From Santiago we headed south to Pucon. Pucon is a small touristy town surrounded by
lakes and volcanoes, it can get very busy in the summer, but in early spring
the place was almost deserted. Pucon is
described in our guide book as being the Queenstown of South America due to
number of adventure sports and activities available. Our main reason for going to Pucon was to
climb Volcano Villarrica which towers above the town. Unfortunately in spring the weather is very
temperamental in this part of Chile so we had allowed a few days in case the
weather was bad. On our first evening
there we met with the guiding company we hoped to climb with and were told if
it was raining the next morning not to bother coming in. I was hanging out for a sleep in so was
quietly relieved when I heard rain on the roof the next morning. Our first full
day in Pucon was pretty quiet we spent some time catching up on emails and
trying to send parcels at the post office (which is always complicated in South
America). Three street dogs (there are a
lot of dogs on the streets in Chile, half are owned by people and are left to
run wild through the day and the other half strays) decided that we wanted to
take them for a walk. They followed us
all around town and we only managed to loose them when we went and had lunch in
a restaurant. They seemed to be trouble makers, chasing after people on bikes,
barking at and annoying other dogs.
The next morning it wasn’t raining so we got up early and
went into the guiding office. The weather was still a bit iffy, but we decided
to drive to the mountain and see if the weather cleared. Unfortunately when we got there the clouds
were still coming in and out, the mountain guides recommended that we wait
until the next day as rain was forecast for later. This turned out to be a good decision as all
the people that tried climb the volcano that day (with other companies) had to
turn back due to the bad weather (and you don’t get your money back if you have
started the climb). Instead five of us
(myself, Chris, two Australians and a girl from Switzerland) decided to hire a
car and head to Huerquehue national park near Pucon. There we went for a day walk up to some lakes
and the monkey puzzle tree forest. There
was still a lot of snow at the top of the track and the lakes were still
partially frozen, with the rain and low cloud it was all pretty moody. After
our walk we spent some time relaxing in one of the many hot springs in the
Pucon area.
It ended up being third time lucky. On our final day in the Pucon we woke to
clear skies and a good forecast for the whole day. We headed to the office and got kitted up for
our ascent. During winter there is a ski
field operating on the volcano and when the chairlifts are operating you can
take a lift half way up the mountain.
However, the ski field had closed for the season earlier that week so we
had to walk all the way from the bottom....in snow the whole way. The guides settled into a steady slow pace we
all followed in a line behind. While the
climb was tough and my legs got very tired, I found I could keep up with the
pace. At the top the view was amazing,
we had a great view of all the surrounding lakes and volcanoes. Due to the wind conditions we were only
allowed on one side of the crater (to avoid the gas as the volcano is always
steaming) so we didn’t have a great view down into the crater. After a quick lunch we got dressed into our
sliding gear. This consisted of over
trousers and jacket to protect our clothes, an extra layer on our bottoms to
stop snow getting in (we referred to it as a nappy) and a plastic sliding disc
that clipped into the belts of our nappies.
In this get up we slide almost all the way down the mountain using our
ice axes as brakes when required. It
took us just over 5 hours to climb the mountain and under an hour to go
down.
After Pucon we made a last minute decision to head to Puerto
Varas in the Chilian lakes district. We
had originally planned to head to Bariloche in Argentina but decided that we
didn’t really have enough time to get there.
One of our reasons for going to Puerto Varas was to go canyoning. Canyoning involves walking, swimming,
rappelling and sliding down a river canyon.
We were dressed in very thick good quality wet suits but it was still
very cold. The canyon had very smooth
slippery rocks which made for great slides between rock pools, but it also
meant that it was very slippery I fell over so many times both in the water and
out. The river was running quite high
due to the recent rain this meant that the guides took a lot longer checking
the slides and attaching extra ropes when required. As a result that we took a
lot longer than usual and didn’t get back to base till almost 5 pm, instead of
1 or 2 pm. Apart from being incredibly
hungry (we hadn’t had any food since breakfast) I got very cold despite the
thick wetsuit. Canyoning was a lot of
fun but next time I’ll do it on a warm day in a warmer river.
The canyoning company recommended that we head to a place
called Cochamo and stay at Campo Adventura.
We had never heard of it, but though why not, so we jumped on the local
bus and headed out to a rainy Cochamo. Campo
Adventura have two eco lodges, one by the river (where we stayed) and the
mountain lodge further up in the Cochamo valley. The valley is meant to have amazing scenery
(apparently a bit like Yosemite) but due to time constraints and the lousy
weather we didn’t get up there. Instead
we spent a couple of days relaxing, watching the rain, walking in the rain, and
eating great food. Armin and Kurt, the
owners, were really lovely. Kurt had the
gumboots on hand when we wanted to go for a walk, while Armin brought us
awesome cake and drinks for afternoon tea (in addition to the yummy breakfast,
lunch and dinner). Would highly
recommend staying there: http://www.campoaventura.cl/.
Between our time in Cochamo and catching the ferry south
from Puerto Montt we squeezed in a boat trip on Lago Todos los Santos. The boat trip forms part of the boat and bus
crossing from Baroloche in Argentina, however we just did the part on the
Chilian side. The scenery was great (the
weather had finally cleared) however I won’t say the same for the staff/guides
on the boat. To be honest they were
pretty rude and arrogant and tried to tell us that we hadn’t paid for a return
trip to Puerto Montt which we had. We
eventually got it sorted. Unfortunately as this is the only company that runs
this tour on the lake they get away with bad service. We’ve met some really lovely and helpful
people in Chile but we’ve also come across some downright rude and arrogant
people it has been a bit of a strange mix.
