Pucon - The Chilean Lake District

Following on from the momentum of completing the "W" we decided to trek up the active volcano "Villarrica" near Pucon. This involved arriving at the tour office at 4am! to receive our kit which included ice pick, crampons and a hard helmet to walk up the snow covered volcano. It took aproximately 4 hours of steady pace to reach the top. There was no lava visible, but we did get to see the huge crater emitting a continuous sulphur gas. The video also shows the vents which surround the crater and emit small pockets of the gas.

Trekking up in the morning sun

We made it

We were lucky to spend an hour at the top. Sometimes on a windy day the noxious fumes make it impossible to hang around longer than a few minutes. The best bit of the day then arrived - getting to slide down the volcano on our bottoms - down the carved out chutes, using the icepicks to (try to) control our speed. This made the walk up even more worthwhile! We were enjoying ourselves too much to bother getting the camera out, so unfortunately, no shots were taken of us sliding down.

The view at the bottom, after the morning's trek

We really liked Pucon, there are loads of activites to keep you entertained, and when the weather is so fabulous, lots of cafe bars to sit at, watching the volcano smoking away.

The view of Villarrica from Pucon centre

The next day, we relaxed with a walk in the Huerquehue National Park to see the monkey puzzle trees.

After a taste of danger, we chose to book to go white water rafting. We tried to book on the cowardly grade 3 course, but the tour operator basically told us it was for families, and since we had no six year kid in tow, we would have to opt for the grade 4. We were so glad that we did; neither of us had rafted before (Andyb won't cycle for fear of injuries) and we surprised ourselves at how much we enjoyed the thrill of crashing into the rocks and the waves. We even got to experience a "grade 4 and a half" rapid (though it could have been the guide bigging it up). It has all been captured on DVD, which can be seen on a t.v. near you soon! Andrew has now turned into an adrenaline junky, and has been toying with the idea of base jumping.