Monday 20 February. Last days it was rainy and I didn’t do much. Today a small touristic trip in the minivan. The start is with the wooden flower shops in Pucón, the old suspension bridge and a traditional house in bad shape. Inside a lady is baking bread in the ashes. Outside a lot of bbq’s. The eye of Caburgua is a bunch of waterfalls coming together in one pond. Cool to see and also all the wild flowers around it. Last stop is the hotsprings. Time to relax and enjoy the natural warm water.
Tuesday an early rise. At 6:30 at the agency. France Marieke works as a guide and is the first to show up. Typical for Chileans? She makes a call and can open the shop. We get our gear, shoes, jacket, trousers, helmet, cloves, all. In the minivan and up to Vulcano Villarrica. Last part is on dirt road on volcanic stone. The elevator is out of order and we start to climb the mountain. Today the weather is good and sunny. The view is magnificent. We see other volcano’s in the distance. The climb is only up and up. The track is not easy and after 3 hours we’re at the edge of the snow and ice. So cool. An active volcano with snow on top. Here we put on the crampons and handle the pickaxe. The last 2 hours up. A new experience, but also cool. Last 10 minutes the backpack and crampons stay and we put on the gasmask. On the edge of the crater smoke out of the deep. At one spot you can look into the eye of the volcano and see the red lava. Woow. Really amazing. From the edge, above 2800 m high, the view on the surrounding is also great. We see more volcanos and the glacier of this volcano. Even after the big eruption of 1971 the glacier stayed. After 7:30 hours we’re back at the minivan. And what an experience.
