DAY 1: Doubt and clouds
The whole adventure started in doubt: There was no information about the situation in the national park after the terremoto, the bus terminal was full of Chileans traveling home after sleeping in the terminal, ... After the necessary entry and exit stamps we were dropped at Anticura (not even a pueblito ... there was nothing there). The weather was typical for Chile: clouds and a bit of rain. We went looking for the guardaparque: It turned out to be a grumpy man who thought that the whole world had collapsed (or at least 80% of Chile) and that it was totally irresponsible to go in the park. There were the doubts again: turn back, camp for 1 day and wait, ... Luckily we decided not to go back immediately and the administrator of the camping and the guy at the entrance convinced us that it was perfectly safe. A german guy that just returned from the trek took our last doubts away.
And off we went: 1000 m ascent, deep erosion gullies, a lot of wet forest, clouds and mist all around ... No opportunity to take any pictures.
After 3 hours of climbing up (and meeting a very friendly Suisse couple on the way) we arrived at the deserted refugio el Caulle. We lit the fire (after Dries attempted to cut a dead tree), dried our clothes, started cooking and expected to be there all alone. A nest of mice in the refugio convinced us to put up the tent anyway and for the best: it was just getting dark when two Israelians turned up. They had been lost in the woods for 3 days and only now found back the way. One had lost his trekking shoes, the other's pants were ripped ... Lesson learned: take a map, stay on the track and take enough food (they had done neither)
DAY 2: Can I touch those volcanoes? Where are the baños?
Lying in our tent we heard a strong wind ... Would this mean all clouds were blown away? Indeed: we were greeted by a blue sky and an amazing view on the volcano Puyehue. The day before we had no idea that it was so close ...
Seen the beautiful weather we decided to change our plans and take the side trip to the top of the volcano. The views were worth the steep climb up for 100%. In the strong wind on the crater rim we could not stop taking pictures ... It felt like we could touch all those volcanoes in our 360º panorama
After the swift descent we walked trough an amazing landscape: a black lava river, an altiplano that resembled a desert, fumaroles, sulfuric stones and sand ... and nobody else than us to enjoy all that beauty. Our final destination promised to be good too: natural hot baths to relax our muscles. But where are those baños? We spent 1 hour looking for them (chased by tabaños) while they were actually only 50 m away from the place we started looking. The relaxing bath afterwards made up for everything! 
We were only just back in our tent to start cooking when we were surrounded by clouds. Only minutes after a thunderstorm started. Ever been in a cloud when thunder and lighting are roaring? A scary feeling!DAY 3: Ice cold water and bubbling hot geisers
The last leg of our trip included wading a knee high river. The water was ice cold and after only 20 seconds our feet hurt like a 1000 needles were stinging them. We could already see the smoke and vapor from far. The view on the steaming geisers, surrounding fumaroles, bubbling mud pools and red-yellow colored rock formations was incredible. Carefully making our way through this interesting area, we were tempted to take one picture after an other.
And than the inevitable: going back. On the way we found a perfect patch of snow, ideal for sliding down. A new sport is born: volcano rodeling ... only the Jenever was missing :-)DAY 4: How to get back
Once down there were no busses to go back. That left us only with our thumb to make our way back ... And after half an hour we were lucky: a pick-up stopped, we jumped in the back and went off to Osorno where we took the bus to Pucon.
No comments:
Post a Comment