few German named shoppes so I think my hunch is right on. It's like a German version of Park City, Utah with a hint of Yellowstone National Park (natural wonders - volcano and hot springs... here's some pretty pics on flickr) and of course a touch of Latin America. I kinda felt like I was in a Chile Pinocchio story book.

More to come tomorrow. We took a lot of pictures and a few videos, plus great news: Corey has now fulfilled his dream of returning to Chile and making a difference and thus he officially renounced all further ambition on Saturday, 2 April 2011. (That was after his trip and presentation in Concepcion and early & all morning bus ride to Pucon - "I'm tired of traveling, I'm done! No more ambition for me!" I got it on video) With that news there's a good chance that when we're done with Chile we'll settle down and live a normal life. We'll see how long those feelings stick and if I make him keep his word. ;)