As if the hills of Valparaíso weren´t enough for me...

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After not sleeping very much on the night bus from Santiago, I arrived bright and early Wednesday morning in Pucón. It´s a small-ish town in a beautiful setting on the edge of Lake Villarrica, overlooked by (still active) Volcano Villarrica, and is one of the main tourist centres in the Chilean Lake District. And boy, is it touristy...loads of cafes, restaurants and bars, all packed, mainly, with Chileans on holiday. It´s one of the main centres for outdoor adventure activities in Chile, and in that way reminded me a bit of Taupo in New Zealand. There are loads of tour and travel agencies wanting to sell you various activities - whitewater rafting, volcano climbing...After Valparaíso, it was all a bit overwhelming, particularly seeing as I was feeling a bit sleep deprived.

Thankfully, the hostel I stayed in, Tree House Hostel, was lovely, really chilled out. It only opened a month ago, so everything was brand new - including the wonderfully comfortable beds. There were hammocks in the garden for relaxing in, and of course a tree house. It was great! When I first got there, in my usual fashion I asked someone else staying there what there was to do and his response was, 'See that volcano out there?'...well, yes, I had. So I booked myself on a trip to climb it, for the next day. In the meantime, I went out for dinner with some people I met at the hostel and had the most fantastic (and huge!) grilled salmon in a Uruguayan parillada restaurant. There are some advantages to being in a tourist town...

The next morning I was up bright and early for my trek up the volcano. I'd decided to go with the company, run by a guy called Mauricio, that the hostel owner recommended, as she said the group sizes were smaller. As it turned out, there was just me and one other person from the hostel, Will, in the group plus the guide so it was a very small group! Climbing up a volcano is not quite the same as going for an ordinary hike. For starters, no-one is allowed to go up it without a qualified guide (or, apparently, membership of a recognised mountain climbing club), and you also have to get kitted up with proper boots, ice picks, helmets...the lot.

The climb started well enough, over loose volcanic rocks. But then we reached the steeper, snow covered slopes - which is when all that equipment becomes necessary. From here on upwards it was a case following the path as it made constant switchbacks on its way upwards, slowly and very carefully putting one foot in front of the other into the footprints already made by the guide, and trying not to slip...or look down. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about this, although our guide had told us what to do in the event of falling. So it was with some relief when we finally made it to the top! The view was spectacular, and well worth the climb. We could even see across to another volcano about 80km away near Temuco, which is in the process of erupting (no lava in sight but lots of smoke).

Coming back down was a lot quicker, easier and more fun than going down...we simply slid down. It was great!! There are tracks already marked out in the snow, so it was just a case of kitting ourselves out in protective trousers, sitting at the top of the track and...whheeeeeee!! Being quite small, I didn't go all that fast, until Mauricio had the brilliant idea of Will and I forming a train and our combined weight would make us go faster - and then I was flying down! It was so much fun I almost wanted to climb all the way back to the top again just so I could slide back down again!!

So that was my time in Pucon. The next day I was up nice and early, in order to spend all day on the bus to get to my next destination, Ancud, on the island of Chiloe.

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Photos

Volcano Villarrica
See that volcano? I climbed that, I did.

At the bottom
It doesn't look that high...

Half way up
It doesn't look that far...but see those dots on the left hand side? Those are people.

Mid-climb
Pretty steep, huh?

At the top
Made it at last!

It's a long way down...
*Gulp*

From the top
The views made it all worth while

Wheeeeeee!!!!
Coming down was considerably easier than going up

La playa, Pucon
This was quite bizarre...black sand. It's actually volcanic ash from Volcan Villarrica