Pucón - Villarrica Volcano

On Monday we arrived in Pucón and stayed until Thursday. From there we took a bus to Puerto Varas in the morning.

When we arrived in Pucón, I had almost forgotten that we are in South America, because it could just as well have been the Bavarian Forest😂. Almost all houses are made of wood and the area is quite rural. Pucón is located in the "Seven Lakes Region". The city is surrounded by a beautiful landscape consisting of lakes, forests and volcanoes. In this region it suddenly became about 15 degrees colder than in Santiago, so we only had 10 degrees during the day.

For Monday and Tuesday we rented a car. We hoped for an off-road vehicle with which we could drive to the national parks without a tour, because the tours in Chile are incredibly expensive. However, there was only one car rental in Pucón, which only provided Suzukis without power steering. Nevertheless, we rented a car because it rained the first two days and we might have been annoyed with a long tour in the rain. On Monday we drove towards "Parque Nacional Huerquehue" and came across a deep blue lagoon with sister waterfalls "Los Ojos de Caburgua". Then we continued to Lago de Caburgua, Playa Blanca and Playa Negra. The last stop was Villarica, a city about 30 km from Pucón. Both Pucón and Villarica are located on a huge, beautiful lake.

On Tuesday we drove to Panguipulli, to the Huilo Huilo National Park and to Puerto Fuy. In the national park we took a short walk along two waterfalls.

On Wednesday we split up because Emily and I wanted to hike to the active Villarrica volcano. Only afterwards did it turn out that it could not be called a hike, but rather mountaineering. We wore spikes, got an ice pick, hiking boots and oxygen masks. Originally we wanted to take a chairlift, so that we would only have to walk 3 hours, but the chairlift was not running, so instead of 3 hours it became 6 hours. For 6 hours we walked over icy surfaces and snow at an incredible incline. Without spikes, we would not have moved forward a centimeter. The view was fantastic. When we turned around, we had a gigantic view of volcanoes and lakes. At the top, we could look into the crater. Unfortunately, we could not see any magma. The guide explained to us that it depends on the moon. During the full moon you can see magma. It smelled incredibly of sulfur, which is why we wore our gas masks right at the crater. After we could take a look inside, we took a short break at 2700 meters and put on an additional jacket and pants over our clothes. We also attached a mat to our behinds. We carried all these things in our backpack up.

After only an hour we arrived at the valley station, where we slid down the volcano on our butts. For the less slippery parts we had a plastic tray with which we could slide better and faster. The ice pick served us as a brake.

So far, the tour was one of the most difficult for me, because it was extremely steep. But the feeling at the top is always so overwhelming that you completely forget about the previous efforts.