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Published: October 14th 2007
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Don´t cry for me Argentina!
That´s it for this beautiful country with so many different landscapes and cultures.
We are now in Pucon, Chile.... Hometo an active volcano. Which we climbed...
Will tell you more about it.
After leaving Bariloche, we head to the Chilean border. While on the bus, we are told we have to finish our food before we get to customs, as the Chilean authorities do not like that you take any meat products, veg or fruit. Too bad... We had a bag full of apples, lemons, bananas to get through to take across to Chile, so we had to stuff ourselves after having our breakfast in Bariloche. The only problem were 2 lemons... What to do with them? The driver suggested we smuggled them and hope for the best. According to him and jokingly, the best place, he said, would´ve been to put them on my chest and look feminime and normal... No thanks. Also, Renata didn´t help as she didn´t want to take the risk. I got too paranoid! I decided to put the lemons in the bin without the driver´s knowledge. I didn´t want to upset him you know. All went well after going through
customs and getting our stamp, but it just reminded me that Chile is so much more different than Argentina. They take things seriously here about their fruit & veg. No messing around! In the end, I didn´t get body checked and I regret not taking those 2 lemons across. They were worth it... Shame.
After changing buses in Osorno, we get to Pucon not expecting much we must say. It has avolcano, ok, and a lot of activities but we had done a few so far. We were only to discover that this trip proved to be one of the best so far in our whole trip. This was only after being in Chile after 1 day, having done Argentina for more than 4 months!
We organise our trip to get to the top of the volcano and get a good deal for our money. All equipment included, 2 guides and 4 other travellers, we head to the top. It proved to be one of the most challenging and comprehensive trekk we had done to date. 5 hours to climb to the top, 2 and a 1/2 to come back down. We had the best possible weather conditions as
the previous day, it had been raining and covered almost all day. Our 2 guides: Alvaro and Joachim were ready to go.
At the base of the volcano, we got split into 2 teams:
Team 1: Our guide Alvaro with 1 from Czech Republic ( you know who); 1 from France ( you know who ), and 2 from Ireland.
Team 2: Guide Joachim with a couple from Brasil.
We didn´t understand why at the beginning but half way through we get a radio call from Joachim saying he is going back to base as the Brasilians had thrown the towel. At that time, Alvaro explains to us that they had done the split purposely, knowing that Brasil wasn´t going to make it ( through previous experience ). It left us with CZ and FRA hand in hand, and IRL still in it.
By the last 3 km, the Irish were feeling it and were asking for more breaks... No sign of fatigue from the last 2 teams. In fact, we wanted more!
After taking a break, the Irish decided to call it a day. Too much Guinsess the previous night.
1km to go and CZ and FRA are battling
it, following the guide who was on a mission to get to the top as quickly as possible to take advantage of the good weather conditions while we could, get to the crater, see and feel the volcano and head back down before we get into snow and rain storm.
It was a close call. CZ and FRA make it to the top together, the only 2 left from the team. Incredible. The reward was the sensation you get once you are on or near the top. The ground starts vibrating through your feet, you see the smoke vividly and the lava spitting out of the crater. Suddenly you feel so small in front of an amazing scenery. Nature at its best! After a challenging climb of 2847m, you are overwhelmed with satisfaction of achieving it. CZ and FRA had done it!
We stand up there after having had some doubts of making it, the feeling is immense. There are no words to describe it. After taking it all in, taking some pictures and videos, and admiring the scenery all over the region, it is time to go back. 2 and 1/2 hours down, we are shattered. Still, we have
to go. What keeps us going is a nice bottle of red when we get back to the hostel. We have to keep going.
It snowed heavily and rained but the way back down was a race against the weather. We were given a kind of a very thick nylon sheet which we used as a sledge to slide down the valleys. It was great fun! A bit more to walk, struggling against fatigue, wind and aching muscles, we make back to our minibus where we find our 2 Irish guys who didn´t make it to the top. Telling them about the whole journey made them regretful, but that wasn´t the intention.
Back at the hostel, we were absolutely soaked from top to toe and the shower was most welcome. Not to mention the dinner and the long awaited bottle of red wine.
Together with Renata, that day made it number 1 in our list of activities. So far.
Until next time.
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Alan
non-member comment
lemons!!
haha - that made me laugh about the terrible loss of such great fruit!! Well done on the climb - looks well worth it! Nice one!!