PUCON, CHILE

Villarrica Volcano

     500 miles south of Santiago lies an alluring little city that is surrounded by lush forests, exquisite lakes and a few active volcanoes. Pucon is Mecca for adventure tourists with white water rafting, skiing, snowboarding, canyoning, hiking and  much more available right at your fingertips. Due to the active volcanoes in the area Pucon is also home to various hot springs that are relaxing after a long day of hiking...our only problem was that we visited the hot springs the day before our treacherous hike to the top of the Villarrica Volcano...Silly girls.

Villarrica Lake in Pucon

 Geometricas Termas -Geometric Hot Springs 

     The Geometric Hot Springs, located in Villarrica National Park in Chile are a combination of 17 geometrically carved pools that are fed with over sixty springs of  pure hot thermal water. The architecture was created in an almost Zen like design to enhance natures beauty while separating it from its unique and irreplaceable architectural  design. Simply stated, the place is fabulous. We felt as if we were on a movie set. The springs are situated in the middle of a tropical rain forest and the mist from the water entices you in. Each natural pool boasts a different temperature and although we tried all of them we both agreed that our favorite was the hottest pool...reaching temperatures of 113 degrees...awesomeness. We wandered down winding paths and dipped into pool after pool until we found a waterfall. The water cascading down was Arctic cold and I thought it would be a splendid time to test my courage. Wow...It was freezing!!!!! Yet oh so refreshing. 

Arctic waterfall!

The day was rainy and dreary yet absolutely perfect for hot springs. Javier and David, our favorite Couchsurfing hosts, gave us a little send off present from Santiago that we enjoyed thoroughly whilst bathing in the incandescent aguas calientes. Muchas gracias por el caño...

Villarrica Volcano

Ahhh. the beginning.

Villaricca is one of the most active volcanoes in Chile and has erupted 82 times throughout history with the latest eruption occurring in 1984. The hike to the top of the Villarrica volcano was one of the most challenging hikes of my life. It came as a complete surprise to Aesha and I. We arrived in Pucon not knowing much about this hike and booked it without any previous research. Once again...silly girls. We figured, how hard could it be? I mean, we did survive The Inca Trail and The World"s Most Dangerous Road...how hard could a measly day hike be. Where do I begin...
     From the moment we arrived at the Adventure Sport office in Pucon at 6:00am we felt charged with hurried energy. These guides were no nonsense. We had to pack our backpacks with crampons, which are sharp, razor like clips that you clip on the bottom of your hiking books when you are going to be climbing mountains covered in snow and ice. Also, we needed gloves, waterproof pants and jackets, a spoonlike sled, and ice axes. Yup.
 Ummmmmm what? Snow? Ice? Ice axes??? Wait a minute.... what have we done???

Best friends for life

From the beginning of the trip one of the guides began hounding Aesha and I . Due to the ongoing, overt, and daily presence of advances from South American men, we have almost become immune to their shenanigans, but this guy was out of his mind. We kept hitting me on my helmet with his hiking pole and he even grabbed Aeshas jugoso culo. What a jerk. Aside from his immature behavior, the hike was incredibly dangerous. It was the most dangerous thing I have ever done. It takes a lot to scare me and I was genuinely petrified. When we were less than half way up the volcano, they decide to tell us about the three lost hikers. They went missing sometime in November. Dear Lord.

The Hike

   The ascent to the summit of the volcano is a climb straight up of almost 4,000 feet. You must be in excellent physical condition to reach the crater and the fact that Aesha and I had been surviving solely off of vino tinto and completos for the previous month surely didn't help our cause. We focused on advancing slowly and cautiously and took short steps in order to conserve our energy. This was going to be an exhausting 8 hours. The guides were continuously screaming at all of us "Vamos!!!!Vamos!!!!" which means "Let's go!!".

We look happy but we want to punch our guides at this point!!!

They had little or no concern for our safety, yet our lives were in their hands. As we climbed Aesha and I would occasionally glance at each other and silently mouth " I fu**ing hate this". The view, however was spectacular.  After about 2 hours of steadily climbing in the snow, we stopped for lunch. Before my third bite was swallowed I heard those famous words "Vamos!!! Vamos!!!"...I wanted to push him down the mountain.

   As we cleared the scatted cloud cover we were treated with the most outstanding view of Lake Villarrica and the surrounding forests. It was truly a breathtaking sight and almost made me forget that we still had hours to go.

3 hours into the hike

The Summit
We finally reached the summit 5 hours after we began this perilous journey. The toxic gases being released at the crater allowed us only a short stay at the top. I was suffering from a combination of headache, excitement, adrenaline rush, anger, and fear....how were we going to get down???
     I would now like to take the time to apologize to my mother who, has always supported my erratic, insane and sometimes just plain idiotic adventures. I'm sorry that I did this very dangerous hike, and I am even more apologetic that I sat on a sled like disc, and sledded my ass down that volcano. I had no idea Mom,...I promise. Love you Mom, and thank you for your patience with me.

The Sled

   Oh, the sled. This lovely spoon like contraption to the left is the tool we were expected to sit on while sliding down a volcano at alarming speeds, using only an ice axe for a brake.

We sledded down this too!!

 You think I'm joking ?? 
 Nope. It was by far one of the most dangerous, yet exorbitantly exciting feats of fate I have ever dared to attempt. One of the guys on our trip broke his leg by crashing into another stupid tourist like ourselves. That may have been because the guides were screaming at us the entire time to hurry up and we were constantly crashing into one another. It was ridiculous. Just get me down the damn volcano already...

The Aftermath
We made it out alive but scarred for life. At least I now know that hiking volcanoes is just something I am not interested in doing...EVER again.

"Gecko", me, Aesha and Ruben

We decided to get cleaned up and have a glass of wine at the hostel. Enter Ruben and Eneko (I called him Gecko because it just made me laugh over and over again for some reason.)

They too braved the horrific hike that day and were just as disappointed and freaked out as we were. Horrible, just horrible they said!!!. We instantly made new friends and decided to head out for some late night dining to share our war stories from the day.

                                                                          The Beach

We really lucked out by making friends with Ruben because he is a local Chilean and rented a car to get around Pucon. The next day he was heading to a beautiful beach and invited Aesha and I to join. WooHoo!! We actually get to go somewhere cool without having to take a bus!!! Ahhh the simple things one really does miss... Thanks Ruben!!! You are the best!!





We thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of Pucon, the amazing friends we met there, and even the horror of the volcano hike... but alas, it was time to say goodbye to Chile and Hello to Argentina!!!!! First stop...Patagonia.
Signing off,
The Savvy Nomad 

A special note to my wonderful followers-
As most of you know I am now home safe and sound in one of the greatest cities in the world...Chicago. Due to the ridiculous amount of electronic mishaps, thieveries, and misplacements I encountered on this trip, writing this blog has been extremely challenging. My computer died about a month before I came home, making it almost impossible to post the type of blogs I have been accustomed to writing, however, I didn't give up!!! The South America blog will be finished, just in a different fashion than in the past. It will be a bit retrospective but hopefully you will still find it entertaining. There is a story to be told and I still wish to tell it.
 Argentina turned out to be my favorite leg of the trip with Patagonia, Medoza, and Buenos Aires as major highlights. Stay tuned and I promise I will bring you the story...well most of it anyway...there was a wee bit of vino consumed...