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Published: October 26th 2009
The bus journey from Bariloche in Argentina to Pucon in Chile has to be one of the most beautiful trips in the world. For 2 hours wecruised around mountain roads going through lush forests, passing crystal clear blue lakes, past sheer granite mountains and finally through the snow covered mountain pass across the border. The small towns that lay on the Argentinian side of the border were just idyllic. They were all based around the amazing lakes, almost entirely made of log cabins in the forests and large birds of prey circled overhead. They were stunning.
I cant quite say the same for the border control point. When we pulled into the Chilean passport control site the bus had to be striped and emptied of pretty much every content. All the luggage had to be sent through an x ray machine and a sniffer dog was at hand to jump all the bags and the passengers. Those carrying food were quickly identified and either had to eat it or bin it. They do not let you take meat, cheese, fruit or vegetables into Chile. But somehow the sniffer dog failed to detect my salami and cheese sandwiches i had made for the trip. Maybe it was because my day pack was so far away from its nose, maybe he just wasnt hungry. The dog was so quick in identifying peoples luggage which contained something it shouldnt have and about 5 people had to empty their suit cases and back packs to show the border police their contents. We must have spent almost an hour here while the searched the inside of the bus and its storage areas below. Luckily they didnt find anything of interest, apart from some dried manky food in suit cases, and we were on our way.
Driving through the Chilean roads couldnt have been more different to the Argentine roads just the other side of the Andes. The first thing you notice is how flat the landscape is, the mountains were behind us and all that was left were lots of green fields, a few small forests, and one big lake. I already missed Bariloche and wondered if leaving was the right thing to do. The day before I left i pondered all day about what to do and where to go. The day i left I simply went to the bus terminal with no ticket or destination in mind and just got the first ticket that came along, Pucon it was.
Now the town of Pucon is really quite nice. You can walk from one end to the other in around 5 minutes, it is neatly laid out in a grid format and it had a nice feel to it. The buildings were nice and well maintained and resembled a ski resort. However, when your bus doesnt drop you off until gone 11pm and you have no local currency and no hostel to stay, things seem slightly different. There were lots of people at the bus station trying to sell you a room at their hostel for discounted prices, but i just ignored them, gout out the map in my lonely planet and set off for the cash machine. Considering i had all my belongings on me and was wondering around in the dark it felt relatively safe. I got some cash and checked into the Ecole hostel. The hostel was founded when a group of local people pooled their money together to prevent a development on one of the local parks. I think they literally paid for the park to be protected. Anyway, the hostel is all about living economically and they even go as far as suggesting guests share showers to save on water! Skye, where were you!!! Built into the hostel was a vegetarian restaurant which lonely planet describes as one of the best in Chile. After eating there for several nights i can say it was fantastic. The lasagne was good, the thai yellow curry was gorgeous and the nachos, oh the nachos, they were to die for.
So Pucon, it is sat one the edge of Lake Villarrica and about 25km from the Villarrica Volano. There is a building in the centre of town which has a volcano alert system which is run like a traffic light system. Thankfully it stayed green during my visit, but the volcano emergency exit route signs were slightly unnerving. So as you can imagine, a really nice town on the lake with a massive volcano over looking it, it was pretty spectacular. The main reason people come to Pucon is for the wide range of outdoor activities on offer here, the star attraction being the climbing of the volcano.
So there i was, on my second day in the tour office getting sized up for the equipment i will be taking on my volcano climb. The provided full goretex waterproofs, gaiters, an ice axe, a helmut, a back pack, a heavy duty harness come nappy thing and a small plastic seat. They did offer to provide walking boots but i decided to take my own, what a mistake that turned out to be. SO the next day i was at the tour office by 7am raring to go. Before i continue, this trip cost 45 quid and it is nt guaranteed you will make the summit. They have a very high drop out rate where people simply arent fit enough, if the weather comes in you have to turn back and if the volcanic smoke is too gaseous you have to turn back. If you turn back there is no refund. So much to my relief the forecast was good. so off we went, 6 of us with two guides to the base of the volcano some 1100 metres above sea level. On the drive there we drove up through the clouds and the base of the volcano was literally full of blue skys no more than 50 metres above the cloud line, it was stunning. the bad news was that the volcano was very active that day and there was a lot of smoke pouring out of the top. this almost meant that a summit would not be possibly, but fortunately the wind was on our side and blew it the other way, just. So off we went. the summit of the volcano is at some 2800 metres above sea level, so the days total climb was around 1700 metres. Thats over a mile straight up, it was going to be hard work. For 6 quid you could have got a chair lift up the first 600 metres of it. The base of the volcano is also a ski resort. Now i was feeling very energetic today and decided i wanted to walk the whole way. so after the guides trying to persuade me otherwise, as everyone else was taking the chair lift, and it meant one of the guides would have to do it with me, the let me do it. It was totally crazy walking up a snow covered volcano. i have never been on snow like this, it was brilliant. the only way you could walk up the first 600 metres was to follow other peoples footsteps, they kind of acted like steps. I was on great form and flew up the mountain and got to the top of the chair lift just as the main group was leaving. I had to wait around 3-4 minutes for my guide to catch up with me and then we set off in pursuit of the main group. It was at this stage he said i would need my ice axe from my bag. The side of the volcano from here on in was steep you had to go up in a zig zag fashion following the guide who was making foot holes with his ice axe. It wasnt one for the faint hearted. Now being scared of heights i thought i would hate this, but i loved it. however, the ice axe did come to my rescue around 5 times as my footing went and you get left holding on with the piece of steel dug in the snow, but it was all part of the fun. whats the worse that could happen, you would slide down a few hundred metres and have to walk back up. The views on the way up were incredible. being above the clouds all day made for some great photos and the nearby volcanoes looked stunning. It took us around 5 hours to get to the top. When we got to within a 100 metres of the summit we stopped and put on our full goretex gear. It had been warm climbing up, so warm i had a t shirt on for two thirds of the way. but at the top, with the winds and the altitude, it was freezing. it was this final 100 metres that we found out just how toxic volcanic gases are. when the wind blew our direction and sent the fumes straight at us, it hits your lungs and chokes you immediately. It was simply a case of stop, turn around and cover your face with your arms. Then when the wind changed we would carry on. But once we reached the top it was incredible. the whole crater was pouring with smoke and there were little pot holes around the summit that smoke was bollowing from too. and the views, the views were just unreal. sitting at the top eating lunch on top of ana ctive volcano after you have just climbed one mile into the sky to be on the summit of it was something special. it was such an achievement to make the summit, totally surreal to be on a volcano that in principle could erupt on you at any moment, but it was perfect. everything about it was perfect.
Now comes the fun bit, the descent. after struggling up steep snow covered slopes for over a mile in the sky, it is clearly not possible to walk back down safely. Que the harness/nappy thing. This was basically a heavy duty nappy that gets strapped to your waist and legs and protects your bum. A clear sign that we were going down this thing on our backsides. Then the small plastic seat, the seat of death, that you could sit on to get down faster. To begin with we were not allowed to use it, while we got the hang of going down and using the ice axe as a break. But after the first descent, which in all fairness scared the living shit out of me at the thought of it but turned out to be awesome, all hell broke loose. Out came the small plastic seat things and off we went. You picked up speed so quickly and so much snow would be flying in your face you couldnt see a thing, the result, a big crash. time for the steepest section, where we were strictly told not to use the plastic. However, with the old adrenalin pumping i pleaded with him and he gave the all clear for me to use the plastic. One of the other guys was going to use it too but had decided to watch me frist to see how it went. I can not tell you how fast i gained speed and after 50 metres i totally stacked it. The next 100 metres were spent tumbling down the side of the volcano, not being able to see where i was going due to all the snow in my face, going down head first, feet first, head first, rolling down, being bumped everywhere, it was the best 30 seconds ever. my main concern was not letting the ice axe hit me in the head, but apart from that it was a case of enjoy the ride. god it was good. I feel i am slowly turning into an adrenalin junkie!! So after taking 5 hours to summit, it took 5 minutes to descend. the last km back to the minibus was across snow that hadnt been compacted. now walking through this was a nightmare. when you planted your foot it literally plunged straight through the snow until it was at knee level. it was a hard walk back to the bus. And this is where i regret wearing my own hiking boots. depspite them being goretex and saying waterproof on them, this part of the day totally soaked them inside and out. it took two days for them to dry out!
So to sum it up, this has to be one of the best one day excursions in the world. It was quite simply the best day of my life. the sense of achievement in reaching the top from starting at the very base, the amazing views obtained from the slopes and the summit and the sheer adrenalin rush in coming back down, i dont know how you can beat this. i fully recommend it to anyone who is ever in the region.
After the highs of the volcano trek my trip took a nose dive. All of a sudden i felt flat, there seemed to be nothing to look forward to and in being honest i was bored and missing a job. i was fed up of staying in hostels, although the beds here have been the best yet with big pillows and proper duvets. i was fed up of living out of my backpack. but most of all i was fed up of being on my own. This time of year Pucon is really quiet as it is between the winter ski season and the peak summer season so the town and the hostels were pretty empty. I wondered if i would last the full 8 months i had originally planned. The answer will be no. It was after 7 weeks of being on the road that i decided to change my plans. I would no longer spend over a month in aus and i would no longer be spending over 2 months in NZ. It has all been planned out so I can return just in time to make my cousins wedding on February 13th. The new plan is 4 weeks in Aus, 4 weeks in NZ, 2 days in Hong Kong and then home.
Back to Pucon. As i had a cold i didnt really do much for a day or two, but then i got back outdoors and went on one mamoth mountain bike ride with a girl called Claire who is from the Isle of Man. Mum, I cant believe you dont know what IOM meant!! But with the IOM being close to Liverpool she was pretty much a scouser, so I called her our clur, in true Cilla Black fashion.Our bike ride took us 17 km along a dirt road, up and down many hills, the ups being bloody hard and the downs being damn right dangerous on loose gravel with tight bends at the bottom, to a beautiful series of waterfalls where we stopped and had lunch. From here it was a further 7km all uphill to Lake Caburgua, which is a stunning lake set up in the mountains. On the way there i would ride to the top of the big hills and then wait for our clur who was pushing her bike up. Now she was quite fit and active so you can imagine how hard this was if she was having to push. Once we got to the lake we couldnt resist but go in for a paddle. the water was bloody freezing. But being tired and crazy we decided to strip to our underwear and go for a swim. Well i say a swim, we lasted like 5 seconds in the water before running out. All the while the locals were just stood on the beach watching us like we were nutters. it was funny. they even took pictures of us later on!! from the lake we walked 5 km to playa blanca, which is literally a nice beach on the lake side. The path that led us there was boring so we decided to make our own way back and trespass through peoples gardens and walk back along the shore of the lake. When we returned to the bikes we had 25Km back to Pucon. Luckily the first 6km was all down hill and we must have reached speeds of around 30 mph. Some diggers over took us at the top and coming down we could have over taken them again. it was such a rush going to quick for such a long way. However, the next 20km were along roads which seemed endless. they were completely straight and no matter how hard and far you cycled you never seemed to reach the end of it. But after having cycled 50km, hiked 5km and swam in an ice cold lake, we returned, fell off the bikes and stumbled over the road straight into happy hour, perfect timing or what.
So that was my time in Pucon. The highs and the lows. Now i´m sorry there are no photos on this blog, but when you read my blog on Santiago and Valparaiso which I will post in a day or two, you will realise why!!
Like always, I hope everyone at home is safe and well. You are missed very much.
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Mum
non-member comment
For somebody who screamed all their way around Disney because of fear of heights you are doing pretty well!!