Heavy Duty Hiking

Our next step was Bariloche which was located at the base of the Andes and the shores of a massive lake. We had plans to hike and horseback ride but all these ideas were dashed due to the multiple days of rain. Basically we spent the three full days we were there sitting in our hostel watching movies and looking out over the lake and village from the great view we had. When it stopped raining we made our way into town for some food and some amazing ice cream. The town was very charming and I can see how it would be a top draw in the Winter, there´s a large ski resort there, but it just didn´t work out for us while we were there. Oh well.

From there we headed for Chile and our first stop in Pucon. We couldn´t buy a direct bus from Argentina so we bought a bus to Osorno and from there we would head to Pucon. We bought a bunch of food for lunch that day but we ended up not using our heads in regards to the foods we purchased because they don´t allow you to bring salami and cheese into Chile so we had to dump it.....not cool. It got even better when we arrived in Osorno around 11 am and discovered that we couldn´t get a bus until 6:45 that night. So basically we had to kill 7 hours in this dumpy little town. No biggie though. That´s just part of traveling. The positive thing was we had a bus and we would be in Pucon that night.

We arrived a little before midnight and after a bit of walking found our hostel. Our hostel was really nice and for the first three nights we were literally the only people staying there. The people were incredibly friendly and since we were the only people in our dorm let alone the hostel we felt like we were just staying at a friends place. Very peaceful. The first day there it rained on and off for a bit. We took a stroll around the town which was really nice. That was pretty much the extent of day one. Day two was much nicer and we woke up and went down to the lake to take a few photos and enjoy the sun for the first time in a while. The large lake that borders the town has black sand so we strolled down there for a bit to check it out. The water was pretty cold so we decided against a swim. That afternoon we decided to go on a horseback riding adventure. We headed out around two and drove for 25 minutes to where we would be mounting our horses. When we arrived we were given our horses which were smaller than ones I have rode in the past but nothing too small. Krista´s was tiny which was funny. Oddly enough her horse had some sort of little mans syndrome because he was in the front the entire time and if any other horse tried to pass him he sped ahead. We rode for a little over 2 hours through some nice countryside. It was a clear day so there were probably 4 or 5 volcanoes that were visible. Pretty cool stuff. After the riding we went to the hot springs next to the stables. We were pretty excited by this but I found them to be a little bit of a let down. First off they were basically swimming pools with warm water and the water wasn´t even that hot. Maybe 90 degrees. I was hoping for a little more like 105. We hung out there for a couple hours then headed back into town. Although the hot springs were a bit of a disappointment the day as a whole was very nice.

The following day we did absolutely nothing but relax in anticipation for the volcano hike the following day. We headed off to climb the volcano around 7am. It wasn´t very cold out and with all the gear and clothing provided by our guides was more than enough. We had a group of around 9 people and we made our way to the base of the mountain. We were given the option of taking a chairlift up the first bit of the hike but we decided against it.....that may have been a mistake considering it was pretty strenuous. From there we continued the walk through volcanic rock and dirt eventually making our way to snow where we had to put on crampons and use an ice ax. This trek was pretty damn tough. Pretty much the whole thing was straight up and hiking through snow made it even more difficult. The last push towards the summit was the most difficult as the snow was pretty deep and it was incredibly steep. Your legs were definitely burning pretty bad. Finally we reached the summit which had a great view for miles. You could see a lot of different volcanoes including one that had just erupted 4 days earlier. By the time we reached the summit for lunch we were pretty exhausted. The crater was massive up there. I made my way to the edge to look down and you couldn´t even see all the way to the bottom. There was some type of gas that kept coming out of the vent and when you breathed it in you almost threw up. It was pretty bad and made it difficult to breath. From there we made our way down pretty fast and headed back to our hostel to relax for the rest of the night. We were exhausted and needed to relax. That was the extent of our time in Pucon. It was a great area and we had a blast. Now we´re off to the capital city of Santiago....until next time.

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