Pucon
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2008
1
55
62
Trip End
Mar 19, 2009
Pucon,
Lake District,
Chile
Friday, February 20, 2009
It´s a picturesque town on a huge lake beneath the smoking Volcano Villarica (2847m). The climate here is already much cooler than Santiago and there´s a real alpine ski resort feel - with wooden houses and tall fir trees in abundance.
We spent our first day in Pucon exploring the lakeside volcanic beach, the markets and the shops along the main street, avenue O´Higgins.
Day two was much more adventurous. We awoke early and got to see the volcano that we were going to climb
a. Pucon
. We could get part of the way up via a monster truck and ski lift. Then with three guides our group of ten started the 3 hour climb to the summit. Most of the climbing was on snow but with our trusted ice pick we safely trudged our way to the top, zig-zagging in one line like lemmings. The view from the top was spectacular - we were blessed with good weather all day. It was easy to see the channels of larva devastation from the last eruption in 1984, as well as many other volcanoes around us and over the border into Argentina. We dumped our bags and took a walk around the mouth of the active volcano. The fumes were pungent and the rumbles from below suggested the volcanoes potential for further destruction. So we didn´t hang around, instead starting our rapid descent - this was fun! We put on our waterproofs (not that they made much difference), strapped a sheet to our bums and slid straight down the snow and ice following the bobsleigh-like track melted out from previous trekkers bums. Within about 40 minutes we were back at the truck, soaking! Once back at the tour office we were treated to a free beer to warm us up - Chileans like to drink!
To ease our well worked muscles we took a night time trip to some more thermal springs and sat in warm baths under the stars with lots and lots of Chileans.
We continue our journey south tomorrow on a 3 hour bus journey to Valdivia.
Ciao
