We weren´t planning on visiting Pucon, in the Lake District of Chile, but we are SOOOO glad that we did! Only an 8 hour bus ride from Vina del Mar (can you tell that were getting used to the long distance bus rides), Pucon is a town on a beautiful volcanic lake, perched at the base of the looming Volcan Villarica, an enourmous active volcano, which constantly spews sulferic clouds into the sky. We checked into a cozy little hostel in the town center, and spent our first day checking out the beach, not quite like the white sand of vina, rather a lakeshore with painful volcanic rocks instead of sand, but beautiful nontheless. The mountains in the distance shoot up out of the lake, giving it an incredibly beautiful backdrop. The lake was FREEZING, which were finding to be the trend, but nice to cool off after lazing in the hot Chilean sun. Our second day were were feeling really ambitious and decided to rent bikes for the day and go on a ¨leisurly¨ 40 km bike ride through the mountains to vist Los Ojos de Caburgua, a cluster of waterfalls nestled in the mountains. The ride was.... interesting, but so worth it. It was laundry day, so were were both wearing dresses, not quite mountain biking attire, but we made it work! The path was a dusty gravel road, twisting through the mountains, passing by several beautiful rivers, cutting through the farms and forests. 3 hours after embarking on our journey we reached Los Ojos... exhausted, but excitied. A path through the woods led us to the falls, 4 or 5 waterfalls falling from the mountain ledges into a pool of crystal clear water. A short way from the falls we discovered a small wooden sign for ¨La Laguna Azul¨, and decided to check it out. We are so glad we did, nestled in the forest we found a pool of the bluest water weve ever seen. The rocky ledges surrounding the pool dropped dramatically down into the earth, so the pool seemed bottemless. Looking down into the pool from above it looked SOOO deep, a crevass into the Earth, and clear all the way down. There was really nothing else for us to do but to JUMP IN of course. We stripped off our dirty sweaty dresses, luckily we wore bikinis (were really smart, or actually just lucky that all of our underwear were in the laundry). Taking the plunge into the Blue Lagoon was SUCH a rush. The water was icy cold and sent a shock through our weary bodies, waking us up for the long ride home. This is one of the most indescribable things weve ever seen. The water looked fake because of its bright blue color, it was like a private little paradise in the forest. HEAVEN. After our swim we hopped back on the bikes to pedal 20 km against the wind back to town. WHEW. We slept well that night! The next day we were surprisingly unsore, but spent the day being lazy, cathching up on journaling and sleep, and rebuilding our energy for the next days adventure. We woke up bright and early the next day... well actually it was still pitch black outside at 3:45 am when we rolled out of bed. We jumped into a van and drove to El Parque Nacional Quehuerue, where the massive Volcan Villarica burst out of the forest floor. Our guides, two cute Chilean dudes named Guillermo y Nicolas, fully equipped with long hippie hair, tans, and all of our other favorite things, gave us ice picks and headlamps, and we began our ascent in complete darkness, save only the eerie white glow of the moon, and the literally THOUSANDS of twinkling white stars overhead. A strange red glow in the distance caught our attention, I was certain it was a UFO, but Guillermo informed us that it was actually LAVA, spewing from a neighboring volcano... yikes. In the moonlight the jagged spine of the volcano cast creepy shadows agianst the mountain, and the crunch of volcanic rock echoed in the silent night. After 2 or so hours of hiking a bright blue glow crept slowly up from behind the volcano, melting the dark night sky into a brilliantly bright blue. Looking down from the volcano the mountains below us were covered in a sea of clouds, bathed pink and icy purple in the sunrise. The sky faded from blue to the most incredible shade of hot pink, weve agreed that it was definitely the most surreal sunrise ever, the colors were absolutly breathtaking. Once the sun was up, its bright light shone on the icy ledges, and they glistened like water... so beautiful. After several hours of hiking the wind began to howl and Guillermo became visibly distressed, concered that some in our group weren´t strong enough to continue up, having to pass over the narrow ¨ridge¨ reach the top of the volcano. Our group huddled in the lee of a pile of volcanic rocks, and Guillermo explained that he would only continue with the ¨strongest¨of the group... Jackie and I both held our breath and he counted off who he would allow to continue up, and who would have to begin the descent from the volcano. ¨Alaksa, Seattle¨ (as he referred to Jackie and I)... ¨you´re in¨. YAY. Jackie and I were the only girls, of 3 groups of hikers, who were allowed to continue up. HELL YEAH... thanks to all of our runs! 5 from our group continued up, strapping metal spikes onto the bottom of our shoes to help us grip into the icy ground. We crossed the ridge without incident, and continued to climb towards the summit. Unfortunately, as we neared the top, the volcanos sulferic outbursts began to thicken, and as the wind died down they hung stagnant in the air. Becuase of the toxicity of sulfer gas we had to stop just shy of the summit, but the view was incredible... and thanks to our tiny bladders we actually got to climb higher than anyone else on the volcano that day, as we had to hike up to find a rock to hide behind... you follow? The descent from the volcano was much easier than we expected... We slid down on our butts! Trekkers from the previous days had carved chutes into the ice, so all we had to do was sit down and slide, just like a waterslide! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Kinda scary, we were bombing down the mountain, which was REALLY steep, and our only brakes were our ice picks, which did nothing at all. We both caught some serious air on the bumps in the mountainside, our bums were pretty sore afterward! The hike was such an awesome experience, it has motivated us to hike a lot more on this trip, as well as vow to explore the awesome hiking around Seattle when we get home... who wants to come with us?
