The Volcano speaks

It has been awhile so lets try to bring you up to speed quickly.

On March 29th we set out to climb the volcano in Pucon. It is called the Villarrica volcano but it is closer to Pucon. We left our hostel to catch a bus at 6:45am and the bus did arrive at 7 to pick us up (we were wondering about whether it would actually be there or not). Over to the main office in Pucon to be suited up and the dozen of us were off.

There was a large group of about 8 from Spain, three girls from Germany and an American mother who was doing the climb on her own while her husband stayed with the kids for the day (nice!). We got to know Jan pretty well during the day - she was down here with their 14 year old adopted son from Chile.

It took about an hour to drive to the start of the hike which was at about 1400m above sea level. Here we took a ski lift up to 1800m where we started the hiking with about 5 other groups also doing the climb that day. The first half hour consisted of climbing though volcanic rock that became more granular the higher we went and the steeper the slope became. At 2000m we took a 30 minute break - everyone had a big drink and took a couple of layers of fleece off.

The next portion took us up to 2400m which we covered in a little less than an hour and there were a number of people that would have done the stint in two segments if they had the choice. One of the girls from Spain had to stop for about 20 minutes as the altitude was getting to her a bit and another girl from Germany wasn´t having too good a time of it. At the rest stop she noted that she thought she was in better shape than this but I think the altitude affects different people in different ways and at different times as well.

The next portion was on snow and I thought during the break the guide would tell everyone to put on the crampons we had all been carrying. But that wasn´t the case. He just said lets go, gave a a short schpiel on how to stop ourselves with the ice axe if we fell and started sliding down the mountain.

We climbed through the snow for about 40 minutes and then through volcanic rock for about another 15 minutes before the top. Just before reaching the top we could hear a thunderous noise, felt a little rocking and looked up on the crest of the top to see particles in the air along with a lot of smoke. This happened a couple more times before we reached the top. When we did our guide said the volcano was particularly active today. Kathryn was sure they had poured too much baking soda in that morning, and he didn´t want to take us over to the windward side.

We looked around for about half an hour, had some lunch and watch lava spew out the crater which was receeded within the ringed top about 20 meters. The smell of sulpher was pretty stong and could have become overpowering if we were on the windward side. A look out of the eastern side to see the volcanos and mountain tops in Argentina and it was time to head down.

We had read in the brochure that ´we´d start sliding down at 3pm´ and thought the ´sliding´was a mis-translated word. When we got back to the snow area we were given a short instruction on how to slow ourselves with the ice axe and how to stop ourselves if we got going to fast. There was a half cyclinder depression in the snow that you sat in and then yoú´d push off and start sliding down on your ass. This was no mis-translation.

The first descent was about 100 vertical meters. Not too bad and you never got going too fast. OK this is going to be fine. The next one started with the curve in the first part of the descent and as soon as you went around the curve you suddenly went from slowing yourself to trying to stop yourself. Every so often your axe would catch a piece of ice just under the snow and either the axe would be pulled out of your hands or your shoulder would be pulled out the socket. Kathryn opted for the former and leaving her ice axe at the top she slid the rest of the way free form.

Two more sliding descents and I decided it was easier and drier to walk down rather than slide anymore. By this point it was only a couple more minutes and we were back on rock. We descended to the chairlift, which wasn´t operating any more, and made our way back to the bus in about an hour.

After the drive back to the office to drop off our gear we were ready for them to call the bus to take us back. He called the other office said sorry they can´t send the bus, ít´s impossible´. A little chat about the fact the we´d already paid for the service and we just decided to take the town bus back. We got back to the cottage about 8pm, had dinner and went to bed early.

and some other stuff...

- had some fun chatting with a bunch of 11 year old school girls who called out "hable ingles?" (do you speak english) as we walked by. i glanced back and about 8 of them came running over. they just wanted to know where we were from and talk to us and were thrilled when kirk pulled out his camera. gave them each a canada pin which they put on their school uniforms and gave us each the traditional kiss on the cheek good bye.

- hung out for half a day in a mapuche (native) community. sat in the ruka (traditional hut), shared mate (a tea like drink), ate sopipillas cooked over the open fire and walked around their grounds. was a little limited as our spanish language skills aren´t really up to a full on discussion about their way of life. but we learned a bit about their community, land, and traditions.

- took the overnight train to santiago. paid to upgrade to reclining seats and it was the sweatest peach. not exactly full-on sleep but not bad for overnight travel.

-in santiago we´ve witnessed the crowds gathering as it was clear the pope was at the end. caught the last stage in the cycling - ´vuelta de chile´. been through a couple of art museums. spent a couple of days in the beach towns on the pacific coast. and tonight we´re heading out for some live jazz.

- bought sunscreen and 2 days later discovered it was actually self-tanning bronzing lotion. as a liberal user of sunscreen kathryn now has lovely orange splotches and kirk is definitely on the bronzed side (thankfully not as red as in the shrimp dinner photo!)

tomorrow is wine tasting and sunday is hopefully catching a soccer game. and then off to china (via tokyo).

ciao for now!