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Published: June 14th 2006
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Ok I wrote this ages ago but have finally bothered to upload photos!!! Here goes all the cities to now.
Left Bariloche for the cross border journey to Osorno and arrived there around lunch time. Unfortunately the information was incorrect and there were no buses to Púcon until the next day! No map in the guide book so guessed my way around town looking for the rumoured place with cable TV. Found it! Own room with cable TV, excellent as I needed some relaxation time after the dorm in Bariloche that sounded like a zoo due to the excessive snoring. Osorno is a nice town, no tourists at all. And first place with real sized supermarkets. Chilled out evening for the 10am bus journey the next day.
Arrived in Púcon mid afternoon and immediatelly hassled by a hostel owner, very expensive though at 5000 pesos so followed the guide book. The others were even worse so stayed in the first hospedaje I could find, only 3500 pesos and I was the only one there so whole half of the house to myself. Met a couple of Aussies in town for lunch then went on a trek to find the best
trip up the active volcano, Villarica. Bargain price of 27000 so planned to come back at 7am. Púcon is a small town but built for tourists so very clean, great restaurants and small shops. Found a Japanese place so was over the moon, but had to ask for chopsticks and was only one there, not sure they are ready for this kind of food down here. Just as I got to bed a gale started and kept me awake most of the night. It sounded like trees kept falling into the house!
Got up early and staggered to the tour place, assuming it would be cancelled due to the wind. I had heard of many people not making it to the top due to bad weather so didn´t want to help the chances of that by trekking on a windy day. I changed my trip to the next day but the others decided to go...! Went back to bed and then spent the afternoon at the hot springs, fantastic relaxing.
Much more sleep this time so back up early and readyish, still quite windy but much better. My group was 2 Brits and 4 Americans which helped as
both guides spoke no English, between us we could all understand though. We got kitted up with waterproof trousers and coat, walking boots and leg warmer types things, hat, helmet, gas mask (for the fumes at the top), crampons in our bags, gloves and ice axe. After a 40min ride in some tough terrain we arrived half way up the chair lift path. The chair lifts were not running as they are run by an Argentinian company... the nation known for it´s dislike of work so can´t be bothered to turn the chair lift on for 3 days of the week (the weekend!!). We walk for 30mins to the start of the actual trek, the hill is steep and the ground is loose volcanic rock so for every three steps up you have fallen down one step. We were all shattered and boiling by the beginning as the wind had died away leaving blazing sun. We continued to the next resting point which was about 40mins away, once again we are not sure if we can continue. It is a very tough trek. After 2 and half hours, much groaning and grumping we get to the beginning of the snow.
We get a full 20min break here to make sure we eat and have time to put our crampons on. Now due to the weight we can barely lift our feet! We practice falling on the snow and stopping using the ice axe, quite scary to think if we fail this we will slide down the volcano and die... We start the steady climb up the snow, zig zagging the whole way due to the incline. We stop once for about 5mins but this doesn´t seem enough. When we continue the heat and altitude hits be and I can´t breathe, great! I fall on the snow and take some paracetemol for the pain. Just as we are about to begrudgingly continue there are shouts from above. Someone has dislodged a boulder and it is hurtling towards us. The adrenaline helps us to move fast as the boulder is zig zagging so we have to keep moving different ways. It passes us and we shout to the people lower, if it had hit anyone they would have died. That adrenaline gave us the strength to continue though. 40mins later we reach a small cliff where we can rest a little more and leave out bags. The last 30mins are the toughest part of the climb and we are really struggling now, finally we reach the end of the snow and cheer. There is the volcano crater. We use our last energy to walk over and watch the smoke bellowing out, luckily not enough to need the gas masks. We listen to the grumbling and roaring and then lava shoots up in the air, fantastic but scary! Not everyone gets to see the lava! It´s almost like a dragon is hiding in there. We get about 20mins at the top then time for the trip down, even scarier than the trip up. We walk down the steep part of the volcano back to the ledge, then we take our crampons off and ensure all of our clothes are tucked in. In turn we each sit down and sledge down the volcano on our arses. The axe is supposed to slow you but obviously it failed me so I just hurtle down the volcano screaming. I only had two speeds, scary fast or emergency stop with the ice axe! We do this ride about 5 times, quite fun when I´m not out of control... Unfortunately one girl sprained her ankle on the fastest section so the rest of us had to walk down, that was even worse as we each kept slipping. Everyone holding their axe firm as it could be needed at any second to stop you sliding down the volcano into the rocks. Phew, finally off the snow and we can then walk down the rest of the way, slowly though as one of our group has the sprained ankle. Quite leisurely the rest of the way, just slightly tough on the knees. We get back down at 6.30, exhausted but proud. Only one girl from our group didn´t make it. We give back our sweaty waterproof clothes and head immediately to a bar for a congratulationary beer. Well done! Shattered I go to bed at 11, asleep in seconds.
I spend the next day pottering around town waiting for my overnight bus to Santiago, nice town but a bit too quiet for my liking.
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