Volcano Country Volcán Villarrica and the Road South: Driving to Pucón

Patagonia. Santiago to Ushuaia — the southernmost city on earth. Picking up from Chile’s Wine Country: Two Days in the Colchagua Valley. The series starts here: Some People Collect Stamps. We Collect Roads.

Some days are about the destination. Today was about the kilometres.

At 659km, this was the second longest drive of the trip. After carefully packing the wine — priorities firmly in order — we hit the road south from Santa Cruz. One straight highway, no threading through towns, 120km/h most of the way.

Chile’s toll system extracted its own tax on the progress. Eight booths across the day, totalling around NZ$40. Our car handled half automatically. The rest meant pulling into the booth, counting out 3,200 pesos each time, and accumulating an impressive collection of coins by day’s end.

The further south we drove, the more the landscape announced itself. Half a dozen perfectly coned volcanoes rose along the horizon — shapes almost too symmetrical to be real. Then came Pucón, dominated entirely by Volcán Villarrica. Brooding, snow-capped, and impossible to ignore. After 659km of straight highway, it felt like an arrival worth making.

Pucón calls itself Chile’s adventure capital, and even a rest day here comes with options.

We started gently at Mirador de Peces — a short walk down to a crystal-clear stream where semi-natural pools hold more trout than seems possible. The water is so clear you almost feel guilty looking at it. The resident wild boars had clearly come to the same conclusion — two magnificent specimens keeping a proprietorial eye on proceedings.

The volcano loomed over everything as we drove through the surrounding countryside, stopping wherever Villarrica demanded attention — which was often. Next stop was Termas Quimey-Co, a welcome soak in hot pools overlooking a cold mountain river rushing past below. The contrast was perfect.

In the afternoon we drove up the volcano and launched Buzz, the drone. From above, the scale of this landscape becomes something else entirely. Some views simply require altitude.

The town of Pucón has a relaxed confidence about it — wooden buildings, wide streets, and a snow-capped volcano at the end of every road. We walked as the light faded, Villarrica turning pink above the rooftops. Dinner was at a local pub, a perfect end to the day. Daryl road-tested the local Pucón cerveza.

Research, naturally.