Stephanie and Ryan: Pucon

After we settled in and freshened up, we made some of our oatmeal from yesterdays dinner and sliced some banana into it. It was a pretty good little breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the wrong hostel - on purpose this time. We noticed earlier that they had bikes for rent. We grabbed two and set off to explore this little mountain town.

Ryan making our oatmeal

We rode to the Villarica Lake and along the beach for a while. Next we went over to the handicraft area of town and marveled at the many wood carvings and hand spun yarn in every color and thickness you could imagine.

A dog stands watch at Lake Villarica

Biking near the lake

After walking through the shops for a bit we decided to grab coffee and lunch at Lounge Brasil - one of the many hostel/restaurants near the main drag. Ryan got espresso, I had hot chocolate, and we plot a veggie pizza.

Afternoon espresso

We returned the bikes and then headed out to the supermarket for some dinner and breakfast items. We bought quinoa, lentils, avocado or "palta" as its called here, dark chocolate, bread, and eggs (the eggs aren't refrigerated down here, it was like that in Ecuador and Panama too. We couldn't find them until someone pointed them out to us in a regular aisle. Freaks me out a bit. I put them in the fridge as soon as we got back, haha), a giant carrot, a pepper, a lemon, and a zuchini. Oh and some granola bars and apples for the hike tomorrow.

Vienetta - we found you! America misses you!

After some blogging in the common area (some Euros were watching American Idol on the TV), we started dinner. Ryan did most of the cooking. I tried to use a corkscrew from the kitchen to open a bottle of Chilean wine picked up, but the corkscrew was completely useless. Another guest (Daniel - from Brasil) helped us by using all his might to shove the cork down into the bottle while his girlfriend held it. Later he let us try some fancy beer he picked up, and we gave him some of our wine.

Our dinner of quinoa, lentils, and veggies with palta was really good considering the shoddy kitchen we had to work in. Good job, Ryan! After dinner we chatted with Daniel some more about his home, his studies, and general travel and languages. He said english was easy to learn.