04-01-19: Vulkan hike

Today was a beautifully sunny day. We set out to see the rapids of Petrohué and go on a hike at Osorno volcano.

The rapids were as expected, very beautiful. The national park here is nice. An easy hike of about 1 hour takes us to all the highlights.

The hike at the volcano, on the other hand, is much more difficult. Walking in the volcanic ash is tiring and similar to walking on deep sand at the beach. On top of that, there are about a million giant flies that accompany us on most of the trail and constantly land on our skin. The problem is that these bugs bite, causing a little pain but no after-effects. In the shade and with a bit of wind, we have some peace. Interestingly, the flies disappeared in the afternoon. Maybe we should have started later.

The hike is a total distance of 13 kilometers there and back. It takes about 4 hours. The last 2 kilometers have an average incline of 25%. However, the views of the volcano and from the volcano into the valley are fantastic. You also have to cross two naturally cooled magma rivers.

Today was a successful day with many new impressions.