Around Volcan Villarica

Well ... after a bit of downtime in Santiago to get over the flights we jumped on an overnight bus south to Pucon, apparently the playground of Chile´s beautiful people. It wasn´t until we were about to leave that we found out why, they were all crammed onto a beach on the lake side catching rays while seeing and being seen. Meanwhile, we´d headed off on a trek round Volcan Villarica, a pretty active volcano within view of the town. No beautiful Chileanos here, for three days it was just Brett and Nick. A great trek to start the trip off. At the beginning it seemed a bit like we were heading round the ´naki, but once we hit the southside of the volcano there were stunning views out over the Andes. The days were hot, around 35 degrees, and water was pretty scarce. We got quite the taste for gritty glacial melt water for the 3 days. The volcano itself had some pretty funky glacier action all the way down the south side. Quite the contrast walking over lavafields in the stinking heat with so much ice just up the mountain a bit. The nights were clear and a red glow from the volcano could be seen reflecting off the steam coming from the crater. All in all good stuff and nice to get right away from anyone else first up. A quick rest and we were off further south to Coyhaique in Central Patagonia.

Glaciers on Volcan Villarica at Sunset











Sweet campsite on night 2