My 12th of March was surely as one of the longest days possible - lasting 40 hours in total. After boarding my flight in Auckland (for once in my life without extra security checks, hallelujah!) We flew for about 11.5hrs before landing about 4.5hrs before we took off! I'd watched our flight progress map with interest until we crossed the date line - yet another first for me. Safely landed at Santiago airport I yet again avoided much bureaucracy and was duly officially stamped into Chile. Entering the arrivals hall took me back to my Russia days, with the same melee of taxi drivers desperately trying to tout for business as there used to be outside the railway stations there. Fortunately I had pre-booked a shuttle bus transfer and so was soon speeding into the city through the similar slightly dusty streets and chaotic traffic and associated horn tooting as I'd experienced throughout much of the first quarter of my wanderings.
Santiago as a city has proved not to be one of my favourites, though by the time of leaving I had become more used to it and was beginning to mellow towards it. Its not the prettiest of cities and there are not of attractions sightseeing wise for me here. It does have one very big thing in its favour though: a metro stop called "Cumming"! With a station so named it certainly can't be a bad city! Having not fully come to grips with the city as I wandered around, I ventured up Cerro San Cristobal. Here a funicular railway climbs at an angle of between 45 and 48 degrees for about 500m until it reaches the top of a hill overlooking the city and surrounds. Looming over it stands a huge statue of San Cristobal guarding the city and acting as a religious shrine for numerous Chileans. I always like to look out on a city from some tall viewpoint to fully appreciate its layout and size and I was certainly able to do that here. It lies in a flat bottomed basin surrounded by some of the towering snow-capped mountains of the Andes, and although a seemingly everpresent light smog hugs the city blurring the outlines of the mountains it was nevertheless a wonderful sight, and I stayed for a while enjoying both the vistas and the relative calm and peace and quiet largely absent from the city below.
While in Santiago I also discovered I've returned to the system in public toilets whereby you exchange your money for your allotted ration of paper. I must commend the Chileans though for being far more generous than the Russians were with their 2 or 3 squares of Izal!!
Leaving Santiago (fortunately after I discovered that the local clocks had gone back one hour overnight marking the end of summer daylight saving time) I took the overnight bus to Pucon (pronounced poo-con not puke-on before some of you start!) and found the Chilean buses to be the best I´ve been on: big comfy reclining seats, complimentary snack and drink, steward service, blanket and pillow provided, a quiet smooth drive and an organised luggage for ticket swap. Needless to say I slept well on board and woke refreshed to the pretty town of Pucon. With mountains all around, the twinkling lake, hot sunshine, a welcoming and friendly hostel, and a laid back in its only little world feel to the town I spent a super few days there. The undoubted highlights were a trip to the local national park and a sunrise climb of the local volcano.
Catching a bus with a couple of other girls from the hostel, it took us up the scenic, narrow, twisty and in part steep gravel road to the entrance of Huequehue National Park. We then spent a super day there walking, chatting and enjoying the lakes. We set off walking, more or less following the Los Lagos trail. It was lovely and peaceful with lush green forest and soft ground strewn with fallen foliage underfoot. Leaving the almost flat calm twinkling Lago Tinquillco behind as we passed through sometimes tall trees, sometimes bamboos, sometimes monkey puzzle trees we collected Piñones ( a kind of pine nut) to snack on. After climbing up passed what were alledged to be waterfalls, though at this time of year there was barely a thimbleful trickling over the rocks, we got lovely views out over the lake to Mt Villarrica in the distance. Climbing yet more over tree roots and up steps we finally reached the crest of the hill before descending to Lago Chico. It was little and greenish and surrounded by dense trees and shrubs and looked beautiful. Further on again we came to Lago Verde. It was very green - certainly living up to its name- with reeds in the water and nestled as it was in a bowl of trees it was very pretty. Some of the numerous monkey puzzle trees had long ago fallen into the water and as they lay decaying in the shallows they looked positively skeletal or like some slumbering alligator waiting to attack its prey. We sat a while on one of the beaches before heading over to Lago el Torro. It was bluer with tall cliffs aswell as the tree clad hills and so we found a spot to have our picnic. As soon as we got our food out the bees, wasps and mosquitoes appeared! We were up and off in a shot and back to our little beach at Lago Verde where we happily whiled away much of the afternoon blethering and enjoying the sun until we had to go back for the bus back to Pucon after a super day.
The day of the climb up Volcan Villarrica I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 3:30. To make matters worse it was the second day in a row I´d had to do it as originally I was to make the climb the day before, but by the time we got to the mountain it was too windy and we had to postpone our attempt. I may get up earlier than I used to now, but 3.30 is way way too early to be fun - especially two days in a row! Having said that, what was to follow the rest of the day more than compensated. Transported to the base of the mountain by bus we all got kitted out with ice-axe, waterproofs, gaitors, crampons, helmets, hats, gloves and goretex "nappy" - more of that later! Still very dark we set out in a crocodile line our headtorches just giving enough light to see where to put our feet. It was soft, sandy and difficult walking as your feet sank into the ground. After about half an hour of walking constantly uphill we stopped, just as the first glimpses of sunlight were beginning to peep round the hillsides. We carried on further up and stopped againas the sun really came up casting a lovely glow and allowing super views from our vantage point down to Pucon and the lake below and of all the mountains round about. Zig-zagging on up the steep mountainside the soft soil and loose rocks made it even more difficult, especially when matched with the steep gradient and my thighs were beginning to protest! Up and up we went until we reached the ice-fields where we donned the gaitors, crampons, helmets and gloves before tentatively making our way up the ice and snow. We had again to zig-zag using our ice axes to anchor us. It took probably a good couple of hours to get over the ice and back to the lava rock. As we went up the loose scree and rocks and boulders it was sometimes difficult to find a path and we relied very much on the guides to keep us right. The rock was a distinctive red black colour and in one section we crossed a river of lava rock from the last eruption of the volcano (back in 1974). It looked a bit like petrified wood. Eventually, slowly, we clambered past the last of the rock-holes, cravasses and scree to finally make it to the 2847m summit. It was magnificent. The views across the mountains stunning, the lake and town far below, and the amazing volcano crater. It was so deep. Almost a perfect circle, sheer sides of orange, grey brown red and green stretching far below. The lava within couldn´t be seen but it could most definitely be heard. Gurgling and spitting and boiling away with great surges as it rushed against the crater walls. A steady line of steam billowed up and the stench of sulphur took your breath away if you got too close. Little pieces of muliticoloured mineral rich rocks twinkled around the lunar-like summit. Just fantastic. Preparing for our descent, aswell as donning the overjackets, helmets gloves and so on we´d discarded in the wake of the heat from the sun we also had the "nappies" to put on. Clipping round our waists and legs these became our personal luges as we slid down snow chutes on our bums using our axes as rudder and brake. Initially a bit daunting it was brilliant fun racing down round corners and over little bumps. A total of 4 slides of varying length and steepness, it was a quick, fun and exhilerating slide down. The only less than positive aspects were the John Wayne-esque walks and ´mildly ebarrassed toddler´ expressions as we tried to empty the excess snow from our nappies between slides - a Huggies seal they had not! But as we slid down dozens and dozens of people were struggling uphill further meriting the early start to avoid the crowds and to miss climbing in the heat of the day. Once clear of the ice we sped down through the sandy earth equally quickly. It was much easier going down, digging our heels in to the ashy sand and with the aid of gravity racing down at a rate of knots: it took me 5 1/2 hours going up and only about 2 coming down! A difficult but rewarding trip and a real highlight for me. It was just fantastic.
My final stop in Chile (for the time being anyway) before heading to Argentina was in Valdivia. It was an attractive enough river city just not quite living up to its billing in my guide book. Two rivers - the Calle Calle and Valdivia converge and the riversides were nice to amble along. With the Valdivia running into the ocean not too far away it still had that lovely fresh slightly salty sea smell at times. The real highlight of the city for me however was the wonderful market. A canopied busy stretch of stalls facing onto each other, one side backing onto the river, it was a real riot of colour and activity. All sorts of produce was sold: fruit, veg, bread, herbs and spices, clothes, plants, and fish of all sorts and types -fresh, smoked, sea urchins, mussels, shell fish, eels - you name it it was there. The fish stalls were alomg the riverside of the market and behind them the birds and sealions were desperately waiting and clambouring onto the decks to get left overs and scraps. It was a real smorgasbord for them and amazing to watch them at their fast food convenience store! With some of the fish being cooked on small fires in the vendors booths there were plenty offcuts being thrown back to the greedy marine crowd behind! One guy even had one sealion right up beside him and was essentially hand feding him! With so much going on it was a fantastic mix of colours smells sights and sounds and a great finale to my first spell in Chile.
