Volcano walk, Hot Springs. Pucon 21 March 2017

Tuesday 21^st March 2017

Volcano Walk – taken by our guide Hose up the active Volcano – Volcan Ruka Pillan (2860m) in the Parque Nacional Villarica.  This was only a short walk to the base of the chairlift, where we could see climbers who were already at the glacier area. Nuts. The ground was smooth enough, but covered in loose stones which would cut you to shreds if you fell over.  The volcano is one of Chile’s most active volcanos (there are 100x active in Chile) and last erupted in 2015. There is a peninsula in town where the inhabitants have to run to if the traffic light warning system goes to red – not to avoid the lava, but the tsunami rush of water as the lava melts the glacier.  The locals seem quite cheery about the fact they are living on a time-bomb – they also have daily earthquakes which go unnoticed (4x in the last day as this is written), but have hit 8.3 (Sept 2015) on richter scale – the cafes higher up the mountain are left very basic so that they can be rebuilt easily.  It is quite unnerving to see the white steam coming out of the mountain top.

On to a fish restaurant where we had a seafood starters, I had a chowder fish soup and Iain salmon, finished by Tiramisu or huge ice-cream (not as good as the Argentinian ice-cream!).  Very nice and even better that price included in the tour.

 

 

 

 

 

Hot Springs – Las Termas Geometricas. Finally arrived at the hot springs about 5pm, given a towel and a padlock, then walked through a narrow crevasse passing various stone hot baths with water dripping down from fern and foliage covered natural stone walls.  At the top was a waterfall.  We all then chose our preferred pool, used some basic wooden lockers to keep our kit, and wallowed in pools from body temperature through to boiling.  In a moment of madness I held hands with Jude and walked into a waterfall which was freeeeeeezing. I could feel my muscles contract and let out a few expletives which led to being clapped by some locals who clearly worked out the translation.  Back into a hot pool to recover.  Left there about 7ish after getting completely pickled.  This would be Allison’s favourite place in the world!