Day 43 - Another day, another volcano

Puerto Varas to Pucón

Another morning bus trip and a good day to be stuck in a bus for a few hours, with thick cold fog blanketing everywhere. We have been so lucky with our sightseeing over the past few days, perfect blue skies and not a breath of wind. We arrived in Pucon a lot later than expected, there was a lot of roadwork along the way and plenty of stops to drop off and pickup passengers, so the trip took five hours. By the time we arrived though the sun was out and it was starting to warm up.

Pucon is the base for a lot of activities, there's the lake, whitewater rafting, boat trips, but the big thing is Volcan Villarica, which erupted last year. We had been getting mixed reports on whether it was closed or available for hiking, and we had also read that you need to be careful which company you book with as the less reputable companies don't provide a refund if you're unable to proceed with the climb once you've entered the national park.

We found a good agency who were not pushy at all, quite the opposite, telling us it was risky, there is lava and flames, you may only get a minute at the top, are you sure you want to go, etc. M booked in for tomorrow, while K decided it wasn't for her, based on the difficult terrain, length of the trek, the need to carry a pack and use crampons and ice picks. As much as she would love to see a spewing volcano she thought she'd have more fun sleeping in and spending the day in the cabana with a good book (sounds boring to me though ....!).

Blue sky .... green water .... black sand

After booking the trek, we wandered around town and along the lake. The lake beach was black gravel, and the water had a greenish tinge - not that appealing, and it must get really hot to walk on in summer as well. By the time we'd checked out the town and done some grocery shopping, the clouds that were hovering about the volcano had cleared, and we could see the peak in the distance.

Nice view of Volcan Villarica, with our cabana on the right