Park National Villarrica - the snow chaos

The observant reader has of course long since noticed that our posts have "minimal" delays 😉. This post wants to counteract this. In San Predo de Atacama, we once again dealt with travel planning and realized that it was still quite a long way to Patagonia. About 2,800 kilometers. So a few more days of driving were ahead.

We were traveling really fast. Unfortunately, the sight of the sinking fuel gauge was not so pleasing. In between, we treated ourselves to a bit of culture and visited the summer house of the Chilean Nobel laureate for literature, Pablo Neruda. After two more days of driving, we reached the Chilean lake district. First stop, the tourist towns of Pucon and Villarrica, nice to look at but nothing more. Far more interesting was the constantly smoking Villarrica volcano in the eponymous national park.

In theory, there is a signposted hiking trail to a series of small subsidiary craters in the national park. In practice, we found that the path was covered in snow after the first few kilometers, turning the short hike into an XXL snow hike. Unfortunately, we didn't have the appropriate snow hiking equipment. The next morning, we were surprised by the view from the window: it had snowed, and not just a few centimeters. Our attempts to find the snow-covered lane failed. It got worse when Maggi threatened to slide down the slope. It was not a pleasant sight. Thanks to the wind and a huge rock, Maggi managed to get back on track. We then put snow chains on Maggi, which were once again stored in the most remote corner.

The funny thing is, after about 5 kilometers, Kai was able to remove them again, as the snow line had been reached. Before we set off for the Argentine border, we took a relaxation break in the thermal baths. Well, the border crossing wasn't that easy. We were once again caught in a sudden winter storm. And again, it was time to put on the snow chains from the truck and get ready to go. After a day of waiting, the border crossing was open again, and we set course for Patagonia.