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Published: November 1st 2011
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It took me only about driving up 5 one-ways and Charle going “Chicka jy moet aan die ander kant ry!” to learn that, here, they drive on the wrong side of the road and the steering wheel is also on the wrong side of the car!
We pretty much reversed all the way to Pucon, but we made it there and we both immediately liked the place, but we didn’t go there for the scenery, no, we had a goal! And that was to summit volcano Villaricca! Being as lazy as I am, I figured, nah, rock spider shoes, water and a waterproof jacket, we’ll be sweet! Hah! That’ll teach me to do better research.
The summit is only 2,847m, the temperature on that volcano is between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius and no, water is not enough! It’s a pretty technical climb and one of the physically more challenging things I’ve done. You get gear. And by gear I mean; a backpack, an ice-pick, crampons, a big plastic teaspoon (will explain), a red helmet with your name written in front, a plastic jacket and pants, as well as something they sexily call, a nappy.
The conditions are
pretty extreme and you walk roughly about 200-250m per hour!! Yes, really! It is too vertical and you have to zigzag across the mountain side at snail’s pace. At one point you turn sort of a corner and both of us, literally almost fell over! Cape Town does not have wind!!! That was the most insane, scary, thrilling wind strength I have ever experienced. We were completely unprotected and you really feel out of control.
Unfortunately for us, Villaricca is one of Chile’s most active volcanoes and we were about 250m from the summit, when the decision was made to turn back because of the sulphur levels. You can actually smell it and your eyes start burning. Both of us thought it can’t be that bad, but nothing we could say or do and had to turn back very disappointed.
The descent is pretty different and so much fun! You take the plastic nappy and put it on (like a nappy), then you get onto your plastic teaspoon and you slide down the mountain. The weird thing is, at some points the drop down is so steep, you can’t actually see where you going to go in the
next
2 seconds and you literally are airborne for a second or two. I loved it, until, as always, thought I was way clever and fell/roll/saw my butt, way off the path created by the guide and had to embarrassingly walk but up the ice to pick up my ice pick which serves as your brake!
Way disappointed we left Pucon to start our drive back South. The great thing here is that daylight lasts until about 9pm! You really fit in a lot! And because we decided to not be ourselves and completely over plan, we didn’t book accommodation the night after Pucon. And yes, we ended up driving to a ski-resort for possible accommodation, which ended being 18km of dirt road, starting out in daylight, getting there at dark and both of us, looking at the setting of “The Shining” and almost running out of there! It was the weirdest place ever! Two guys at reception and one of beat-up truck, which I could not allow my imagination to get a hold off.
Driving back through the woods, Charle just HAD to say “ooo dit lyk soos Blair Witch!”. The hairs stand up on my neck
even as I’m writing this….we got out of there and drove all the way back to Osorno (about 80km) refusing to stay in that eerie place!
On Saturday we made our way to Puerto Varas, which once again, people irritatingly call “The Bariloche of Chile”! I have not been to Bariloche, but honestly this place is so cool! So so cool!
Yes, the fact that it has a very strong German heritage and that we arrived there the Saturday night of Beerfest, might have something to do with it I was in my element!
Firstly, this is salmon heaven! They fish and farm salmon here on a very big scale. So we both had the biggest piece of salmon we have ever seen! Even! Woolworths can go fly a kite. They have no idea, this was as thick as steak and took up about 75% of our plates! It was huge.
Strawberry beer, Yes, really! They had it in that tent. Apart from the disgusting German food, I was in (beer) heaven!
Isn’t it interesting how beer suddenly enables you to communicate with Spanish speaking people and vice versa?
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