November 18th-22.
We arrived at Pucon around 9 in the morning. We exchanged emails with these two women we met on the bus (Bridey and Katy) saying we would meet for dinner that night, and then we went in search of the cheapest hostel we could find. We found it just in time, coming in right when it started to rain outside (this became the prevalent weather on our trip throughout Chile).
After settling into our hostel, we headed out into the pouring rain to explore Pucon and make plans for our up coming days there. We did some window and food shopping, and walked along the beach of black sand (sorry, I forgot to take a picture because the weather was crappy the whole time we were there but the mountains that surrounded the lake that we could make out through the clouds were beautiful, lush and green). We were able to see Volcan Villarica the first morning we were there. It towered above the town with beauty and menace, just a short distance away. The rest of the time we were in town it was shrouded in cloud. We found out that the alarms that went off every day we were in Pucon were practice alarms for when the Volcano blew (so how do we know when the alarms are real? And what in the world do we do when it’s a real alarm?).
That night we met with Katy, Bridey, and Marcus (Katy’s new friend from her rafting trip that afternoon) for dinner. We ate at an Arabian café and Bridey got this weird Arabian dish with a variety of foods wrapped in different things. One of them was a lamb or duck intestine. She became strangely full when she finally reached that part of her dish. And after that we all headed to Mama Tapas for drinks.
Thursday, Tom and I rented mountain bikes (I learned very quick through the rattling and jarring of my arms that the shocks did not work at all, so it was more like riding a really heavy road bike) and went on a leisurely 33ish mile bike ride. Our fingers were crossed the whole time that it would not be a downpour on us. There were a number of close calls with light rain. We stopped for pictures and lunch at a beautiful waterfall, with the bluest water I had ever seen (up until I went to El Bolson). That night we went to the hot springs which lived up to their name if you went into the right pool (I was literall sweating when sitting in one), otherwise they were just warm. It was pretty nice after biking for several hours in freezing rain.
Wednesday, we signed up for canyoning at two in the afternoon, and so went to continue our multi-day planning of our climb of Villarica and for a short run on the beach.
The canyoning was fantastic, I’m sorry I don’t have pictures but I was afraid of getting the camera damaged. We were a little worried at first because they dropped us off at this random point along a small stream that was not in a canyon. But after walking for about 15 minutes we got to rappel down the first waterfall and by the second rappel, the real fun began. We were in a narrow canyon, gorgeously sculpted out by water, about 50 feet deep at points. The walls had huge bowl like chunks taken out where you can see the river once had a sharp bend. The directions and points of the bends changed at the different heights of the canyon as the river’s direction had changed over time, making it appear as though a wave traveled up the rock. Then there were more delicate looking etches in the sedimentary rock where you could see the swirl of the water marked on just the surface. Lush plant life grew over and down the edge of the canyon. We made our way slowly down the river, squeezing through very narrow points in the rock, down miniature waterfalls, through water that barely covered our feet or at other points it was up to my chest. At the end, the man who drove us to the canyon met us at a different point with hot coffee and cookies at the ready (fantastic for such a cold day).
The trip was great except for about halfway through, when Tom slipped and fell on a rock in the stream and hurt his hand. We got back into Pucon, and after an hour of Tom running around, still trying to plan our climb up the Volcano, I convinced him to go to the hospital. Within an hour of arriving at the hospital a doctor looked at his hand, had xrays done, a cast put on upon discovering that it was broken, and everything was paid for. We were out the door in no time.
The next day, instead of climbing Villarica, we explored Parque Nacional Huerquehue for the day which was gorgeous with its huge trees, pristine lakes and snow covered mountains. Upon returning from our eightish mile hike and hourish bus ride, we ate dinner, prepped for our big climb the next day, and ordered a taxi.
At 5 in the morning on Sunday, we were loading the taxi and on our way to Volcan Villarica. We were determined to beat the CONAF (chile’s rangers) to the top of the ski lifts at 7:30, otherwise they would demand to see papers or a guide. It was dark when we started but the sun began to rise as we began our trek up the snow on the Volcano (I know, it does seem rather odd to have snow on a Volcano that is one of the most active Volcanoes in Chile). The colors were beautiful, the ski was mostly clear and the view of the Andes was fantastic, becoming even better the further we hiked upward. We beat the CONAF with ease and were able to continue our trek to the summit. Taking our time as we went to take many pictures. We summated at about 10:30 am, spent a few minutes at the summit-not too many though for the sulfuric fumes coming from the crater were not that great smelling and were not really the best for us to inhale. I’m happy we decided to hike the volcano that day instead of Saturday, for the weather on Saturday didn’t really clear until afternoon, so our views would have been extremely limited.
We were back to Pucon by about three in the afternoon, by hitching a ride back with a nice family. We showered, sent our clothes to a laundry mat, and bought our bus tickets to Temuco for the first thing Monday morning. It was time to get out of there, and now that we finally were able to climb Villarica, the thrill of conquering a Volcano and really being in the Andes burned in our blood and our interest now turned to Volcan Lonquimay, two hours east of Temuco.
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