The Lake District - girls on tour!

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After an eventful nights sleep - one of the Ozzie lads came in drunk last night and puked over his bed, then went on a walkabout round the room leaving us all in fear that he was going to use someone elses bed as a toilet, but luckily his friend kicked him out before he had chance! - we are up bright and early on a mini bus on our lake district adventure. Start the day off with birthday celebrations for our driver Sergio and pick up four other Irish girls from another hostel. Nico our guide is loving our 8 person group - we´re 8 girls!!

Mmmmm Empanada´s

We head south of Santiago and stop at our first stop Pomaire, an ancient town with Inca origins famous for its traditional clay pots and money banks. This place is quiet and a bit ramshackled in parts dues to half the town being destroyed by a earthquake a few years ago. We stop here for an hour and take a walk round the streets and in all the pottery shops, then we meet back at the restaurant and sample a favourite Chilean speciality, the Empanada. They´re really nice, kind of like a cornish pastry, but the pastry is not as flaky and they have a boiled egg and an olive in them - think its for good luck or something!!
Onward bound and we make a stop at the Rapel Dam, a massive dam providing a water source for parts of southern Chile!
Then we move on to Pichilemu, where we will be stopping for the night. Pichilemu is great, its a little coastal town, with a lovely black sand beach and just what you expect a sleepy South American town to be like. When we arrive most places are closed due to their afternoon siesta, so we have a snoop round the town. Trek off down to the beach, though its not exactly sunbathing weather. Then we head up to the focal point of the town, a run down mansion that was actually the fist gambling casino in Chile. Though the mansion is run down - the locals can not afford its upkeep, they maintain the beautiful gardens of the mansion and its a nice place to sit and look out to sea!
We go back to the hostel and chill for a bit and are introduced to the hostels resident puppy, a white, blue eyed, husky puppy who is absolutely gorgeous!!! (I´m sure theres enough room to squeeze him into my backpack!!) Then its back on the bus to drive to the cliffs to catch the sunset, only as we leave the clouds come in and so we don´t get to see any sunset! We just get to stand on top of a cliff freezing to death - fun times!!! Though from the viewpoint we can see why this town is a haven for surfers, the waves are absolutely huge!! Back at the hostel we have a bbq, more birthday celebrations for Sergio and thats when the drinking games begin - only problem being that its pisco sour we´re drinking!! Not the best idea when tomorrows bus drive is our longest, 707km!!!!

Santa Cruz, you know you´re not that far

The Thrills were right Santa Cruz really isn´t that far! On our way to our next destination we make a stop off in Santa Cruz, to visit the Museo de Colchagua. This is the largest private collection in Chile, its owned by an arms dealer who was actually in the top ten list of most wanted criminals in the US. Basically, he dealt and sold weapons in Iran and apparently he managed to steal the blueprints of a helicopter from the US - making him a most wanted man and for that reason he can not leave Chile as he will be arrested! Didn´t catch a glimpse of the blue prints in the museum though!!!

Molten Magma!

So after our cultural and educational museum stop off its back onto the bus to our new hostel in Pucon. But before we get to the hostel we make a quick stopoff at the Aguaventura offices as we need to be kitted out with all the stuff one needs when you climb a volcano!!! Yes thats right tomorrow we will be climbing Villarrica Volcano, boasting an altitude of 2850 metres it is the most active volcano in Chile - the last big eruption being in 1992, but of course we're not mad!!!
We make it to our hostel and go shopping for provisions for volcano climbing then its bed as we have to be upat 6:30am - its killing me!!

Surprisingly i wake up, perhaps even more surprisngly i actually get and much more amazing is the fact that i have to wake up two of the other girls whose alarm clock didn't go off - for once i wasn't the laziest person! Hope your proud mum!!
So we get ready in our room, putting on about 6 layers each, its cold in Pucon, plus we'll be climbing at altidue and this volcano has snow on the top of it, so we're expecting to freeze!! We get picked up and arrive at the office and pack our backpacks, tie up our lovely walking boots and attach our gators. The waterproof trousers are going in the bag and so are the cramptons - the spikes we have to strap to our boots!!! We get given our ice axes and then its a 20 minute ride to the starting point! As soon as we step out of the car we're already above the clouds facing this massive volcano and already we star to doubt oursselves!! As ski season hasn't started here yet the ski lifts aren't in operation, so we have to walk the whole way to the top - d'oh!! We're given the old saftey talk on how to use your ice axes if youshould slip and fall - not a particularly pleasant thought! Then we start our mission and the further we get up the better the views get, the colder it gets and the harder it gets!!! At the half way point we have a little rest and the cramptons get fitted to our boots, thats when the walking starts to get icier and steeper. After a ferw more hours we stop just before a vertical climb infront of us and have some lunch in artic conditons, frozen sandwiches really are delicious!!! Its at that point we lose some of our team, the Irish girls and Michelle preferring the lure of the pub much more than a 2 hour steep, icy , cold climb to the top!!! Who could blame them really, but i decide to carry on! Half way up the vertical climb, i look back and see the girls on their way down and begin to think i've made a rather large mistake!!!! Finally we reach the top of the vertical, you'd have thought it would have been a relief, but when you get to the top and look up and see just how much there is still to climb, suddenly a beer becomes much more appealing!!! BUt i carry on, the artic winds begin to pick up and the ground is just pure ice,its so icy that my cramptons aren't even gripping into the ice and theres a chance i could slip!!! Slowly i follow my guide up and meet with another group, who are like commandos they walk so fast!!! Realising i can't keep pace with them and the prospect that to reach the top is another 2 hours and the conditons get worse i bow out gracefully with 2 others from the group!! I reach an altitude of 2500m though - pretty good going bearing in mind i've been walking for about 5 hours! So then we all turn back round and start the walk back, what goes up must come down. But when you're up a volcano whats teh best way to get down - sliding on your arse of course!!! We climb down the vertical slope and then get fitted with our sledging gear, an appropriately named piece of material thats fitted to your bum, its called a 'Pamper' mmm just like the nappies, though it doesn't really do a good job at keeping water out!!! So for the next 20 minutes we just slide down the volcano enjoying the view. When the snow runs out we get to the volcanic soil which we slide through and before we know it we're back at the beginning with the comfort of a car!!! We meet the girls then head back to the office for some well deserved beers!!!
But the best is yet to come, after a hard days volcano climbing what better way to unwind, than to go to the local hot springs!!! We arrive at 8:30pm and walk past about 6 naturally hot water pools, with steam rising from them all - though we're not really looking forward to getting into our bikini's when the outside temperature is below freezing! Somehow we find it in ourselves, and our efforts are rewarded, these springs are just magic, especially with a cold glass of beer - Perfecto!!!
We certainly had a good nights sleep that night!!

The Lakes

Back on the bus and we make our way to Valdivia driving past the lakes and stopping in a couple of small towns - one of which had tobe relocated as it was completely destroyed by our volcano during one of its last eruptions!!
On the road we're greeted by some rambling cows so our Sergio puts on the brakes, but the plonker behind us decides to accelerate and overtake us and instantly comes to a stop when he actually hits the cow. Its not a very pleasant sight watching a cow being run over and rolling in the road, i'm a bit too scared to look but we see the cow get up and cross back to our side of the raod to join his mate and he limps away - poor thing. Meanwhile the plonker is left in the road surveying the large cow shaped dent in his car!!!
We make it into Valdivia and head to the river to see the local attractions - the giant sized seals and believe me these creatures are HUGE!!! We have a wonder through the daily fish market and spot a jewellery seller at the end - funny that! He's selling Mapichan jewellery that can only be found in Chile, its rather unfortuante however that the earrings i decide to buy are a sign of fertility - mmmmmm!!!
Although the tour itself goes on for a week, we leave the others here as we have a flight to Buenos Aires already booked! So we all go out for our last lunch together and then we head to the bus station for an overnight coach back up to Santiago - joy!!
So thats the lakes done and dusted - lets just hope the cows ok!!

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Comments

[The great wise one]

Only one word
BRILLIANT

[The Sage]

Very Volcanic
Shame you dids not make the top, but a very good try, and lets hope no one is now eating cow pie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mum no 1]

Very Proud
Mum no 1 is very proud of you daughter getting up so early. All this culture seems very enjoyable.You did really well with your climb, I expect I would have gone further up but never mind you did your best!! Ha Ha

[White Whale]

Enjoyed
Many thanks very enjoyable, well worth reading

[mother number 2]

The great hill climb
What a feat you accomplished, really well done and as for mother number 1 thinking she would reach the top - not with her poor knees at present! Certainly a very busy time you had there. The hot spings sound just the thing after all your efforts on the climb. All sounded wonderful.