Chilean Lake District - Volcano time!

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We moved north from Chiloe, hoping to get some warmer weather, but unfortunately our first few days did not bring much sunshine. We went to Puyuhue National Park, home to various volcanoes including Volcan Puyuhue and Volcan Casablanca. Because of the weather we were restricted in where we could go, but we still enjoyed some hikes and particularly enjoyed visiting a sub-crater of Volcan Casablanca. This was the first time we had walked inside a volcanic crater and despite the fact that it had erupted a long time ago and was now covered in moss and grass it was still a fun thing to explore.

In search of more sunshine we went a but further north to the University town of Valdivia. There is not a huge amount to do here but that suited us well as we unwound, caught up on emails and clothes washing and found a great cheap "locals" place for churrasco (steak sandwich) and local Kunstmann beer. Valdivia is situated at the confluence of several rivers and is close to the sea, so has a healthy fishing industry. We went to look at the port area and found a fish market accompanied by sealions keen to get a taste of the action. We also visited the interesting local history museum and lovely botanical gardens. However, the most exciting part of our visit to Valdivia was probably shaving Barry´s head!

The weather was excellent in Valdivia and we were greeted with more of the same as we moved on to the attractive touristy town of Pucon, on the shore of Lago Villarrica and overlooked by the impressive Volcan Villarrica. The main aim of our visit to Pucon was to climb Volcan Villarrica, which we did on our second day there. Unless you can prove your climbing/hiking experience (with a mountaineering club certificate or somesuch) you have to ascend with a guide. So, we went with the company Sierra Nevada (very good), and our guides led us in a group of 10 people or so at a steady pace to the summit. The walk was not very difficult, taking just over 3 hours in total. Some people in the group struggled quite a bit but both Barry and I felt we would have liked to have gone faster and then spent longer at the top, but that is the problem with going in a group! Still, we eventually made the summit and were rewarded with superb views in all directions, to numerous other volcanoes in the region and - most excitingly - into the crater of Villarrica (one of the most active volcanoes in South America). The sulphour and other smells were very strong though and so our time at the summit was limited to around 20 minutes - but it was so fascinating we could have stayed for hours. The trip down the volcano was lots of fun and much faster than the ascent. We were given plastic "diapers" (their word not mine) to sit on and we slid down the snow using our ice axes as brakes. This took us almost all the way back to the base where our minivan was waiting to return us to Pucon. Back at the Sierra Nevada office we were all rewarded with a cold Chilean beer. A great day!

After the fun of the volcano, we decided to stay a few days in Pucon as it had impressed us with its laidback atmosphere, good places to eat and drink and a nice 'volcanic' beach. One day we spent the whole afternoon on the beach, jumping in and out of the cold lake water and taking out a kayak for a bit of exercise. We also took a day trip to the nearby Hurquehue National Park. We enjoyed a long trek through the park, up a big hill to visit numerous lakes and ended with some German-style ´kuchen´- very tasty!

This area of Chile is incredibly attractive and a great place to spend time exploring and hiking. As we were so near the border, we decided to pop into Argentina for a few days (see next blog) but we are very keen to do some more volcanoes in Chile soon...

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Comments

[Stephen Paul]

great pics!
A classic post on the spoils of Pucon. Looks like Villarica was fuming mad that day huh? Too bad you missed the explosions of Llaima by 3 weeks! :( And yes, you are in Pucon, Chile. And yes, I am very, very jealous. :-/

[Ruth from Wales]

Indeed
It was indeed fuming, but fun! Hoping to get up towards Llaima in the next few days, so we will see if there is anything happening there now - I want to see lava!

[barrygahan]

What a great view...
you had for most of that trail!