Trekking up Volcan Villarrica (Chile) & the Seven Lakes (Argentina)

So after taking a day or so to recover from the trek from hell, I decided to stick with Emily and Ben and head towards Pucon, Chile, with the thought to walk up a bloody big volcano. Many of you will be aware at this stage I was pretty much a cripple due to a hip that had been completely hammered after the last hike and that I had been told by the doctor that rest for 4 days was what was required. I did take into account the doctors advice and did rest for a coupla days but decided to do that in a car heading towards this volcano via the Seven Lakes in Argentina. As usual not being one to want to miss out on anything. So car packed and everything sorted, as usual way past departure time, we headed off on the next adventure. After about 90 mins driving Emily asks Ben and I if we have remembered our passports, we answer a very confident yes, only to be out heard by Emily saying F%&/(K I left mine behind. So back we go to Bariloche and get her passport and we are now on take two of the adventure. Driving up and around the lakes was some what dusty, this is before it had rained and there was lots of road works on, apparantly it was great rally car driving material or so Ben told us. It was so dusty that we missed a few lakes on the first day and we spent most of the time eating our years quota of dirt. First night was spent camping on one of the lakes and again we had paradise just outside our tent. This camp involved a camp fire so we were happy campers. Next day more lakes and more dust but always amazing things to see and our first volcano as we hit the border of Argentina/Chile. We arrive that afternoon in Pucon, Chile, and spend the afternoon organising our hike the next day and drink beer at the local pub and watching the world go by. Early the next morning we are up to find cloud cover everywhere and we are unsure if we are going to to able to hike as it is weather dependant. Arriving at the shop we are told no worries, I am sceptical, but go with the flow. We arrive at the car park at the base of the mountain to find it in clear view with no clouds. All is good until we are told that the ski lift that we would usual take is not working today due to it being Good Friday, I am cussing the catholics at this stage as my hip is very tender. Anyway with an extra hour added on to the already 4 hour hike we are off. Blisters come to me and Ben within the first 20 mins and Emily is not far off. The first 2 hours is pretty cruisy just slowly pacing ourselves up the volcano, then it turns interesting and we are now on ice and the angle of the ascent is increasing. Along with the what I considered the 'danger factor' increasing so did the amazing views from were we were. At this point in time I am only able to concentrate on my feet and not to look up or around in fear of getting vertigo or losing my balance and falling down the mountain. Apparantly this would all be ok because we had picks that you just had to drag on the ground and you would stop....yeah right 500m down the damned mountain! So after 5 hours of ascending and walking on ice and having my fear of being on the edge of a cliff consistently with me we finally made it to the top of the bloody volcano. Everything before that is now forgotten and we can take in the amazing views of the surrounding mountains and other volcanos. We are way above the clouds and this makes it feel like we are on top of the world - we as far as I´m concerned we nearly are at 2849m. We nearly die from sulfur poisoning as we try with all our might to see lava and we take in the views for a coupla hours. The whole time up there I was thinking in the back of my head that some how I had to get down and if it involved the same path as we took up it was going to be a long afternoon. Thankfully and true to his word the guide took us a different way and our descent involved us sitting on our bums and sliding down the mountain.....yee ha...this was too much fun! Some of the passes were like water slides and felt like water slides as we went as fast as we could down. So 5 hours up and 40 mins down...gotta love that! Our day was finished off by a coupla of beers back at the shop watching the sunset over the volcano, pretty corny really, and then a traditional Chilean BBQ at the guide´s house that night. By the time we had eaten a rather large chunk of cow and had some drinks we were well and truly ready for bed. Back on the road again the next day back to Bariloche. Managed to see the lakes we missed and Ben managed to drive like a person high on drugs as we pulled into the border crossing, well actually he tried to just drive straight through I think and then proceeded to reverse when Emily and I told him he couldn´t. Then he tried to park the car in some weird fashion and I am still really suprised that they didn´t search our car for any kinda of substances. We made it back to Bariloche in one piece, so did the car, and now it was time to give my body a rest and have my bum/hip massaged for the next week by a rather good looking Argentinian physiotherapist.

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