It occurred to me after I left Pucon that my Pucon swimming was a little like the story of Goldilocks, the porridge and the three bears.  The hot springs were good, but just a little too warm, the river was good, but just a little too cold, but the lake (with the almost deserted beach ) was just right.

According to one tour guide here, there are 2 million stray dogs in Chile.  I believe it- you see them (and their refuse) everywhere.  In fact, I attracted a good portion of the Pucon contingent when I was eating a beef dinner outside one night.  I felt like I had 20 or so unwanted guests all staring at me hoping for a dinner invitation.  What they lacked in conversational skills they made up in attentiveness.

Took a long distance bus from Pucon to Santiago, about 11+ hours (and then changed for 1.5 hours to Valporaiso).  I thought it would it make a few stops in a couple of major cities along the way, but I was mistaken. The whole bus thing continues to baffle me and it is not helped by my lack of Spanish, as none of the bus people in Chile speak English (I have gone to a scribbling system for essential info like price, departure and arrival times). Anyway, we are motoring down the highway in central Chile on this long distance bus when all of sudden we pull over at a bus stop- on the separated highway itself.  Never seen that before, but I did see it quite a few more times on my way to Santiago, though the bus skipped some stops- no idea how they could tell which ones to stop at and which ones to motor by, as none were marked in any way that I could see.  

Speaking of the buses and bus terminals, they are kind of set up like ersatz airplanes and airports.  In the terminals, they have platforms and big screens (not always accurate) telling you when buses arrive and depart and at which gate or platform.  You also get an assigned seat on the bus and when you load, there is always a baggage handler, who doubles as food attendant onboard.  The bus captain is always wearing a tie with his uniform and looks quite serious as you load  (and seems to have stripes on shoulders indicating he is the top bus dog).  I think there is also a copilot or driver, but as he does not provide food or help with the baggage, I do not pay much attention to him.  But the long distance buses in both Chile and Argentina are quite comfortable and nice generally.  
 
The  bus trip yielded no pictures so just a couple from my hike in Pucon.

And these guys obviously took a wrong turn from the Swiss Alps-