From Argentina, we went back to Chile, to the volcano and lake region. After all the mountains, we could hardly wait to see the first volcano. And the region is full of, some still active, volcanoes.
On the first evening in Puerto Varas, an breathtaking view awaited us. From the lakeshore, we could directly see the first two volcanoes: Osorno - the little brother of Mount Fuji in Japan - and Calbuco. Calbuco last erupted in 2015 and covered the area with its ash layer, changing it in a way that there are hardly any tourist activities possible. Of course, we wanted to get closer to the new "mountains" and so we moved to the small village of Ensanadas, which is located between the two fire spitters.
We certainly wouldn't miss the hikes up to Osorno and so we spent wonderful days on and around the volcano.
But that wasn't everything. Further north in Pucón is the most active volcano, called Villarica. And there the biggest adventure awaited me: a hike up to the crater. Together with two Dutch people from my hostel, we booked a guided tour. On the day in question, we started early in the morning with three Spanish girls, two guides and an assistant. With fantastic weather, we climbed steeply uphill for five hours. With a helmet, ice axe and crampons, we fought our way through the snow. The view was gigantic, as we were surrounded by lakes, mountains and numerous other volcanoes. Once we reached the top, it was breathtaking. The crater, full of sulfur, was smoking carelessly. Fortunately, we also had gas masks with us, as the sulfur was scratching our throats. Quickly take a few photos and then it was time to go back down. We were allowed to slide down on pre-formed tracks on our bottoms with a plastic sled. We stopped with the ice axe, because we were going pretty fast. What a huge fun and what a wonderful day!
