Pucon, the adventurer´s capital of Chile cannot be complete without a summit of Volcán Villaricca. This depending on your patience and wallet of course...We were met at the bus station by Monica who invited us to stay at her Hospedaje (cheap accommodation in her own home). It was overcast when we arrived so we weren’t entirely sure what all of the fuss was about, as apparently Pucón has lots of great views of a few volcanoes in the area, but we couldn’t see a thing! We had originally planned to stay for only a day to get a couple of views in and head on, but when we settled into our new digs, we met a lovely Aussie couple, Robz and Dan and we soon changed our minds.
There was a lot to do in the area adventure wise but after talking to our new friends I immediately had my heart on reaching the summit of the 2847m cone and Liz was only too happy just to get a glimpse of the thing! Poor visibility and bad weather had already seen Robz and Dan staying on a few more days than they had anticipated so I didn’t really fancy my chances on getting there before it was time to move on. Nevertheless we decided to wait for things to clear and have a little look around the area.
We hired a couple of bike for the day and took off with a very inaccurate map
I woke on the attempt of the third morning to find a very smilie Dan in the kitchen. Could this be we are climbing today? ¨Go and have a look outside Sophs,¨ he said. ¨Your kidding? Are we climbing today?¨ I ran out to the street and there she was. Dear old Volcán Villarrica in all her glory. Not a cloud in site and her cone was smoking away! Wicked!We skipped our way down to the centre, past the green traffic lights that gave no imminent warning of eruption and got kitted up in all the gear. Third attempt for me, ninth for Camp Australia. We were off!
A little mini bus took us to the base and we caught a ski lift up to the half way mark. The hike was really easy. We went at a very stea
dy pace, in single file, crunching our special boots into each step and steadying our balance with our little ice-axes. Every once in a while a whistle was blown and we all had to stop and look up towards the cone as another rock of lava was catapulted towards us. I felt like a very intrepid explorer and the views we got were just breath taking! And so to the top!My word, the stench of the sulphuric gases really cut into the back of your throat. It was hard to see who you were standing next to you at times as another billow of smoke escaped the vent. We were a little disappointed that we couldn’t see the lava inside, but the pieces of lava that we saw shooting up from the depths of the fiery kingdom were good enough for me! We walked around the vent, had some lunch and then started our decent.
About 15 minutes down, we were asked to stop and put our ´nappies´ on! A funny little garment that was strapped around our thighs and waist so that we could
literally slide down the volcano on our arses! It took us four hours to climb and I think only an hour to descend. The first run was fantastic. Dan and Robz decided we should go at the back of the group so that Dan could go first and film Robz and I coming down. Wow! It was so much fun. When it was our turn, Robz went first and I was close behind. We lifted our arms up above our heads with our axes and screamed our heads off as we ran over bumps and around corners down to the bottom. We would both collapse in fits of laughter at the bottom and were always looking forward to the next run.And so to the third run. On reaching the third leg I looked down the course and suddenly thought out aloud ¨Er…..I´m not sure if I can do this one. It´s looks kinda gnarly down there babe!¨ Robz assured me everything would be fine and jumped on the run bef
ore me. When it was my turn, a group of very good looking guys had congregated at the top and could see I was feeling a little edgy. ¨Come on girl, this is the best part! It´s easy! Have fun. Just go with it!¨ Blimey, just my luck I get an audience and so as to not lose any pride I positioned myself at the top of the run and with the help of their countdown (which I think they all said rather too enthusiastically) I let myself go!Blimey, I hadn’t expected the speeds to what I had just been thrown into. I could hear one of the guides shouting at me to brake (er HELLO! What do you think I’m trying to do here mister!). I dug my axe in as deep as I could into the ice beside me, but I just couldn’t find any friction. The ice had been so mashed up by the bums before me that I was left with a foot of fine powder on either side. My axe was carving it up like a hot knife through butter and with my heart pounding in my head I was beginning to wonder how this was all going to end. I tried sitting up to reduce my velocity but I just kept going
faster. Times were in need of desperate measures and as my insurance policy flashed before my eyes, I decided to reach out a little further with my axe on one side of me to find harder ice. That was when it all went horribly wrong……no sooner had I found some ice to break in, my left shoulder was almost ripped from its socket and I felt I had little choice but to let go of the only thing that could possibly save me from an inevitable Bridget Jones disaster. BIG MISTAKE! I consoled myself with the fact that things were going to get messy from here on and at least we might be able to laugh about it later. Not only had I lost my brake, I had now lost the very thing that would steer me through this mess and the course was starting to look very much like the infamous Cresta Run of St. Moritz! The ice was banked up on either side of me now and I found myself in a very narrow, cork-screw gorge of sheer chaos. I don’t know how many groups had gone before me but the surface of ice was now covered in a thin layer of water and there was no stopping me. I tried to dig my finger nails in (you’re having a laugh now Soph
s) to no avail. Come on, Sophie, think! No, absolutely no time for that. I thought what the hell, lets just go with this thing. I lay back, thought of Blighty, lay my arms on either side of me and tried to twist my body into each corner of the banks on either side. I aced the first couple of corners but my speed was starting to pick up again and it was starting to scare the nappy-pants off me and that was when I hit the third bank…You know that feeling you get when things aren’t quite going your way? You know, it’s like when you’ve just misjudged a corner on your human bobsleigh run and you’re now airborne and hurtling through the air at break-neck speeds with your arms and legs frantically waving all over the place. Not only have your sunglasses been ripped off your face but you now have snow up your nose, in your eyes, you can’t see a thing and all you can taste is glacial melt water? Well, it was a very similar experience for me. I had no idea where I was. For a few seconds I couldn’t breathe for the millions upon millions of tiny ice shards that were now biting my face. I thought I may have caused an avalanche at one point and they’d have to dig me out of this mess. I had no idea if I was facing imminent injury by landing on the rocks and then a second or so later everything became clear. Ah yes, indeed, I am still airborne and I had been very clever enough to take a short cut by skipping three or four corners of the run (just as I had planned) and I could even see where I was about to land. Brilliant! I’m just about to go A over T into another very steep ice bank and this, this is going to really hurt! If I can just get my body at the right angle I might just be able to…..BANG! Ooooouccccccch! That was when I let go of all my fear and
started screaming. Oh no, hang on, supposed to be having fun here and boys are watching. I changed my screams into squeals of ´delight´ to try and bring back any dignity that I might have left further up the mountain. This, of course, was thwarted again when I noticed the good looking bunch of lads that were waiting to do run the after me, had now caught up. Well, I just gave up at that point and let myself, covered completely in snow come to a very sedate stop at the foot of my fellow tour group who were looking on in disbelief that I had actually let my ice-axe go! I picked myself up, dusted myself off and with a smile still in tact I managed a ´Wow, that was grrrrrreat fun!´ One of the boys came over to me and handed me my glasses ¨Er, I think these are yours?¨ And then another one, ¨I think you might have left this up there?¨ to which he handed me my camera, followed by one of the guides who said ¨Never ever let go of your axe!¨ as he handed over the said thing. Bloody smart arse!!Of course I admitted to Dan and Robz that I was a bit shaken up and may be I should just take the rest of the runs a little easier. I think there were two more after that which I managed to get myself
down with half the fuss I made of the third one. And so it was hot showers, a catch up with Liz (who had a great day cycling) and then to the pub for a quiet celebration. Robz, Dan, we finally did it! Thanks for such a great adventure! I really enjoyed hanging out with you and hope to see you again either in Peru or London. Happy Travels! I woke the next morning a little stiff but only slightly battered in a few places. Result! I have great memories of Pucón! And so to Santiago (via bus)!
