Pucón

Pucón's name comes from Mapudungun and means "entrance to the cordillera". During the Spanish conquest the Spanish founded the city of Villarrica in 1552 in the area of present-day Pucón and mined gold from placer deposits nearby. At some point in the 16th century the gold workings are thought to have been buried by lahars, the volcanic mudflows that pour down from the Villarrica volcano, and the settlers moved their town further west to its present site on the far side of the lake.

The modern town began in 1883 as a fort built after the Chilean army's occupation of the Araucanía, when the state subdued the Mapuche. The site was chosen for its strategic position at the mouth of the Trancura valley, which leads to a pass across the Andes into Argentina. Tourism followed in the 20th century: the first hotel opened in 1923, a larger hotel built in 1934 made the town a popular holiday destination, the first road from Villarrica arrived in 1940 and the road to Caburgua Lake was completed in the 1970s.

The volcano has shaped the town's story throughout. Its eruptions have been recorded since the Spanish founded Villarrica in 1552, and in 1964 a lahar destroyed much of the logging town of Coñaripe. On 3 March 2015 Villarrica erupted again, the alert was raised to red within 10 km and more than 3,000 people were evacuated from nearby communities. The town has since continued to grow as a centre of adventure tourism and a place for second homes.

Pucón's identity is that of an outdoor town. The centre is lined with agencies selling volcano climbs, rafting, canyoning, horse-riding, zip lines and skydiving, and visitors from Chile and abroad come in every season — to climb, raft and hike in summer, and to ski on the volcano's slopes and soak in the hot springs in winter and spring. Thousands of climbers reach the crater each year, and guided ascents are most popular in summer.

The town stands in Mapuche country, and the surrounding area includes Mapuche communities such as Quelhue, which some horse-riding trips visit. Names across the area — Pucón, Huerquehue, Caburgua, Quetrupillán — are Mapudungun, and the volcano itself is called Ruka Pillañ in that language. In autumn, local people climb to the araucaria forests above Caburgua Lake to gather piñones, the trees' edible seeds, which they carry home in sacks.

German settlement in the wider region also left its mark, and the town once had a German school. In more recent years Pucón has drawn people from Santiago and other cities to buy second homes or settle for the landscape, a trend known as amenity migration. Pucón is twinned with Lake Oswego in Oregon and with San Martín de los Andes across the Andes in Argentina.

The commune of Pucón had about 21,000 inhabitants at the 2002 census, roughly two-thirds of them in the urban area, after rapid growth through the 1990s. The population swells in the summer season, when holidaymakers, seasonal workers and owners of second homes arrive.

Tourism is the economy: hotels, cabins, hostels, restaurants, guiding and the agencies that organise trips to the volcano, the rivers and the hot springs provide most of the work, and second homes have become a major investment. Much of the town's work is seasonal, and life is noticeably quieter from autumn to spring outside the ski season.

The rhythm of the day follows the weather and the excursions: guided climbs leave very early in the morning, rafting groups go out through the day, and in the evening the centre fills with returning visitors. Living beside an active volcano is part of daily life — its plume is visible from town on clear days, and lahar risk zones have been mapped around it, with the roads east and west of town in the most exposed areas. The commune is run by an elected mayor and council, as everywhere in Chile.

Pucón's food reflects its visitors as much as its region. Restaurants in the centre range from Chilean home cooking to Argentine-style grilled meat, Peruvian dishes, pizza and vegetarian menus, and the town's bars stay busy late in the summer season. Chilean staples appear everywhere: empanadas de pino, baked turnovers filled with beef and onion; cazuela, a clear stew with meat, potato and pumpkin; and pastel de choclo, a pie of sweet ground corn over a meat filling.

The surrounding rivers and lakes supply trout, and fly-fishing on the Liucura and Trancura rivers is a local pastime. Mapuche food traditions are part of the region's cooking: merkén, a smoked chilli spice, and piñones, the seeds of the araucaria tree, which are still eaten in large quantities and sold in Pucón's shops in season. Around Caburgua Lake local people still gather them each autumn.

From the German settlers of the lake country came kuchen, cakes filled with seasonal fruit, which are sold in cafés in town. Chicha de manzana, a countryside cider, is the old drink of the south, while pisco sours and beer are what visitors order in the bars after a day on the volcano or the river.