Of lakes and volcanoes

The second half of my weekend excursion to southern Chile last weekend was spent in Pucon, at the foot of the incredibly majestic Volcan Villarrica. I took a morning bus from Valdivia to Villarrica, where I wandered around the lakeshore and snapped over 100 photos of the volcano *see below...I found them spectacular*. Then I hopped the local Vipu-Ray bus company transit to Pucon. My new friend Juan Carlos, from GBU-Beauchef and Comunidad Santiago (my church group and christian student group), hosted me Saturday and Sunday. His dad is a really good cook! I enjoyed some salmon, lomo filete (thin fried beef), vegetable salad, and lots of great palta (avacado/guacamole). Juank and his friends from Pucon put on a concert -- called "Cafe concierto", or "coffee with concert" -- and they rocked the backroom of their church. Juank even dazzled with a Hillsong hit in english! Sunday afternoon, Juan Carlos, his sister, and I took another Jac bus to Temuco, where his mother lives. I ate "la once" (basically supper) with them and then caught my night bus back to Santiago from Temuco. I arrived back in a drizzly, cold Santiago around 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and was at work by around 9 a.m.