PUCON: between lakes and volcanoes

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My Navimag ticket from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales is now confirmed. This means I must keep moving if I want to visit Pucon, Bariloche and Chiloė before departing towards Tierra del Fuego. I will have to skip Santiago this time.

Next stop was then Pucón, a major center of adventure tourism in southern Chile. Surrounded by several lakes and volcanoes, it offers all kinds of summer and many winter activities. Volcano Villarrica (or Rucapillan in Mapuche language) is not just the closest and most visited one, but also one of the most actives. Its last eruption was in 1971.

The overnight TurBus service from Valparaiso to Pucon went without any delays arriving at 9:30am. The weather was sunny and clear and we had a nice view of lake Villarrica and its Volcano (or viceversa). On the news we heard that a new 4,3 grades earthquake had shaked Valparaiso and Chile's middle region.

Finding a hostel was easy (once I had a map). I stayed at école which is also Lonely Planet's recommentation. Across the street are the offices of Summit Chile, a tour operator that runs excursions to the Villarica National Park and had a confirmed tour to the volcano's summit on the next day. Weather forecast: blue sky; I booked!

Lake Villarica and its black sand offer a nice sunset view, the rigth time for a Pisco Sour.

Pucon itself looks very much as a sky resort in the Alps. The swiss and german influence is visible everywhere. But when it comes to soccer chileans forget this and were very dissapointed with the result of the Germany-Chile test game (1-0). The general concensous at the bar: Chile deserved to score at least one goal.

But the main reason for coming to this area is the Villarica National Park and its 2.847 meters high volcano.

The Summit Chile tour started at 6:30am. With bus and sky lift we were at 1.200 meters around 8:00. The trekking part came next with the equipment provided by the agency, all of very good quality. Our guide, Claudio, was a local with many years of trekking and climbing experience in Villarica, Peru and France. The guide's assistent, Simón (24y) is studing to become an official guide at the local university.

The view at this point was already impressive: blue sky and with the sun behing us we could even see the volcano's shadow reflected in the morning fog.

By 10.00 we had reached the snow covered area which is also steaper.

Finally we reached the summit around noon. The view was gorgeous and the feeling too.

The smoke was not much but had a strong smell, stronger than in Uyuni. We spent around 30min at the crater and started our descend.

A nice day I would say  :D