Blogs from Araucanía, Chile, South America - page 6

I alighted the bus in Pucón, retrieved my backpack and was then met by a smiling lady by the name of Silvana who would become my mother away from home. I had arranged a homestay in conjunction with my 4 week Spanish course and had hoped that it would be a memorable experience. I didn’t anticipate that in only 4 weeks I would be finding it difficult to part company with not only Silvana, her husband and daughter, but their whole extended family and friendship network. I was seamlessly integrated into all their family gatherings, whether it be family festivities or informal ‘drop-ins’ that would end up with the drinks being poured, dishes of food being prepared and songs being played. On occasions this even involved a guitar being placed in my lap whilst everyone eyed ... read more

The Lovely Off-Season My idea of heaven is the delicious off-season when gorgeous resort towns are blissfully empty and filled with residents enjoying their own towns. I'd arrived in popular Pucon in November and enjoyed a peaceful month and a half before the hordes of summer tourists inflated the population ten-fold. Fortunately, by then I'd discovered little pockets of beauty to hide away from the masses. I'd return the following fall in May and again enjoy the spaciousness of its small-town atmosphere. The charming little resort town of Pucon sits under the spiritual presence of smoking, snow-covered Volcan Villarica. It's built along the sublime, cobalt Lake Villarica with black, volcanic sand beaches and surrounded by jagged, forested mountains. Everyday, I took a long sunset walk along the landscaped lakefront promenade, the costanera, and stood ... read more

After staying 6 days in Pucon, a beautiful city at the foot of the Villarrica Volcano, we went back to Santiago yesterday at night (12 hours in the bus) for our last 3 days. During these 6 days, we did other sports, more or less extrem, like 60km mountain biking, a nice hike to a waterfall (Salto El Claro), canopy (zip-lines of about 100meters), and the most extrem: The ascension of the Villarrica Volcano, an activ Volcano which summit culminates at 2847m! We started at 1400m and ascended 1400 vertical meters in less than four hours! The crater of the volcano was very impressive: a huge 150m deep fuming hole! The way down was very very very fast and also very very very funny: we slid down on our bums! (because it was to steep and ... read more

Have any of you climbed a snow-covered active volcano??? I haven't so its on the bucket list!!!!! The snowcapped Volcano Villarrica looms majestically over Pucón at 2,840 meters above sea level. Climbing to the top is non-technical and, on clear days, easy. However, we had a couple of extra challenges. We only had 1 full day in Pucon and the weather forecast was rain (which meant snow up on the volcano) and there had already been heavy snow falls during previous days. Thousands of people make the climb each year, most of them in January and February, taking in the spectacular views of Volcans Llaima, Choshuenco, Quetrupillán, Lanin, and Lonquimay in the horizon. However, this was May and heading towards winter!! The plan was that the Hotel owner would wake us up at 6.00am if the ... read more

The Volcano: If there´s anything to guarantee childish whoop whooping and uncontrollable laughter, it´s sliding down the side of a snow laden volcano on a bit of plastic, with nothing but your feet and an ice pick to slow you down....amazing! In fact picking up exhilarating speeds was a given!!! Loved it! One of our volcano expeditionist pals, Mark from Wigan, got so good at picking up speed, or just not as good at applying his ice pick break, choose your perspective; that he flew right out of said flume. Luckily he managed to fly down and land in the same said flume, not before overtaking four other flume flyers that were in front of him. :)) The climb itself was hard work at times, just having to concentrate on nothing else but putting one foot ... read more