Cupid´s arrow gone astray

Feeling weary from the "party hard-play hard" set of Pucon, we headed out to the wildernes of Parque National Huequehue and Refugio Tinquilo - aah, the serenity! Tranquil indeed, with lots of great hiking, views of the volcanoes and great mountain lakes for swimming in. No Kaz, Chile doesn't have crocodiles!

Enjoyed the excersise, a hospitable host and some home cooked food in a beautiful setting.

With the only slight hiccup, the babuscas who ran the place being frostier than some of the mountain streams... Guess you can´t have your Kuchen and eat it too... Especially not with those Babuscas standing over you!

Valentines day got off to a bouncy start... Madly rushing from the refugio to the bus stop and realising there was no chance of making it in time, Stu flagged down a passing pickup. Not for the faint hearted or bony arsed! Back in Pucon, after a shafting by the first car hire company, we headed for a romantic Valentines getaway at Los Pozones thermal springs in the hills.

Our bizzare Cabana, was straight out of the German 70´s and the hot springs, well it was all very romantic until it turned into a scene from Cocoon when a bus load of tourists, from the German 30´s, arrived. But making the most of it as usual we rustled up dinner, fixed a boiler for the neighbours and steamed away our stress in the thermals.



Up for an early start with some off road rally driving along the same route we´d biked the previous week we turned Gringo to Gaucho and mounted our steeds for pony trekking Chilean style. After 3 or 4 hours cantering and galloping, trying to keep up with the gun ho Chileans who made up the rest of the party (one calling himself Indianna Jones!), we went in search of more thermal springs to recover. Yee Ha!

Butch & Sundance xox


Bargain of the week: 1/2 day horse riding/racing, $AUS40

Gaffe of the week: Kaz (of course!) trying to be honest when paying entry fees to Heurquehue National Park fessed up to being a foreigner (not that they would have guessed from her fabulous spanish- being foreign requires double the pesos, naturally) asked for two tickets for strange people. Needless to say we continue to entertain the locals...