Blogs from Pucón, Araucanía, Chile, South America - page 18

On route to Pucon we stopped over night in Punta Arenas and the following morning we lurked around for an hour before we departed for the airport. We had to take a photo of Ferdinand Magallan, who discovered the Maggallan Straits, as Wendy compiled a school project on the straits in junior school(do you remember mom ?). Yes this was on the small camera so the pics gone too, thanks again Rob, shocker Robber. Pucon was a welcome change and to get some sunshine and it was very green, however(yes the however again) we were not done with the snow yet. Pucon is famous for its live volcano, Villarica at 2800m high, and of course we had to climb it. As the weather can also be unpredicatable and it had not been climbed in the ... read more

Leaving the lovely Rio de Luna hostel early on the 19th, our next stop was Pucon, known for its hot springs and the Villarrica Volcano. Arriving at lunchtime, we had plenty of time to check out the accommodation on offer before deciding on our home for the next few days, Hostel Geronimo. Having dumped our bags in our room, we were given a recommendation from the receptionist of a good tour operator so headed off to book our next excursion. Volcan Villarrica, an active volcano, standing at 2,842 metres dwarfs the little town of Pucon and, weather permitting, can be climbed in a day. Having decided to visit Chile at the last minute and mainly to climb Villarica we hoped that for once the weather would be on our side. Fortunately it seemed that we ... read more

4/17/07 12:09 AM Hi. Still getting caught up on weekly adventures. Pucón is a tourist trap for the wealthy outdoorsy types that Chile attracts. It’s a similar latitude to Oregon with similar climate, a great big lake to swim in, and a smoking volcano in the background. Me, Christina, Tiara, our friend Sara, and Tiara’s friend Chris who was visiting from Santa Cruz for 3 weeks, all went to Pucón with the intention of climbing the volcano which is a huge tourist attraction, and quite the endeavor with lots of gear including picks, helmets, gators, boots, boot clamps, etc, etc. We had been planning to miss our Friday classes, but lucky for us the students at La Universidad de Chile are pretty into rioting, so the campus was shut down Wednesdsay afternoon and didn’t open again ... read more

Our main reason for visiting Pucon, Chile was to climb Volcan Villarrica. Villarrica is one of Chile's most active volcanoes, and is one of only a handful of volcanoes worldwide to have an active lava lake within its crater. We decided to do the early climb, which only one of the twenty or so tour companies offers. We got up at 3:45 am and started climbing at 5:30 so that we could watch the sunrise from the volcano. The sunrise was pretty incredible, as we were well above the clouds by the time the sun was peaking up from the other side of the volcano. The lower part of the mountain is a ski hill, as you can see from the lift towers in the photos. It only took about an hour to climb past the ... read more

The beauty of travelling on your own is the flexibility to change your plans and do things that you never even thought of before. This what I did last week, while on the bus from Bariloche, Argentina to Puerto Montt in Chile. My plan was to catch the ferry the next day to the island of Chiloe. However, I got talking to two English girls called Natalie and Charlotte, who were also heading to Chiloe but travelling there the same day. So I changed my plan and went with them to Chiloe. We decided to stay in the town of Ancud and getting there from Puerto Montt was pretty easy, a simple case of catching a bus that went direct there. To cross the strait, the bus drove on to a really small ferry. It ... read more