CLIMBING VOLCANO VILLARICA IN PUCON, CHILE

11. March – 14. March 2011

It was cold and raining when we got to Pucon in Chiles Lake District. We had some problems finding the hostel where we had made a reservation and were walking around in the rain for a while. But once we found the hostel "El Refugio", we were welcomed very friendly by the amazingly nice and friendly hosts Dave and Tanya. THANKS!! I think besides the great things we did in Pucon, I will mostly remember the nice time in the hostel.
Since it was raining pretty much all day, I spent the time mainly on the couch in front of the fireplace – computer in my lap, a cup of hot tea in my hand and the dog to my feet. Life could be worse. At night we had a barbecue at the hostel. Surprisingly the meat was that good that even I liked it. It definitely doesn't happen often that I really enjoy eating meat.
The weather still wasn't great the next day but good enough for an easy four hour hike to a waterfall. The walk wasn't very exciting since it went mainly along a gravel road. But the last half hour walking through the forest and the waterfall itself were very nice.
Sunday it was time to climb volcano Villarica. The snow and ice covered volcano is 2847m high and it's fairly easy to get to the top. I cheated a little (to save my energy) and took the ski lift up to 1800 m. There it was a walk up many switchbacks for about one hour. Then we had to put on crampons to walk over the ice. The weather was perfect – no wind, a few clouds, no rain, not too much sun. It could not have been better – especially after three days of rain and clouds. There were a lot of tour groups on the mountain and sometimes it looked like ants walking up the mountain. After about four hours of walking uphill we got to the top of the volcano. The view of the surrounding landscape with several lakes, forests and volcanoes was awesome. And being able to look inside the smoking crater was great as well. After hanging around at the top (where it was quite cold while standing around) for too long, we started our way down. This was the fun and easy part. With plastic sleds we slid down most of the hill – so much easier than walking up. We only had to walk down the last part. It was a wide trail and I used the extra energy - that I somehow often have at the end of a hike - and ran down. When getting back to town we were welcomed at the travel agency with beer while returning all the gear. After organizing our onward travels we enjoyed a big meal and a beer after a good days hike.
Since Ruediger is only here for five weeks and doesn't have as much time as Micha and me, we decided to travel south the next day. Otherwise “El Refugio” would have been the perfect place to hang around for a few days.