It’s been almost two weeks since the last post, two weeks with a lot of variation, everything from penguins to volcanos.
The first stop was Chiloé Island, an island mostly known for its Unesco-listed churches. And they’re hard to miss, at least the one I saw in Castro, the largest town on the island. It’s in the middle of the town, just next to the main square, and sticks out (but still fits in surprisingly well) with its Disneyland colour combination of yellow and purple.
But it’s not only the church that is colourful. The town is full of colours, especially the traditional palafitos, or stilt houses, just by the waterfront. The houses are beautifully tiled and each house has it’s own colour seemingly to not match the neighbours’. And when nothing matches everything does.
You might think that I had enough of penguins from the trip to Antarctica, but no, I was ready for more. And Chiloé happens to have a colony of two different species, one of them the endangered Humboldt penguin which I hadn’t seen before. The tour to see the penguins was only a short boat trip but we still got to see plenty of them, as well as pelicans, sea-lions, and even a few dolphins.
After Chiloé and a stop in Puerto Montt due to the bus timetables I crossed the border (pretty slow crossing as always into Argentina) to go to Bariloche. Bariloche is one of those places that all backpackers go to and say is amazing but I think people hyped it up a bit too much for me. Also the weather was apparently among the worst this spring with strong, cold wind so that made it a bit less enjoyable. It was still a nice place to walk around though and they have a lot of good chocolate.
One thing they do have though is a lot of local microbreweries so I made sure to have a few beer tastings. Most of the breweries don’t provide tasting trays but you can always ask for one of each, or at least some of them.
Next stop was supposed to be Pucón (back in Chile again) but it turned out that the most beautiful way to get there (and with the least backtracking) was via the town San Martín de los Andes. This turned out to be a great stop. The town was really cosy and had a beach with a great view of the lake Lago Lácar.
Eventually, after another slow border crossing (Chile is also always pretty slow), I got to Pucón and straight away you can see one of the main attractions in the town, the Villarica Volcano (top photo) with a pillar of smoke coming out of it. And it gets even better. It’s possible to hike to the top of it! I decided to do that and signed up for a tour. First day was cancelled because of the weather. Second day was cancelled because of other issues with the weather. But on the third day, which was my last chance due to a booked night bus the same evening, the tour finally happened.
The volcano is about 2800m high and we started out at 1400m. Most of the group (including me) cheated a bit though and took a ski lift the first 400 meters. 1km height difference is still plenty enough and the first bit was just rocks and dirt and not much of a view anyway. When the actual hike began it was all snow and ice. No crampons needed but the ice axes turned out to be very useful.
It took a few hours at a slow, steady pace and we were the first group to reach the summit for the day. Great views in all directions.
But the best view was down. The Villarica Volcano is still active and had its last eruption only three years ago. And you can stand at the summit and look down the crater, and even see the hole where all the smoke comes up. It used to be possible to even see a lava pool at the bottom before, but not anymore.
Then it was time for the descent, which was a lot quicker than ascending. Most of the time we just sat on our butts sliding down, using only the paths from previous butts and the ice axes to steer and break. Like the winters as a kid, except the “slope” happened to be a volcano and the height difference enough for both long and really fast rides. A lot of fun and a great way to end half a day’s hike.
Now it’s time for that night bus to Santiago.