We had a fun friend from home come to visit us last night in Puerto Varas. Marshmallow, Wilson’s tooth fairy, paid him a visit. This marks the first tooth lost for our team in Chile. To prepare for Marshmallow’s impending visit, Wilson brushed his teeth really well, polished the lost tooth, and even tidied his […]
Archives for January 2023
Another Beach Morning at our Pucon AirBnB
A redeeming quality of our modest AirBnB home in Pucon is the private beach access across the street. We spent another beautiful morning on that beach today, arriving on the rocky banks in the cool mountain morning. We hung out in the shade and made our way into the water as the sun climbed higher. […]
The Beach at Villarrica
Saturday morning we drove around the lake to Villarrica for a morning on the highly commercialized, black sand beach along the front of the town and in view of the snow-capped volcano. By the afternoon, the beach would be packed with sunbathers and umbrellas, and so we opted to arrive early, before many of the […]
Parque Conguillio Day Hike
We woke at 6am to drive 2.5 hours north of Pucon to Parque Conguillo, a notable national park in Chile. The park has an active volcano as the centerpiece, and it has green and blue lakes, black lava flows, while snowcapped peaks streaming waterfalls, and hiking trails passing through old forests with the unique Araucaria […]
Parque Nacional Huerquehue near Pucon, Chile
We drove 45 minute to a national park on the eastern side of Pucon, arriving about the time it opened at 8:30am. We decided to hike the Los Lagos trail to see two waterfalls, Nido de Aguilas and Salto Trufulco. It was a pleasant hike. The trail took us along a clear lake, between some […]
Popeye
We in the US know Popeye’s love for spinach and chicken, but here in Chile we’ve found that Popeye makes fantastic biodegradable laundry detergent. I searched for quite a while for a non-scented laundry detergent in Chile. Here everything is scented, even the toilet paper. They don’t sell basic medication at the grocery store, but […]
Hiking Los Crateres Viewpoint Trail at Volcan Villarrica
We tested out our new travel school system: schooling in the morning and hiking in the afternoon. We completed our homeschool assignments by about 11am, ate lunch, and then drove into the national park for a five mile hike to a viewpoint of the volcano. It was a wonderful afternoon, including chilly air, an easy […]
Ship Replica Museum in Punta Arenas, Chile
With more time to kill in Punta Arenas, we visited the ship replica museum. It was a neat place, and it had a replica of Charles Darwin’s ship the Beagle, on which he sailed to the Galapagos Islands and subsequently published his theory on natural selection.
Waterfront in Punta Arenas, Chile
After our trip to Antarctica, we had to spend a few days down south. We didn’t get to visit Punta Arenas on our trip down to Antarctica, so we took some time to explore the city. On the first day, we killed time exploring the waterfront while waiting for our hotel room to be ready.
Thank Goodness for Pucon
It’s no secret that I didn’t really love Santiago. Our trips away from Santiago were magical, glorious, sight-filled escapes, but we’d always return to the complexities of navigating city living. There were only so many close places to explore, and I feel like we did a good job of exploring them. There were some good […]