Vulkan Villarrica

Villarrica is the most active volcano in all of South America, about 2800m high! You can see the smoke rising from below. The volcano is not closed off, so if you're lucky, you can see liquid lava.

You can only climb the volcano on a guided tour, which you can understand when you see the kind of people who attempt it. It's definitely a money-making machine. The cheapest provider I found charges 85,000 pesos, which is about 115€. Approximately 500 people venture up the volcano daily during peak season. It wasn't as crowded for me as it was for others who made the effort on Tuesday. Nevertheless, it was still crowded on the way.

We had to meet at 06:30 am at the tour operator. We were given shoes, a helmet, and a backpack. We all put on our gear and then took the bus to the national park. Once we arrived, we had the option to take the first 400 meters of elevation by ski lift or by foot. The lift costs an additional 10,000 pesos, about 14€. Of course, the lift is for wimps. 8 people decided against the lift. One Swiss, one Chinese, 5 Israelis, and myself. We started off with 2 guides. They already told us that the beginning and the end would be the most challenging. We were the last group and the guides set a pretty fast pace. I thought I would die if we kept running up the whole mountain like that. The past few months in Asia have really taken a toll on my strength. But I was still in the front group. When we reached the end of the lift, we had a short break, which the Israelis turned into a long one, as they would do throughout the entire hike. If they said 5 minutes break, they took at least 15 minutes because they had to take photos of everything and everyone and then leisurely eat and drink. Finally, when we could start, there was a briefing on how to navigate the snow and ice that we would encounter. Again, they didn't pay much attention and I now understood why there was one guide for every 4 people. There's a small glacier on the volcano, so we were constantly walking on snow and ice. It's very dangerous for inexperienced hikers since the slope is quite steep. Armed with an ice axe, we continued. We took a shortcut to save some time. The pace was now a bit slower. In my opinion, we could have gone a bit faster, but it was still pleasant. We made good progress and passed several groups. However, due to the long breaks, we were always at the back of the crowd moving upwards.

50 meters below the crater, we had to stop. Here, we left our backpacks and took out our gas masks. Carrying a backpack was forbidden for the last stretch. So, I put the camera around my neck and was ready to go. As expected, the slowpokes started another photo session. Eduardo, our guide, was already quite annoyed and we started moving slowly ahead. Eventually, everyone caught up.

At the top, the smoking hole awaited us. Impressive! Unfortunately, the lava level is currently very low, so there's nothing to see. Nevertheless, it's a breathtaking sight. I don't even know how to describe it. I hope the photos give you a small impression. The view over the surrounding landscape is just amazing. Eduardo explained to me all the things we could see. Among other things, we could see a lot of other volcanoes. Even the second most active volcano was within sight.

Then we went back down to our backpacks. Inside our backpacks, we had the equipment to descend the mountain. We were going down on our butts. So, we took out a pair of pants, a jacket, a kind of diaper, gloves, and a butt sled from the backpack. Then there was an explanation on how to brake using the ice axe. And off we went into the ice chute. The first section was quite steep. Here, we didn't use the plastic sled yet, but slide down on our butts. It was a lot of fun and we all had big smiles on our faces. At the next section, we wedged the plastic sled under our butts and off we went. We continued like this section by section. This was truly the most enjoyable part of the whole tour. Unfortunately, it went by too quickly. When we reached the bottom, my butt was wet. The snow is quite slushy at this time of year. Eduardo told me that most of it will be melted by February. But it was also 25 degrees down there. So, having a wet butt wasn't so bad. Now, we had to wait at the bus for the rest of the group. They only came down half an hour later. Luckily, there was someone selling cold beer in the parking lot. Then we returned, and I have to say, the tour was worth every penny. I would definitely do it again. You just have to be lucky to get a good group and not end up with a loser team like mine.