Volcanos galore
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
34
154
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Pucon,
Chile
Friday, November 10, 2006
01 Volcan Villarrica from town
. We talked about Chile and it sounds very Western - she is worried about the kids as they just want to watch TV and eat junk food and they too are having problems with obesity (there's a new opportunity for Paul to help some more kids...). She made me a coffee and some toast and jam that evening which you wouldn't get in a hostel!I watched Simpsons on TV with her 12 year old son. That was weird heaving it in Spanish as the character's voices are part of what makes them funny. I tried to do an impression of how Homer should sound but it was bad....the son understood me when I said mmmmm donuts!'´though. It was a shame as it was an episode I'd never seen, but it didn't take much to follow it at least. Nancy had a bit of a fight on her hands getting him to switch the TV off and go to bed so it was just like home....
There was also a Mexican guy staying at the house and I chatted to him for a while until we lost the conversation with my limited Spanish. He told me he has lots of jobs, one being that he sells guitars and one that he sells some Sports drink in Canada and Europe but I don't think we get it in the UK.
In the morning she made me some breakfast and packed me off with a banana as I was running late for the bus to Pucon, my last destination before Santiago
02 The beach at the lake
. The bus journey (with bus Jac) was a fab 6 hours as we had these DVDs on the bus called 'Classic Project 3 and 4'. Number 4 was classic rock and pop from the 70s, 80s and 90s and was a megamix showing just 10 or 15 seconds of each video - it was great and brought back a lot of memories! Number 3 was recent r n b, pop and dance from the late 90's and now and I realised that many videos just have girls in bikinis or underwear dancing suggestively and nothing else, no storyline and not even the artist sometimes. God I sound like I'm getting old!In Pucon I couldn't find the hostel I wanted to check out, and my second choice was full (suprise) so I checked into this basic place which was a little quiet for my liking but I got my own room for 4000p. It was clean at least and the owner (and her somewhat crazy mother) seemed friendly enough. (FYI it was behind, not next to hostel Ecole and didn't have a name, just the word 'hostel' in the yard).
I wandered around town, booked to climb the volcano and go to some hot springs with Trancura on the main road for the bargain price of 35000 p (35000 p just for the volcano with other companies), a saving of 10 to 15 pounds. That night I ran into 2 American guys in the hostel, Mark from San Francisco and Kevin from Wisconsin (i think)
03 The ski lift I was forced to take
. We went out to a bar in town Mamas and Tapas and had a drink and chated. Mark was here for a conference in Santiago, and was a Phd student in biochemistry. Kevin was taking time out, but had a run of bad luck as he's had to quit his trip with a companmy he booked with as the itinery was incorrect (and was dealing with lawyers etc) plus he then had his back card stolen and money taken from the account so he'd been stuck in Pucon for around 2 weeks waiting for his new card to arrive!Yesterday morning I got up early and headed to Trancura's office and was given a bag full of equipment - I checked the crampons and they were too small, the backpack had a huge gaping hole and I would have lost anything I put in it, the waterprrof trusers were one size fits all and were too big and no-one seemed to be checking that everything was OK so I had my concerns.....
We drove part of the way up the volcano (which is 2800m in height) then walked a way thn they wanted me to take the ski lift part of the way up to save an hour of walking. I'd already asked if I had to take it as I didn't want to and the said no, even if the rest of the group took the lift i could walk with another guide. Plus it cost 4000p so i didn't want to take it but when we got there the made me take it but I went for free at least and it was actually prett cool, although I didn't feel i deserved the view (but I guess it's the same as taking the Jungfrau train to get up the Monc and Jungfrau....). My boots definitely weren't goretex and the gaiters were wet inside so didn't do their job, plus after one of our breaks the guides managed to forget someone too so I wouldn't recomend the company if you're looking to do the trip.... Everyone else looked like their clothing and gear was straight out of the box...
04 Our group
.I'd been told the volcano hike was really hard but before I knew it we were at the top (and after Pisco in Peru it is hard to complain about being physically tired!). At the top we could sometimes see small pieces of red lava being spat up out of the volcano but it wasn't too active that day, although the gas made me cough and my nose sting. We had unusually perfect weather and a great view - we could see as far as volcan Osorno which is a 3 hour bus ride away!
To get down we slid on on bums just in the trousers or these material sled things wrapped around your bum and legs. To brake and control you used your ice axe, which i found difficult as when you dig it in to stop it practically rips your arm out of it's socket. I had a couple of near wipe outs too and hate losing control as it was pretty scary but was fun on occasions - definitely wouldn't be able to do that back home - many health and safety issues!
I was supposed to be going to the hot springs after but the company cancelled it with some lame excuse and gave me 5000p back - therefore I only saved 5 quid in total by going with them - I got the feeling that they do it all the time - offer you the package where you save a lot then cancel the springs and give you some money back so you're not really saving much and have crappy equipment. It did mean that I got to hang out with Mark and Kevin again but I had an early night as I was shaterred.
Today Kevin and I got the bus to a national park nearby (Huerqueque or something) as I'd heard there were some good hikes up mountains
05 Not quite alone up there
. Unfortunately once we arrived and paid the entry fee we were told that most trails were closed due to bad snow and the only trail open was an easy route around some lakes, which Kevin had walked a couple of days before. We walked a bit then got bored and were quite tired so spent some time at a refugio sitting out in the sun drinking great proper coffee. We got the early bus back and had some time to kill before my overnight bus to Santiago so we hired a row boat on the lake(once we managed to haggle the guy down from the overpriced Gringo charges). We only had an hour and didn't get too far but had a great view of the volcano (Leanne it was just as hard as Bled and he was worse than me thank god-could have done with you there!). We then went to get a photo copy 2 maps of Santiago from my LP book as Kevin wanted to buy it from me and the old lady in the shop ripped me off so obviously that it really annoyed me - she split them over two pieces of A4 instead of fitting them onto one and said she didn't realise when I told her I wanted it all on one page - so of course I had to pay for 6 copies when I shoud have paid for 2 - she was so happy when i gave her all that money......Tonight I'm getting the night bus (with bus Jac again, my final Cama bus here!) with Mark to Santiago.
