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Published: November 8th 2005
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Volcano Villaricca
She has a fair bit of girth to her We only really had time to visit one place in Chile besides Santiago, and when you scroll through the lonely planet to decide which tourist saturated place to go next, Pucon definatley was a standout....
After 5 short days in Venezuela at Isla Margarita, living life in the sun and sand, we decided that it was time to crack out the ¨sloppy joes¨ theres some aussie for ya, and head south to colder lands, Chile to be exact.
Santiago was great, saw a lot more of it that i did last time, b-dog dragged me to a house of a famous poet whose name escapes me, funnily enough...haha never have been much of a bookworm. Anyway after dinner one night we were taking a stroll to the hostel from the place we ate, with a litre beer in check when a massive police van pulled up next to us on the road. I thought to myself that it was bad luck for the poor sole that shot the president ( the arrival of the police was that dramatic) and carried on my way before the long arm of the law got me by the elbow and dragged me toward
View from the Top of the World
The view from about half way up Volcano Villaricca the paddy wagon for a luxury night in a Chilean jail. Thinking that this was probably not going to be the best night of my life, i pleaded with the man to let us go, apparently its illegal to drink on the street, which Chile is the only country that it is illegal in i think. After a few man tears and begging he let us off with a harsh warning.....lucky.
The next night it was off to Pucon on the coche cama, those that know the cama know that its good, its like a bus hotel, the seats are very big and plush, and they recline all the way back to ensure a good nights sleep, you even get a attendant to tuck you in at night with a nice drink and a smile, all for the bargin price of $30 for 10 hours.
We arrived early in the morning and were suckered into going to a hotel suggested by a tour guide at the bus station, so after getting in the taxi and bridie breaking the drivers tail light with her turtle bag, apparently she didnt like the look of the guy, we drove completley out
of town and to a place that wasnt even built yet and were told this is where we would be spending the night.... hmmmm no.
That day we booked a trek up Volcano Villarrica, a 3500 metre active volcano, which apparently is the most active that it has been in years....great news. I know that everyone is thinking that i have bad luck with natural disasters, i narrowly missed hurricanes in New Orleans last year, mudslides in Costa Rica, nightclub fires in Buenos Aires, Hurricanes in Cancun twice this year and in miami also, but i put all that aside and happily told the tour guide to sign me up.
The day began early and from our window in our hostel we could see the giant cleary and the task was not going to be simple. Previous days in the town the volcano was covered in cloud and we couldnt see the peak, but today it was clearly a giant that towered above the clouds. We drove as far as we could toward the volcano before the snow covered the road, and looking like total tourists with all the gear we had supplied from our tour company made
Me and the Lady
Me and gaz got down to business at the hot springs..... us out to look like a dutch family on vacation. The hike took us around 4 hours to get to the peak, we stopped a couple of times to admire the view and take photos but essentially it was a hard trek in the snow at angles of easily 60 degrees. Any type of fall would end up in you snowballing and sure death. Ended up that out of all the tours going up that day we arrived first, which we were very proud of. Great experience though, getting to the top and seeing lava and magma spewing everywhere across the insides of the volcano, definatley worth the trek.
Going down however was a different story, the whole time we were going up, we kept seeing these slides that would go for varying lengths down the mountain, and were wondering what their purpose was. We soon found out that to get to the bottom of this great beast you had to slide on your ass all the way down on these slides. Good for some, because the suits that we were given has a slippery square attached to the appropriate region to protect from the cold and to aid
The Beast
This is what we looked at every morning...it terrifed us until we completed the task in getting down the slides efficiently. My suit however didnt have this adaption, and it would seem that i was surely going to not be able to do this manouver, or come anywhere close to doing it....
We sat down on the cold cold ice, and this is also about an hour past schedule because bridie thought it was her duty to take on the role of volcano social co-ordinator, and felt compelled to talk to everyone on the way down from the peak who was still making their way up, she was telling them about the hard struggle she had getting to the peak and how it was such a great experience and blah blah blah, this moment will be in her autobiography.
As we were sitting on the ice, a special kid from up above ( probably dutch ) thought that it would be a ace idea to roll a snowball down from the peak, which by the time it hit timmy straight in the back was the size of a small car, and it took down the big fella, who was rolling around in pain for quite some time after the event. So we
Free Popsicles
The group was impressed by the stop for free ice blocks saddled up for the ice slide and the first one went quite well, but after the 5th and 6th time, my butt was so cold it became unbearable, it felt as if i had the biggest wedgie when all it was was ice that had somehow made its way into the netherregions. Not a good experience trust me. I had to walk to majority of the way, but im sure in the end it was character building.
Got woken up this morning by the air raid siren that goes off every day to say that everything is A-OK and that the volcano isnt going to explode.....now this is just me being stupid BUT, wouldnt it be a lot easier to not sound the siren and keep all the tourists who have no idea about this routine calm and not thinking that attack is coming from the Germans???
So that is where i leave you all for now, having a blast, next stop is Buenos Aires to see mother and Bruce to find out what great times they have been having without us there, surely no moments as great as me not being able to feel my ass, still
My old school (enlarge)
Many people wonder how i got so smart....well people here you go.... today.... Hope all is well wherever you are would love to hear from you so drop us a line....Nick
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milo
non-member comment
CRIKEY!!!
Mate that is the schitt!! believe it or not you are great in writing your experiences..crack me up..you are living life, i read your dads message about coming back to oz and getting a real job that was funny but what you and tim are experiencing..hell no-stay on the journey..CARPE DIEM