Arrival: Pucón
Pucón sits on a peninsula jutting into Lago Villarrica, directly beneath one of the most active volcanoes in South America — Villarrica has erupted more than fifty times since records began, most recently and dramatically in 2015, and still vents a steady plume that's visible from most streets in town. What began as a lakeside retreat for wealthy Chileans in the 1920s, when German colonists built the area's first hotels, has grown into Chile's self-declared adventure tourism capital, its downtown blocks now dense with outfitters offering volcano ascents, whitewater rafting on the Trancura River, and treks into the surrounding national parks. Lunch happens right on arrival, in town, before the afternoon's excursion out toward the Liucura valley.