Chile- Pucon & Temuco

On our last day in Chile we drove north (again) to the city of Pucon. We stayed the night in the city and supposedly it is a gorgeous city at the bottom of a volcano. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole time we were there and we didn't get a glimpse of it. On google it looks beautiful though! It was still a cute city that had some good food.

When Justin's family came to pick him up from his mission, they came to this city as well to see China Falls. I had remembered seeing pictures of it and really wanted to make it there as we drove the next day to Temuco to catch our flight. So even though it was POURING down rain, we made the quick hike through the forrest to see China Falls!

I was not about to take my good camera out in that rain so blurry cell phone pics are all I have. Oh well!

I wish we could have enjoyed the beautiful hike there more than we did. The rain definitely made us hike just a little faster than normal!

This fall was HUGE! I couldn't even get it from top to bottom in most pictures. I really don't think pictures can do it justice. 

We were thoroughly drenched!

We hopped back in the car and tried to dry off as best we could as we drove to the Lava Tubes at Volcano Villa Rica. Turns out it was raining even harder at this location and it was about a 30 min walk to the caves! We were more than drenched by this point! But let's be honest, it totally made the whole experience that much better! How fun of a memory is that?!

The lava tubes were really cool and I wish I had good pictures to remember them by. This was the best that we could get.

The walk down to the caves....

After the lava tubes, we booked it to the airport in Temuco to start our LONG journey back to the homeland. I'm sure we were quite the sight to behold walking into the airport, drenched from head to toe! Luckily though, we were able to change into some dry clothes before we had to check in.

We flew from Temuco to Santiago, Santiago to Panama, Panama to Vegas, and Vegas back to Phoenix. It was a long trek back but we had a BLAST in Chile. I actually sat next to a couple on the plane who had just completed a 3 month journey trekking across Antarctica and were actually the first Americans to do so without a guide. Fascinating. 

I absolutely love traveling the world with Justin and hope that we can one day bring our kids on cool adventures like these. It's all about the memories folks :) 

Caryn was a champ watching our kids for 10 days and even though our trip was amazing, it was so good to get home and be with the kids again. We missed those munchkins. 

Someday we are planning on going to Isla de Pasqua or Easter Island (you know, the one with the mysterious gigantic heads on it?) and also doing a southern Chile trip to Torres del Paine and surrounding areas. People say Torres del Paine has some of the prettiest vistas in the world. Google it. I believe it. :)