Pucon (Rafting, Winter wonderland hikes, Climbing a Volcano)

After about a 5 hour bus ride from Puerto Montt, we arrived in Pucon with our adventure caps on. Though it was cold and raining, we didn’t want to miss what we set out to do… Rafting! The next afternoon, we suited up in our wetsuits, water shoes and shorts (not sure why they gave us shorts but ok) and got in the raft. The water was high and fast with no major drops. It was fun, but over too quickly and nothing like the Tully River in Australia. We were given cookies and Pisco Sour and all was well.
The next day, we went on a 10 mile hike Huerquehue Parque National that takes you, past 2 great waterfalls, up and over a snow capped mountain to Lagos Toro y Chica. We were virtually the only ones on the entire trail, which made this wintery wonderland seem like our own. It felt like we walked right through the wardrobe and might be meeting the lion or the witch soon! It felt like a magical place, only perfected by the snowman we made and the snowball fight that I’m pretty sure I won…
We also took a day to check out the country side and Los Ojos del Cabuergua (pretty cool waterfalls). There were tons of new birds, and again, we were the only ones there that made us feel like explorers. We tend to like places best when we are the only ones there to explore. Rainbows shot out of the waterfalls while we wiped the spray from our faces.
Just outside of town is a huge volcano that is staring you in the face daring you to climb him named Villarrica. So, we did. The weather had been bad for awhile and no one had been able to reach the top in a month… except the day we climbed it. When they outfitted us with snowpants, hiking boots, a pick ax and a sled we were off! The entire hike was in the snow and especially nearing the top, it was steep and slippery. If you fell, you were supposed to use our ice pick, but we were only shown, no one practiced first. If the ice pick didn’t work, it was a slide down hundreds of meters, hoping you didn’t land on a rock. I admit it, it was disconcerting at times, especially when we were the only group NOT wearing our crampons. I finally spoke up and then until we reached the top, the guides were much better at providing our safety. Who knows if it was because of what I said, but I would like to think so. When we got to the top, we were rewarded with views of mountain tops miles around. We even got to look inside the volcano and watch the smoke rise from its belly. We had about an hour on top. Then we got another reward, to slide down the volcano! Wow, this was one of the most fun things we have done so far! It was just run after run after run in soft, white snow. We loved it!