Yes I can: today I climbed my first volcano! Since you need equipment (and a little experience) to climb, I joined one of the many tours on offer. Pucón's main street is full of agencies all doing volcano climbs, so I just had to pick one ;-)
The tour started early, around 6:30 in the morning (after the asado last night... ouch). The agency equipped us with everything: boots, helmets, crampons, ice picks, backpacks, jackets, etc. As soon as everybody had their equipment, we - six tourists and two guides - got into a van and were driven to the volcano's base.
There we had a choice: ascend the first 400 altitude meters via a dirt trail or a ski lift? I - along with the three other girls - chose the wimpy lift option ;-)
Once out of the lift, we got everything ready to start our ascent through the snow - including a tutorial on how to use ice picks :-)
During one of the first breaks on the slopes of Volcán Villarrica:
There were wonderful views all the way up; all you had to do was turn around to look down:
Before the tour, I talked to several people who had already done the volcano, and all of them said it was very tough. So all the way to the top, I kept waiting for it to get tough. Didn't happen - the guide set a really relaxing pace, and the 1000 meters in altitude difference were over in a breeze.
At the top, we had a beautiful view of another volcano, Lanín, which is located right on the border to Argentina.
But, most importantly, we got to look at the crater:
Beautiful, isn't it? Look at all those colors! And all the time, it kept giving off a steady stream of smoke. Awesome!
And of course, there's also me at the crater:
A funny story concerns the volcano's name. The Spanish version means something like "rich town", but the original Mapuche name is Rukapillán - the devil's home (named like this for the fire that could be seen from the town at night). What a difference - but then again, the devil's home might well be a rich city ;-)
After a while, we got ready for the descent. The descent really was the fun part of the day because we got to slide down the volcano on our butts. Have a look at all the extra equipment we put on for that:
And here are some traces of our descent:
Hilarious! But it was over way too fast of course ;-)
In the evening, I paid a visit to some hot springs nearby, Termas San Luis. They have at least 10 pools, most of them outdoor:
Soaking in hot water was the perfect relaxation after the volcano trip. Too bad it was cloudy, otherwise I could have added stargazing to the perfect relaxation ;-)
The tour started early, around 6:30 in the morning (after the asado last night... ouch). The agency equipped us with everything: boots, helmets, crampons, ice picks, backpacks, jackets, etc. As soon as everybody had their equipment, we - six tourists and two guides - got into a van and were driven to the volcano's base.
There we had a choice: ascend the first 400 altitude meters via a dirt trail or a ski lift? I - along with the three other girls - chose the wimpy lift option ;-)
Once out of the lift, we got everything ready to start our ascent through the snow - including a tutorial on how to use ice picks :-)
During one of the first breaks on the slopes of Volcán Villarrica:
There were wonderful views all the way up; all you had to do was turn around to look down:
Before the tour, I talked to several people who had already done the volcano, and all of them said it was very tough. So all the way to the top, I kept waiting for it to get tough. Didn't happen - the guide set a really relaxing pace, and the 1000 meters in altitude difference were over in a breeze.
At the top, we had a beautiful view of another volcano, Lanín, which is located right on the border to Argentina.
But, most importantly, we got to look at the crater:
Beautiful, isn't it? Look at all those colors! And all the time, it kept giving off a steady stream of smoke. Awesome!
And of course, there's also me at the crater:
A funny story concerns the volcano's name. The Spanish version means something like "rich town", but the original Mapuche name is Rukapillán - the devil's home (named like this for the fire that could be seen from the town at night). What a difference - but then again, the devil's home might well be a rich city ;-)
After a while, we got ready for the descent. The descent really was the fun part of the day because we got to slide down the volcano on our butts. Have a look at all the extra equipment we put on for that:
And here are some traces of our descent:
Hilarious! But it was over way too fast of course ;-)
In the evening, I paid a visit to some hot springs nearby, Termas San Luis. They have at least 10 pools, most of them outdoor:
Soaking in hot water was the perfect relaxation after the volcano trip. Too bad it was cloudy, otherwise I could have added stargazing to the perfect relaxation ;-)
