In the "little south" of Chile - shingle houses, garden fences, kuchenes and berliners

From the colorful port city of Valparaíso, we continued south to Pucón. There, we hoped for a volcano ascent and beautiful nature again, which Santiago and Valparaíso could not offer us.

In Pucón, almost every bed was already taken, so we ended up in a dorm at the "Willhouse Hostal" ... DISASTER is still a mild term for what awaited us there. Although it is high summer in Chile, it often rains heavily, and the Germans, who founded Pucón, therefore only built steep-roof houses in this beautiful spot, of course neatly separated from the neighbor with a garden fence (there were no garden fences anywhere in the countries before, that's why they caught our attention again here). Will, the owner and builder of Willhouse, must be a person with unbridled optimism to own the only flat-roof house in the city. You can probably imagine that all the ceilings, walls, and floors in the hostel were soaking wet, and colleague mold was the fifth resident in our 4-bed room! In addition, there was no space anywhere, the kitchen was occupied at all times by cooking-crazy Israelis (who only travel in groups of 15 or more) or Asians (who never travel without their electric pan and rice cooker) (please forgive these stereotypes, but IT WAS EXACTLY LIKE THAT!) and 4 chairs for 30 beds just doesn't work out. I took it all with a sense of humor and tried to make the best of it, as we had booked 6 nights, but Tömmi became more and more miserable and found everything unbearable. So the only solution was to spend as little time as possible in the hostel, and so we booked the villarica volcano climb for a day with 100% guaranteed good weather and a rafting tour on the Trancura River for rainy weather. On the other days, we made trips to Huerquehue National Park and the hot springs on our own. Pucón itself didn't have much to offer, but it did delighted us gastronomically, there was a German bakery and many cafes that enticed us with "kuchenes" and "berliners" (the Spanish plural -S shows no mercy). On Thursday, it was slightly delayed to the Huerquehue National Park. We didn't know that buses only run twice a day, one very early in the morning and one at 1:00 pm, so we had to sprint through the park in a hurry to catch the last bus back. 3.5 hours uphill to a chain of lakes with short stops at waterfalls and 1.5 hours of brisk walking downhill ... relaxed hiking for volcano ascent looks different, and of course, my knee painful again from hopping over rocks and tree trunks. But we're not on a coffee tour here, so the next day we set off for Villarica with a perfect weather forecast. Our hiking group was mixed and we were all highly motivated to reach the crater summit and see the magma. It should be noted that a good weather forecast cannot guarantee anything, as the volcano does whatever it wants. On some days, it emits so many toxic sulfur fumes that you can't get to the crater, or the wind blows the sulfur cloud in the wrong direction so that you can't even start the ascent. However, we were already very surprised that our guides did not show any urgency in the morning when they handed us our equipment and we wasted almost an hour searching for shoes in an untraceable size between 37 and 38, which a Brazilian girl insisted on (by the way, the lady gave up after 30 minutes on the mountain, which was definitely not because of the shoes!). However, I must say that Tömmi's and my rental shoes were not comfortable at all, mine at least still had a profile, Tömmi's were completely worn out, but we didn't want to waste any more time. So we arrived at the cable car at the foot of Villarica as one of the last hiking groups, and the guides pointed out the fog clouds to us, which were moving very quickly towards the summit of the volcano. However, I was highly motivated to reach the summit, as it had never worked out in Ecuador, at some point the volcano god Pillan, worshipped by the Mapuche, had to be nice to us! The first few hundred meters of altitude went smoothly, we followed our guides in a single file, halfway up, we were taught the proper use of the ice pick, and while all the other hiking groups were already putting on their crampons, we were still walking on the ice in our rental boots, or rather, in Tömmi's case, "waddling" with his profile-free shoes like a penguin! 

Meanwhile, I was the last girl left in the group, all the others had already given up, although it had not been strenuous at all until now, and I was still full of energy, finally standing on an active volcano and seeing magma. If a part of our Galapagos crew had not shown us such great photos and videos, I wouldn't have been so ambitious ... but I was so enthusiastic about the stories and photos that I REALLY wanted to go up there! Unfortunately, I soon noticed that the visibility was getting worse and many hiking groups were already retreating. Our guides urged us to hurry, as the fog had become so dense that we could no longer see the route and the crevices in the ice, which could be life-threatening. Tömmi and I endured another 15 minutes of brisk walking uphill, but running with crampons and the strong wind were so unfamiliar and exhausting for us that the first guide left us behind together with a Canadian and a Japanese. We then fought our way a few more meters uphill with the second guide and a Greek, but the visibility was now at 0% and even the last hiking groups still remaining with us turned back. When the guide told us that there were only 10 more minutes to the summit, but we wouldn't see anything up there and definitely had to use the gas masks, which can only be used for a maximum of 10 minutes of walking, the disappointment was infinitely great, but the retreat seemed reasonable. So I shed a tear, but in the next second, I was happy again because we strapped on our sled pants, swung onto the sleds, and slid down the Villarica. Awesome, who can claim to have sledded down a volcano! But at the end of the ice field, the disappointment returned because there was fantastic weather there and at the lake, but the volcanic summit was completely fogged up by now. However, my knee, which was already damaged, made itself felt again during the descent, but the car was quickly reached. Those who actually made it to the summit showed us photos where you could only see a white wall, what a pity!

Back in the village, we enjoyed the bright sunshine on the shore of Lake Villarica and indulged in self-pity about another failed volcano ascent.

On Sunday, we had another highlight waiting for us, rafting on the Trancura River. Since our rafting tour to Machu Picchu, I definitely wanted to go rafting again, and the Trancura offered itself because it had class 5-6 rapids to master. Tömmi hardly objected to my water action plans, except for the usual excuse that he is not insured for extreme sports, but I no longer accept that excuse on our trip! On that day, there was nothing more meaningful to do anyway because it was raining, once again. So we put on our wet neoprene suits and jumped into the rubber boat. Together with 4 inexperienced rafters from Israel and a fearless guide, we formed a great team. The first rapids were a lot of fun and were definitely larger than on the previous rafting tour, but in between, we didn't have to do much and could just drift, which suited our Israelis just fine because they weren't so keen on paddling. To keep it from getting boring, we were allowed to get out for a moment and jump into the river from a rock, great! And then we had to get back in and fish the shocked paddlers out of the water. When the wild insults and blame started between the guides and all the people were back in their boats with paddles in hand, we continued. The rapids were a lot of fun and we definitely had a better time than in Mendoza, but we had to make sure not to capsize. To prevent an epidemic of head lice and athlete's foot during the current holiday season, every pool visitor must first undergo a body search before jumping into the chlorinated water. When the lady saw my toenails, which were still blue-black and bruised, she exclaimed "Dios mio" (my god) and asked who had done this to me. My answer that it happened during hiking was met with an eye-rolling "Ai, los Extranjeros!" (Oh dear, the foreigners), and even my hippie hair band, which originally came from Valparaíso and was now completely matted, was looked at shaking her head, but we got the health certificate and were finally allowed into the cool water! Argentina has already taken away our desire to come back in the short time we were there, outrageously expensive prices and outrageous fees for ATM withdrawals made it easy for us to move on as quickly as possible. Buenos Aires and Patagonia will get another chance in a few weeks, but in the meantime, we will enjoy the non-touristy Paraguay!