Lakes, volcanoes and.....rain (Lake District, Chile)

After a great weekend in Santiago, I headed south on an overnight bus to the Chilean Lake District, where I would be spending the next ten days or so exploring one of the most picturesque parts of Chile, an area full of snow capped volcanoes, huge lakes, thick forests and fast flowing rivers. My first stop was the small town of Pucon, which sits almost 500 miles south of Santiago on the shores of Lago Villarrica with the imposing Volcan Villarrica towering over it. The town is a great base for outdoors adventuring, with numerous tour companies offering climbs of the volcano, canyoning, white water rafting, kayaking, and mountain biking in the surrounding countryside, so I ended up spending a week here, staying at the fantastic Tree House Hostel in the centre of town.

Volcan Villarrica (2847m)

My first impressions of Pucon were that it was rather like a Swiss mountain ski resort with most of the buildings being attractive wooden chalet-like structures and lots of Germanic looking cafes and restaurants serving a mixture of Chilean and more central European fare. On wandering down to the lake, however, I also saw a slightly different side to the town when I was greeted by the sight of what felt more like a Mediterranean beach resort as sun bathers crammed on to the small rocky beach on the lake shore to soak up the sun and swim in the lake, while bars just back from the lake offered up happy hour drinks and loud music - quite a contrast to the sleepy mountain village feel of the rest of Pucon!

Pucon 'beach'

With the Volcan Villarrica looming over the town so prominently, I couldn't resist the temptation to get straight on with climbing it the following day, and booked an ascent with Summit Chile, one of the many companies which take groups to the summit every day. After an early rendez-vous at their office, our group of six climbers was driven to the start of the ascent, at the bottom of a series of chairlifts which serve a number of ski slopes during the winter months. Three of us eschewed the option of taking the chairlift up the first few hundred metres of the climb and preferred to walk the whole way, so our group split in to two and we set off up the climb. I was grateful that the company I'd booked with prided itself on keeping its groups small, as we saw some other groups with up to 30 climbers in them, which I imagine allowed for less of this sort of flexibility.

On the way up the climb, ice pick at the ready

After around two hours of climbing, we caught up with the rest of our group and continued on above the snow line, treading carefully on the thick snow given the steepness of the slope. Although we did not require crampons, we did each have an ice pick in our hands, ready to thrust it in to the snow should we slip and fall at any point (fortunately none of us did). It was tough going as you needed to concentrate hard on following the steps of the person in front of you and make sure you kept your balance despite the slippery surface underfoot, while towards the top I began to feel the altitude gain take effect so had to be sure to drink plenty of water. As we climbed, we began to get better and better views of the surrounding countryside and could see numerous lakes, rivers and at least five different volcanoes in the area, aided by the fact that it was a gloriously sunny day, something I took for granted at the time, but was very grateful for given the way the weather was to change in subsequent days.

A last rest before heading for the summit

The final ascent

Finally, after just over four hours of steady climbing, we reached the summit and were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the Lake District, not to mention the fact that we were now standing on the top of an active volcano! Once we stopped walking we quickly layered up as it was quite cold at the top once we had stopped moving, but we were able to spend over an hour at the top, eating our lunch and taking in the surrounding views and the volcano itself. Our excellent guide Claudio told us all about the volcano and walked us round the rim to get a better view down in to the crater. In places, the smell of sulphur emanating from the crater was almost unbearable, but that only served to bring home the fact that this was an active volcano. The last major eruption was in the 1970s, but on the way up we'd seen evidence of the destructive force of the lava flows (including the remains of a ski lift), while Claudio pointed out the sight of a former settlement on the other side of the volcano which had been completely flattened by that eruption.

Made it!

View to Volcan Llaima and Volcan Lonquimay

Covering up from the smell of sulphur

The crater

And then came the descent, which was fantastic! Not for us a steady trudge back down the mountain, instead we were given small sleds to sit on and were shown how to slide down the mountain with only our ice picks to use as a rudimentary braking system as and when we needed to stop! The snow covered section of the mountain which had taken around two hours to climb took only around twenty minutes to descend as we whizzed down on the snow. Given that it is now the height of the summer, the snow unfortunately stopped after a while and we had to resort to walking the rest of the way, but it was great fun to do at least some of the descent at such high speed.

The descent!

I had planned to spend the next few days of my time in Pucon doing a three day, two night trek in the Parc Nacional Huerquehue, and so had spent some time looking in to hiring a tent and some cooking equipment so I could set off on my own in to the park the day after the Villarrica climb. However, after getting chatting to a couple of Israeli travellers (Efi and Yaire) who were planning a similar length trek in another nearby national park, Parc Nacional Villarrica, I agreed to go with them instead, figuring that it would be more fun (and safer) to be trekking with a couple of other people rather than on my own. However, our plans clashed with a major 100km three day trail race that would be taking place in that park, so we decided to delay our trek for a couple of days rather than having to side step several thousand runners on the trail - while I resisted the temptation to see if I could snag a last minute entry to the race!

We therefore set off on a one day trek in Parc Nacional Huerquehue as a bit of a warm up for the longer trek, catching an early bus out to the park gates from Pucon and then walking for around eight hours along the Sendero Los Lagos, an 18km trail which took in five different lakes in the park, and offered great views back to the volcano I had climbed the previous day. Stopping for lunch at one of the lakes, we were able to have a quick swim and cook some steak on Efi's camping stove, before catching a bus back to Pucon in the early evening.

Lago Trinculo, Parc Nacional Huerquehue

Lago Los Patos, Parc Nacional Huerquehue

After spending the next day on my own mountain biking to a nearby waterfall (the Ojos de Caburga), we reconvened in the evening to buy supplies for the next three days and to sort out transport to the national park. Fortunately, Efi and Yaire had their own  tents and cooking equipment that I could share so I no longer needed to hire extra equipment, while splitting the cost of food and snacks three ways proved a lot more cost effective. The trek we would be doing would be a section of the Traversia Villarrica, a slightly longer six day trek that we would be picking up around half way along the route. 

We awoke the next morning to the sight of thick cloud and signs that the perfect weather of the last few days might have changed, as evidenced by the fact that Volcan Villarrica had now disappeared from view and the temperature seemed to have dropped by about 15 degrees. Undeterred, we caught our transfer to the national park and after a short wait at the park office to see if it would open up to charge us the park entry fees (it didn't) we set off.

Consulting the map at Parc Nacional Villarrica

The Traversia Villarrica was supposed to be a particularly good trail because of the great views it afforded walkers of both Volcan Villarrica and Volcan Quetrupillan, but we were to be denied by the increasingly heavy cloud that surrounded the hills around us. By the afternoon, the weather was getting steadily worse, and when we stumbled across a CONAF (the Chilean national park authorities) tent in the depths of the park shortly after lunch the resident park ranger warned us that the weather was only likely to get worse and that the forecast for the following day was for persistent rain. Despite this, we decided to press on as we were all loaded up with food and supplies for three days and felt hopeful that the weather might yet change. 

Walking the Traversia Villarrica

We continued to gain altitude during the afternoon as the path cut across the shoulder of the lower slopes of the Volcan Quetrupillan, and as we did see the weather continue to deteriorate. By now we were walking up in the clouds so the views of the surrounding landscape were close to zero, and we then began to be battered by increasingly heavy rain and strong winds. Fortunately, just as we were getting a little fed up with the conditions, the path began to descend down out of the clouds and we were greeted with the sight of Laguna Azul, a large lake where our first night's campsite was situated. Here we camped alongside several hikers also doing the trail (an English couple who were walking the full traverse and four Chileans from Antofagasta) and agreed to reassess our plans in the morning once we'd seen what the weather was doing. 

The viewpoint for Volcan Quetrupillan - oh well!

Laguna Azul, our camping spot on the first (and last!) night

with Yaire and Efi at the end of day one

When we awoke the next morning, the conditions initially looked favourable, but by the time we'd had breakfast and packed away our tents, persistent drizzle had begun to fall. I was quite keen to press on and try and complete the trek, but both Efi and Yaire were keen to double back and take a path out of the park that would mean we could be back in Pucon that evening (I don't think they're so used to rain in Israel!) so I slightly reluctantly agreed to head back with them.

As it turned out it did rain heavily all day (just as the park ranger had predicted) and so it was probably the right decision to cut our losses and head home that day. It was slightly disappointing to have to retrace our steps, but after around five hours walking in the rain we made it out of the national park. We were still some distance away from the main road and any means of getting back to Pucon, but we managed to find a friendly farmer who agreed to drive us back to the main road from where we could catch a bus back to Pucon. While it was annoying that the weather had thwarted us, I have been blessed with fantastic weather both in South America and in Africa over the last three and a half months, so I couldn't really complain too much, and it was quite nice to be back in the warm and dry of my hostel a day earlier than expected.

With the weather showing no signs of improving in Pucon, I decided to head further south in to the Lake District and caught a bus to Puerto Varas, another lake-side town about five hours south of Pucon, where I've been based for the last three days. The weather has been marginally better, although as I write this blog, there is torrential rain falling outside! Puerto Varas sits alongside the second largest lake in Chile, Lago Llanquihue, and is also overlooked by a huge volcano, Volcan Osorno, or at least I'm told it is - it's been shrouded in cloud since I arrived so hard to say for sure!

Volcan Osorno (probably)

On my first day in Puerto Varas, I visited Parc Nacional Vicent Perez Rosales to see Lago Todos Los Santos, a beautiful lake with towering hills on all sides, and Saltas de Petrohue, a set of impressive rapids along the Rio Petrohue, before catching a bus back to town. Yesterday then saw me get out on to the water with a day of sea kayaking in the Ralún Fjord, where the Rio Petrohue begins to flow out in to the Pacific Ocean. Along with five other English travellers, we kayaked for a couple of hours along the fjord in tandem kayaks taking in the views of the spectacular scenery on either side of the fjord. Unfortunately we were still dogged by cloud cover over the higher mountains so the views weren't quite as great as they might have been, but it was good fun nevertheless.

Ralún Fjord

We stopped for lunch at a remote farmhouse on the side of the fjord where we were given a warm welcome by a Chilean family and shown around their farm. The farm is an hour  away from the main road so visits to the nearest town are only undertaken once a month, with the family relying on wood from the surrounding forests for all their heating, while they were only connected to the electricity grid ten years ago. They also make their own cider with a very old looking contraption for crushing apples!

The farm where we stopped for lunch

After another couple of hours of kayaking down the fjord we reached the small village of Cochamó where our journey ended. Before getting on the coach back to Puerto Varas we all braved the icy cold waters of the fjord for a very quick and very cold swim! 

Our swimming spot

Later today, I'm heading down to Puerto Montt, my last stop in the Lake District, and the place from which I'm catching a flight much further south to Patagonia tomorrow lunchtime. I'm really looking forward to getting to Patagonia, not only because its supposed to be spectacular place to visit, but also because Alex and Rosanna, my brother and sister, are flying out from the UK to spend the next two weeks with me there. I've not seen them since October (other than via the wonders of Skype) so it will be great to see them again and share the next part of my adventure with them.