Villarrica Volcano

Friends and Family,
We just left Bariloche, Argentina and crossed over into Chile. During the ride, we were able to observe the incredible amount of volanic ash scattered around the surrounding mountains of the lake district. It looked like grey snow that covered absolutely everything. Some people live and work in these mountains and it must …

Sur la route vers le Nord, encore difficile de faire un choix vu le nombre de parcs nationaux aux alentours! Pucon est assez connue, même très connue et donc très touristique, mais est le point de départ pour de superbes sites naturels aux alentours, je décide donc de m'y arrêter quelques jours afin de me reposer avant de repartir pour voir les …

Baz Luhrmann once said that the best piece of advice he could give was to wear sunscreen- I am here to reiterate that sage wisdom.*

Our second day in Pucon (our first full day, following the adventures of the overnight bus), Mom and I found ourselves being woken up at 6am by knock, the place we're staying doesn't do telephones, in order to …

Tag 66 - 74:

Nach der Fahrt auf dem Frachter hatten wir uns wirklich danach gesehnt, wieder etwas mehr Luxus und vor allem besseres Wetter zu haben. Leider traf im ersten Moment weder noch ein. Bisher galt: wenn Engel reisen... leider nicht so im chilenischen Seengebiet, wo es während den ersten vier Tagen einfach nur nass und kalt war. …

In the three days in Pucon, the weather went from perfect, to raining (like a tropical thunderstorm), to snow. Which is why we were lucky to get the outdoor stuff done on the first day - well Wyan did anyway.
When we got into the town, and found a hostel, one of the workers in there was pushy in getting us to sign up for a hike up the volcano …

We decided to take a side tour to Pucon in Chile as we were not too far away and heard it was Chile´s outdoor capital, seemed rude not to. The bus ride there had some amazing scenery, suddenly there were lots of trees and grass, something we hadn´t seen a great deal of in Argentina. Chile gets much more rain than Argentina so it is more lush., …

... Araucaria trees in their local habitat. We arrive in the town of Villaricca on the shores of a beautiful lake dominated by volcano Villarrica. Having heard reports of poor weather, we decide to abandon our idea of camping on the lakeshore and instead ...

... the pleasant town perched on the edge of Lake Lacar. The big draw for the region is white water rafting and the imposing active Villarrica volcano that quietly puffs away over 9,000 feet above. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the area erupting ...

... , 2000m in altitude, I could almost step on those fluffy soft pillows. Turning around, an unforgettable purple haze fell over volcano Lanin. Amazing scenery. I was caught in the middle of enjoying the moment and trying to get off this volcano before it ...

Decided it was time to do something active (for a change!) and went to Villarrica with the intention of hiking up the volcano. Villarrica itself is nice (a bit quieter than nearby Pucon which I am told is one of the most expensive places in all of ...

... , who couldn't have been more welcoming. They have an amazing garden with humming birds and a great view of another conical volcano – Volcan Villarrica. It is a live volcano and we could see the smoke. Here we were in fact the only guests as all ...

... along with 7 others filled our packs with gas masks, crampons, ice axes and all the other gear needed for climbing a snow capped volcano. Five hours later after ascending on about 50% loose gravel (the sort of surface that for every two steps up you slip ...

... clowds and wind. We headed down the mountains, towards the national park of Puyehue, without the look of seeing the troublemaker volcano Puyehue. Arriving the the national park we checked with the rangers and they informed us that most of the tracks are ...

... a book (quite a common practice here in travelplaces). We had a lovely walk down to the lake with great views on the volcano Villarica, which is always a little bit of a smoker, and the recently errupted Vulcano Llaima. Hope it comes out in the pic: ...

... be on a bus and have the freedom again to do and go where we pleased. The weather today was a clear sky too and Lake Villarrica was glistening bright blue, a tad different to the rather bleak photos we took on our first day here. Heading into the town of ...

... we will see. It is a quaint little place but this was ment to be a passthrough place to us on the way to Chochquenco - a volcano nearbye. We arived at 9ish in the morning but the buses did not leave till 4 in the afternoon meaning we had to kill the ...