EPIPHANY:
All those adventures bring us to this past weekend…my trip to Pucón. CIEE takes all of us to Pucón and this had to be one of the best trips ive ever taken. We left Thursday night and drove for 10 hours to the south of Santiago. Pucón is a city in the Lakes region of Chile and it is a small city that is located right next to a volcano. Its latest eruption was in 1983, but the lava stopped flowing 3 years ago. I spoke to one of our guides who was in Pucón during the eruption and he showed me which way it flowed down the volcano and into the lake just barely bypassing the town.
We arrived early in the morning, and we were able to go to our cabins for a few hours before breakfast. We stayed on this beautiful area in cabins. It is called Resort El Dorado and they offered all CIEE students and family a lifetime discount…so if anyone wants to go let me know! There were lots of trees, flowers, and a little river. We were served breakfast (it included eggs!!) and then we went for an organized tour. We went outside of the city to an area with a waterfall and a little lake that had purely blue water. Then we went to see one of the bigger lakes around Pucón, “Lago Villarica.” After that we went for a short hike to see two waterfalls and we ate a boxed lunch together. Next they took us to some “termas” (hot springs). I had never been to hot springs before and they were amazing! Unfortunately Dante’s Peak was in the back of my mind for a bit of the trip…I was hoping not to be covered by lava while enjoying the hot springs. We went to the Termas Los Pozones. The termas were all right by a river (Liucura River), and we mainly had the termas all to ourselves. We stayed for a few hours- it was very relaxing and fun. A couple of us went to the river and jumped in (it was freezing) and then went back to termas (that made the termas bearable once they got too hot).
The next morning-really early- a few of us decided to do the “hike” to the top of the volcano. What did we expect? A difficult but not too difficult hike to see the top of the volcano. The man at the cabins said “todo el mundo” has done it—its not too tough. Hmm okay…I was ready for the 10-11 hour hike though. We got to the tour agencies office and they outfitted us with hiking boots, pants, and windbreakers. They also gave us backpacks but we had no idea what was in the backpacks. We drove about an hour to the base of the volcano. We got out of the van and they handed us each an ice pick…WAIT…I didn’t know this involved ice picks. I was a little scared at that point…I thought it was a hike. I had to admit though earlier I was wondering how we got past the snow on the top of the mountain. We had an option to hike all the way or pay a bit extra to take a Chairlift up the first hour of the hike. We split in half…I chose the chairlift because the first hour is supposed to be the most tiring part. After the chairlift our guide started up the mountain with us. We hike for about an hour or more and then we arrived at the snowy part of the mountain- the glacier. I really should specify that this “hiking” was pretty technical, more like hike-climbing than hiking. The trail was so unmarked and unclear that I never would have been able to follow it without a guide. It was very rocky and quite taxing.
We sat down and ate a few cookies and nuts right under the glacier. All I could see was one smallish wall of ice that looked like it went straight up…I thought that seems really far, how do we do this even, and where does the glacier end…it was a lot bigger than what I could see. Our guide then said okay girls (we were all girls to the extreme enjoyment of both our guide and all his other guide friends who loved to all make jokes and point it out…our guide called us his angels) get out your crampones. I think everyone can tell that crampones means crampons. We were like huh…crampons, really. They were waiting for us in our backpacks. Out guide strapped on our crampons and then gave us a brief lesson on how to use crampons. He also showed us how to use our ice picks in case of falling down the glacier. We started up the mountain on this little trail. It must have been about 2 hours of trekking up the glacier. It was the funnest thing ive ever done. I can’t believe I walked up a glacier in crampons. It was a lot of work and every time we stopped I had to take off my jackets and just be in my tee shirt I was so hot. It was amazing, looking down the volcano at the forest, the lakes, and the town while sitting on a glacier! I couldn’t believe my luck that I could be doing this…I was very very content.
When we finished crossing the glacier we had climb up a rocky cliff to the top of the volcano. The volcanic rock we had to climb up was very loose and therefore it was tough going, but we eventually made it. There was smoke and sulfur spewing up from the volcano cone. There was an amazing view, but I felt almost unnatural but also satisfied to be at the top. Surely humans aren’t supposed to be at the top of a volcano, but as I looked at what I did to get there I was extremely content and proud. After some time at the top, we headed back down. The climb down the rocky cliff was probably the hardest, because everyone was scared, and out guide decided to go faster than the group could. He was long gone and so I was the “new leader.” I helped find footholds and everything for those who were scared. When we got to the glacier our guide let us sit on our butts and slide down part of the glacier…it was pretty fun and exciting. Then we put on out crampons and walked down the rest of the glacier. Lastly we hiked back down the bottom part of the volcano…our guide once again was about a half an hour ahead of us the whole time (out of sight for part of it)…we definitely got the worst guide because the other groups had guides that helped them the entire way. I think our guide wanted to get home. Upon finishing we all had blisters and bruises from the boots and bruises, but I can say that I was happy even with all the pain and soreness. I felt very fulfilled and wished I could do it again (maybe after resting a while though : ).
The next morning (our last day in Pucón) some of us when rafting. I got to be one of two in the front most position of our boat…Matt and I set the pace for the rowing, and got the brunt of the water. To start off our rafting guide asked us if we wanted to do a balance test: for the balance test Matt and I stood on one side of the raft and out guide on the other, he jumped in and knocked us into the water. It was really refreshing and fun. None of the other girls in the raft chose to do it. They were pretty scared for the rapids but I was simply happy (in every picture I have the biggest goofiest smile). Our guide led us down some really fun rapids (they were class 4 and 5). Our guide was even invited to do rapid kayaking in the US in a few months. We got to a point where we had to pass a class 6 rapid so we all had to get out and the guide took the raft through by himself. We had to hike around the rapid but then they led us to a cliff. We got to jump into the water from the cliff! Then we got back into the boat and did more rafting. It was really fun, I got really wet, and I just didn’t want to stop at all.
I think I have rediscovered my calling: extreme sports. I can’t wait to see what I do next!!
Im adding here some information on the AMAZING meal we had at École, which is an organic, vegetarian restaurant in Pucon. I would suggest it to anyone (its also a hostel). It was the best meal I have had in Chile.
I would like to thank everyone for reading my blogs! It means so much to me and remember that I LOVE comments so feel free. I will add pictures to all these posts very soon!
