Monday November 23-Thursday November 26th
The bus ride from Pucon to Temuco was around 2 hours. As soon as we were in Temuco, we began the long and some how short search. Each person we talked to kept giving us different directions to different bus stations or stops to get to Malaleahuello (the town at the base of Lonquimay). We were sent for about an hour back and forth down this one street walking over a mile, each of us carrying 2 heavy packs. Finally we found the right bus station, which turned out to only be about 2 blocks from the bus station we were originally at. That bus ride was about two and half hours long. On the bus we met a couple from Spain who were there on vacation and could speak some English. They helped us to get off at the right stop, which was conveniently the same stop as theirs.
Malaleauhuello turned out to be a very small town that consisted basically of farms, cabanas, some rundown homes, a very small rundown looking library that had maybe a bookshelf or two, a ranger station for the national park, and one small convenience store. We went to the ranger station and struggled to talk to them for an hour to find out about Lonquimay Volcano. We weren’t able to find out to much, other than that there was no overnight hiking in the park because of all the snow and as long as we did it in a day, we could climb Lonquimay. They did have another ranger come in that they claimed could speak English. Turns out he couldn’t speak any more English than the others, he just talked more confidently and as though he understood us. We found out it was about a six mile hike to the base of the volcano, there was no bus there and the only way to get there now is to rent a car, which they said we could in one town over. After talking to this nice girl in the info center in town, we found out that really to get a rental car we had to go all the way back to Temuco. So after hanging around Temuco with nothing much to do, we caught the bus back to Temuco.
That night we checked into a hostel and hit the bar, to relax after a stressful, frustrating day of riding buses back and forth and talking/hand gesturing with people who didn’t understand a lick of English. Lets not call this a wasted day but a “Recon.”
The next morning we rented a car and headed out to Lonquimay, hoping to hike it that afternoon. Unfortunately the weather was against us. So we drove through a really long tunnel to the town of Lonquimay to check it out. It turned out to not be that exciting, not much to it except the beautiful views. We soon headed back to Malaeahuello, and did a short easy two hour walk in the park and then headed to this Swedish restaurant that was suppose to have fantastic desserts, and most importantly, people who spoke English. Dinner the was pricy but delicious (I had this traditional Swedish dish I’ve had with catering, but I wont lie, theirs was far better) and our waitress could speak English so wonderfully that after she listened to me rant about our past two days, she helped us a little with planning our climb up Lonquimay and a beautiful drive we could do afterwards.
The next morning was a slow start, for the weather was still against us. We stopped in town briefly to extend our rental on the car and pack up our gear. Around noonish, we slowly starred our hike up Lonquimay, hoping the weather predictions were right and the clouds on top of Lonquimay would clear away completely in a few hours. We took our time, afraid of getting caught in a white out and using a GPS to track our position so we wouldn’t get lost. Once in a while the clouds would clear enough that we could actually get some views. It was a pretty nice climb. Very steep towards the top, my calves reminding me of how little I had used them of late every time I dug in with the toe of my crampons to step up. We harnessed up and tied together as we got close to the summit for it would have been a very long, steep slide down at this point if one of us should have fallen. We were maybe a hundred feet from the summit though, when an icy wind came at us from over the summit and blew snow and ice in our faces and a cloud descended upon us so that I could see Tom 15 ft away and nothing else. After a minute or two of debating and waiting to see if the cloud would lift, we began to make our way down without a claim to the summit.
When we finally made it back to the car, it was rather frustrating for we could look back toward the summit and see the clouds that shrouded it, but they looked so calm and peaceful from where we stood. How deceiving. Still, a good hike, felt good to be moving and not sitting. Well after our hike, we headed back through the long tunnel toward Lonquimay town, but turned before it onto a dirt road that passed through the mountains. We stayed at a small village that night and left early in the morning to be able to arrive at the car rental place by noon. It was a very scenic drive both in the evening and the morning. When we finally arrived back in Temuco, and within a couple of hours we were on a bus to Valdivia to enjoy our last days in Chile with hopefully minimal stress.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Pucon, the Town of Outdoor Adventure
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.
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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