Days 59 - 61 Pucon

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Pucon is an amazing place, with a beach on the lake and all kinds of outdoor excitement available from kayaking, hiking, treking canopy flights to zip lines. By far the most popular though is to climb the volcano (Volcan Villarica) which completely dominates the town with its towering, smoking top. We were here to climb it after hearing how much fun Ricks parents had had going up (and down) last year. We were very lucky that the only day we had available to climb it was beautifully sunny, we set off at 7.00 in the morning having been provided with crampons, ice axe, helmets and a plastic slide for getting down. The volcano is a twenty minute drive from town and at the bottom you have the option to take a chair lift to save your legs the first 400m of climbing which our guide highly recommended and we were glad to make use of! Our group was the first in the queue for the lift but we were overtaken by several others on the way up which took around 4 hours. We could have gone a lot quicker but had some slow people in our group. All the walking we have done and the advantage of having come from higher altitude was obvious and it was very pleasing to skip up while other people were struggling.

At the top you can walk along the crater a little but not all the way because the gases that are belching out are sulphurous and harmful. The views down over the lakes district and across to other volcanoes were amazing. The weather remained good all day with just a little cloud forming way below us to give the photos some perspective.

The way down the volcano is great fun though Helen was a little worried about it before we set off. You have a small plastic pad that you sit on and slide down steep channels in the ice using your ice pick as a brake and shifting your weight to steer. It was a little like a bob sleigh, or a water slide. After seven or eight slides we were back at the bottom with only a little way to walk back where there was no snow. We had been hoping to visit the local hot springs after the volcano but finished a little late and instead went to the beach to unwind. The next morning we were off at 11 for about 6 hours to Puerto Montt but really wished we had longer in Pucon, we could have easily stayed for a week. A really friendly fun town surrounded by amazing countryside.

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