Fire, Theft and Injury

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Refugio in Flames

Goodness me, it's only been a week since my last blog but it feels like sooooo much has happened! Ok, breathe Gemma and try and start from the beginning. The first big drama was the refugio at our campsite in Pucon going up in flames! The refugio was the wooden hut with basic cooking facilities where we had been eating meals and hiding from the rain next to the big open fire place. In my last blog some of us were hoping that the weather would change so that we could stay on in Pucon to climb Villarica Volcano. This idea was scraped once the drama unfolded.

I was rudely awoken at 2ish in the morning by the screams of "get out your tents!. At first, in my sleepy state, I thought we had overslept and that it was 6.45am or something (as the truck was supposed to be leaving at 7am). Then I heard the words "fire" and "gas" and something in my brain clicked. I stuck my head out the tent to be met by the sight of a burning refugio. I quickly switched into emergency gear and managed to rouse my drunken tent mate Sinnead, who had only recently come to bed after an evening at the thermal springs. The reason Dee, our tour leader, was especially desperate to get us out was because our tent was one of only a couple directly in line with the fire. The others were further back and to the side or behind the truck which offered some protection. The big fear was that the fire would reach the gas pipes and blow. Duncan was our hero of the night as it was he that was woken by the sound of the fire and raised the alarm. Although he was also the last in the refugio that night, which has led to some jokes and an entire day of playing fire related songs on the truck. But he truly was great, managing to wake Dee, Tong (our driver) and the owners of the campsite (whose house was very close to the refugio) within minutes. For this he was given a tinfoil giant key to the truck by Dee and Tony at our halfway meal in Santiago.

Once all out of our tents we cowered behind the tent as Dee and Tony were trying to combat the flames with fire extinguishers from our own truck! Thankfully we were in a town with a well developed fire brigade because of the volcano risk (we had heard a practice volcano siren earlier that day). The fire brigade arrived pretty promptly and the fire was put out without any damage to the surrounding trees or the owner’s house. The refugio itself was also pretty much intact too. The big fear for us was that it would race through the trees towards the tents but it was too wet for that. At this point we were extremely thankful for the rain that had prevented us from climbing Villarica! We don't know what started the fire but the obvious suggested is the open fire. Apparently it had died down a lot when Duncan went to bed but there is always the possibility that a log fell off. However the floor was concrete and the more likely suggestion was that the chimney or back of the fireplace heated up too much, or had a fault that went through to the wood behind.

Loosing People in Santiago

After that drama the volcano idea was scrapped as we were too exhausted the next day due to the lack of sleep. The weather didn’t look that promising anyway. So everyone jumped back on our lovely truck for a days drive to Santiago. Pretty uneventful journey apart from the desperation of many people as with full bladders when we got stuck in the Santiago rush hour! The hostel was lovely. It was an old colonial house and so each room had huge ceilings and decorative skirting boards and picture rails that had been painted differently in each room.
We headed out for a group meal on our first night, which was supposed to be a way of greeting the newbies but only Dee’s uncle was there. Instead it was a civilized way of saying goodbye to the old crew. Dee and Tony both made some speeches - Dee’s a poem about all the stuff we had seen, down and put up with and Tony’s a crazy list of facts about the distance driven and gear changes. 1200ish kms so far for those that hadn’t flown (I can’t remember the exact number, ok!). We only had one full day in Santiago so Carly and I went on a crazed dash around the town. We saw the richer area of Providencia where a few cds were bought by myself (Carly is educating me on Latin American music). Arriving in the artesan area of Bellavista a craft market was trawled and some lapisazul may have been bought in an earring form (I’m allowed treats!). We then hit Parque Metropolitana where we caught the funicular up and then used the cable car to get around. It is basically a big green hill in the middle of the city which on a rare clear day gives you stunning views of the surrounding Andes. But since Santiago has one of the worst smog problems in South America all we saw was the nearby city and then a big foggy haze with some shapes that could have been mountains very faint through the gloom! Next stop was the oldest church in Chile followed by museum on indigenous arts and crafts. This was a great education for myself as it covered all the different tribes of the different areas of South and Central America as well as different time periods. We concentrated on the Andean coastal areas that we will be passing through. Final stop was the Plaza des Armas. This brought a smile to my face as I had been reading a historical novel on the conquering of Chile and the founding of Santiago in which the Plaza des Armas played a key role. Recognizing places and buildings made me smile (geek, I know!)

Our second group meal in Santiago should have just been a celebration of Jess’s bday but unfortunately the newbies made this meal instead. I say unfortunately as quite a few people were VERY drunk and I think we scared the newbies somewhat. Some have them may have been slightly relieved when they turned up at the truck the next morning to find that some of those that had left were the loudest the night before. Our lesson from that evening was avoid Chinese restaurants in South America! Well, not every meal can be great, right?

Saying Goodbye

There were lots of hugs the next day as we said goodbye to 8 of our gang, some of whom were the funniest drunkards on the trip. It was especially hard for Penny (leaving truck) and Rob (staying on truck) who had struck up a romance during the journey. He was a very sad boy that day. Our next watering whole was Mendoza in one of the wine regions of Argentina. First we had to cross the Andes and from Chile back into Argentina. This journey was fabulous, with absolutely stunning scenery. One particular road wound back on itself again, and again, and again. So as rose and our ears popped we looked back down on the crazy turns we had already made to get through the pass. This particular pass was at 4000 and something metres so a few people felt a bit light headed from the altitude. Only more of that to come!!! We had a cheeky lunch stop where we eat our forbidden produce in no-mans land between Chile and Argentina. Basically you can’t take meat, veggies, fruit or dairy products across the border in case of diseases but there were no supermarkets for miles around so we weren’t loosing our lunch!

Gemma the Bird and Thieves

Mendoza turned out to be an action packed and drama filled two days. On day one I choose to go paragliding! It was AMAZING!!!! I will probably go on and on and on about this once I get home. Having watched one group come down, another group take off and sat at the top of the mountain coaching Iain through his fear of heights for 45mins I was well pumped to fly once it was finally my turn. By this time the winds and thermals were more favorable so we took off immediately rather than hanging around like the first two groups. Well, when I say immediately the driver had to pull me to help me run with the drag of the parachute behind me! It was a crazy concept, literally running off a mountain edge, but once in the air I was in paradise. The guy I was in tandem with had been doing this for 22 years so I felt perfectly safe. It was so peaceful and calm up there, just floating serenely along. It took a while to catch a big thermal but once we did we just kept rising and rising and rising. It had at least 20-25mins in the air, admiring the stunning views of the Andes in the distance. Just before landing I was asked if I like acrobatics which of course I said yes to! This led to a period of rocking the glider from side to side with our weight and then sending it into a crazy spin. Apparently we were almost horizontal to the ground at this point! I performed a perfect landing which I was grateful for as I had seen a few painful crash landings earlier.

Whilst I was flying in one form, some of my mates had been jumping out of airplanes! But sadly for Carly the plane broke just before she was due to do her dive, which was the last one of the day. However her disappointment paled in comparison with the shock that Emma would get upon returning to the hostel. In our absence a group of thieves had managed to con their way through the security door and whilst two distracted the receptionist another two raided the upstairs room. I was sharing a room with Emma, Carly and Claire and so we were sharing a padlocked locker so when I saw that Emma, Carly and Claire’s bags had been raided I thought that nothing would have been found (mine was padlocked). Unfortunately Emma had accidentally left her smaller digital camera (she has a big one), a memory card and her mini hard drive in her bag. The last two were the killers as she lost all her photos! She has uploaded some of her best ones but it was still devastating. Amelia in another room also lost an ipod. It has made me extra vigilant and so all my photos are now on cd in our truck safe as well as on my hard drive.

Drunken Cycling

Since we were in a wine region it was only fair that we completed a tour of wineries! But instead of a leisurely coach tour we choose a crazy bike ride!! We all hired bikes and then headed out to see the various vineyards. Anyone who knows about my cycling skills will be concerned at this point but thankfully I managed to survive without one fall despite crazy dirt roads and lots of buses and trucks. Once I got into it I really enjoyed it, I felt very French pedaling along the treelined roads with vineyards either side. We only managed two wineries, an olive oil farm, lunch at a vineyard/delicatessen and a chocolate and liqueur place. But I was still pretty squiffy on the final leg of cycling! This led to more drinking that evening as I got to know Iain better with Carly and so a still drunk Gemma got on the truck the next morning!


After two days driving and a rough camp in a very sandy desert with lots of bugs and scratchy acacia trees we are now in Cafayate, the white wine capital as Mendoza was the red wine capital. The journey here wasn’t without adventure though! We drove through desert, climbing through the clouds passed jungly forest, emerged into the sunlight of a huge flat valley with a lakeside town and then climbed back down through scrub and cacti. The big drama was that on a stop in the forest for photos John (one of the new older guys to join our truck) fell from the top step for the truck. He knocked himself out on a rock and was demonstrating obvious concussion so there was a bit of a panic trying to rush to Cafayate which had the only medical help for miles around. He is fine though, just had a bit of sprained wrist! The other cripples of the trip have used the same physio to sort themselves out. Emma’s sprained ankle still isn’t totally right, Robin has knee issues and hurt her neck paragliding Duncan (a sprightly 19 year old) has slipped a disc in his back!! Lets pray that I can get through the trip without major injury! (touching my head at this point aka wood).

Chilling in Cafayate

Most people have used today just to chill out. I’ve wandered in and out of craft shops, checked out the church, sat and drank coffee on the beautiful square for hours whilst reading my book and had a leisurely lunch watching some rally drivers pass by. The only stress I had was buying food for dinner tomorrow night in a town with very limited resources. Ordering mince meat for 24 people was interesting!! Since leaving Santiago it has been warm again (yay!) but this has brought back bugs and I am not looking forward to the sand flies that await us in Salta! We have also been camping since leaving Santiago and will be for 8/9 nights straight so I might not love my tent so much soon. Let’s wait and see!

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Photos

John post-fall
A rather bemused John after his fall from the top step of the truck. After this he only got worse as the concussion set in!

Drive to Cafayate
Despite the slight concern of having a concussed John on the truck who we needed to get to hospital pronto I was still able to enjoy the stunning views as we drove to Cafayate.

Church in Cafayate
This church overlooks the square where I spent such a relaxing day.