Pucon and Gasmasks over Volcan Villarica
Trip Start
Jan 26, 2000
1
10
30
Trip End
Jun 14, 2000
Volcan Villarica,
Argentina
Thursday, March 30, 2000
Pucon was a tourist town but with lots of character and in a beautiful setting on a lake at the base of Volcan Villarica it was very nice. It did have the disadvantage though that it was just waiting to get obliterated with the next explosion of this nearby volcano. As was becoming usual now it didn't take me long to bump into some people I knew, Ozzie John and Oliver from my earlier boat trip. After booking on a guided ascent of the volcano I got together with these guys and together with a Brit, Paul, we hit the towns top night spot (a bar with 4 other backpackers in there!). 6am next day and the sky was blue but it was blowing a gale, my trip up the volcano wasn't looking too promising. I went down to our departure place only to be told that because of the wind there was only a 50/50 chance of making the summit. Not wanting to lose our money our group decided to wait until the next day.
By 10am the wind had abated and it turned into a top day, disappointed I decided to hop on a mountain bike and explore the area. The cycling was great but I can safely say my bum has never been in so much pain. I think the saddle was made of iron and I had to spend the last 5 miles cycling stood up! To add insult to injury when I returned to the hostel I found that John had managed to ascent the volcano (he went with a different company), there had been no wind and in short it had been the perfect day!
That night the winds started again and were relentless all night, I woke up in the morning not fancying our chances too much. This was my last chance though and I was on a mission, determined to give it a shot. So that morning myself 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 back at least one step) and 50% ice we reached the 2800M (9500ft) summit. After donning our gas masks the first thing we did was to edge slowly over to the crater and peer in. The heat and smell coming up was intense but the sight which greeted us was like nothing I have ever seen. A huge red pool of molten lava was below us and before we knew it there was a roaring sound and the volcano was spewing lava in an upward direction towards us. The heat from this was enough to put everyone off balance and back peddling away from the rim. The trip down was something else and totally unexpected, the longest toboggan run in the world! Christian our guide had us sliding down on our bums using our ice axes as brakes. It was extremely hard work and one of the guys had his axe snap in two half way down, not to worry, he found a nice pile of rocks to stop himself on! Once we got confident and after watching Christian we started sliding on our feet as if we were skiing. Excellent fun but not too good for those without a good sense of balance! I was a happy man I had managed to accomplish all my goals in Patagonia and now my problem was to make it 2000 miles north in the next 48 hours. Bus number one was from Pucon to Santiago, a 12 hour journey, from there I managed to get a bus 3 hours later for what I thought was a 26 hour ride to Arica. 26 hours turned out to be 32 through what can only be described as some of the most dry, barren countryside on earth, the Atacama Desert. The buses were remarkable comfortable with good reclining seats and food and drink available on board ( I also managed to win one of the organised bingo games we played on the journey).
