Pucon

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We are now officially back on the gringo trail, having arrived in Pucon. Pucon is a bit like the Wanaka of Chile - it sits on a lake, and has forests and skifields nearby. There are plenty of people at the bus station trying to get you to stay at their particular hostel or take their particular excursion.

One of Pucon´s major drawcards is its active volcano Volcan Villarricca, which belvins (like us) are able to climb.

We had heard people raving about the trip for quite some time. I was a little sceptical, since some of the travellers here had never seen snow before, let alone used crampons and ice axe. However, we met people who had stayed an extra 4 days, waiting for the weather to clear, so we took this to be a good sign and handed over our money.

The town hall said the volcano was on the lowest alert level. Apparently, orange means the volcano looks rather like a fiery pit of hell with a few earthquakes to shake things up a bit. Guides are still happy to take punters up there when it is orange. Red means a full on eruption and ´what are you still doing in town - you should be running out to the penninsula or the river of lava will swallow you´. We were green and good to go.

Decked out in full alpine gear, we gingerly stepped out of the minivan at the base of the skifield. Being tight arse kiwis, we were secretly glad the chairlift wasn´t working. It meant an extra hours walk in plastic boots, but we had an extra $8,000 Chilean pesos for beer money that evening. (It sounds like a lot of beer, but it only comes to around NZD$20).

The snow conditions were excellent and we marched on up like a group of fluro ants. The top was definitely brown pants territory. We were not greeted with lava, but could hear it whooshing away. The gas was terrible and we were well pleased to be the only group on the mountain with gas masks (and presumably the only ones playing out scenes from star wars). I was quite happy to be heading down once the obligatory summit pics were taken.

Getting down was definitely the best bit. We were given a pair of ´nappies´and pretty much bum slid the whole way down. It is someting like 1500 vertical metres. There were massive wipe outs, races, human bob sleds and many 25-30 year olds squealing like children.

The rest of Pucon seemed a little dull after all that fun and excitement. We went to hot pools, walked around a national park, blah, blah, blah. Ben saved a duck from certain death in the jaws of a street dog. We saved some pastries from going stale. That was about it.

On to the big smog - I mean the big smoke of Santiago de Chile.

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Photos

Sacrificial lambs?
That´s volcano stuff behind us, not clouds. Later in the day, others got to see lava. We were clearly too speedy.

Monkey puzzle trees
These puppies can be up to a few thousand years old.

Comments

[Fitch]

Nice photos!
Great photos and blog guys. I am enviously sitting at my desk in foggy London town reading about your adventures. Keep them coming! Ben Fitch

[Stephen Paul]

wow
Conditions there loook incredible, while most travelblogs and even pro photos of Villarica area lack flavor, yours are full of fall colors, puffy clouds and fresh snow. Too bad you couldnt see lava too!!! Nice work!