the one when we didn’t go to argentina
the first person to send me a package of reese’s peanut butter cups will receive my eternal and undying affection. i’ll even add a south american present. just please get that chocolatey peanut buttery deliciousness through customs and into my mailbox. desperate times.
apparently we’re having a colder-than-usual spring. how do i know this? well other than the fact that my peacoat still makes a regular appearance, when my friends and i arrived at the santiago terminal at 1030 pm on thursday night we discovered that our overnight bus had been cancelled because the pass through the andes was closed due to snow. unfortunately there were no buses leaving anytime in the near future, and as it turns out, the pass stayed closed til sunday.
time for plan b. one of my friends from high school is studying in santiago, and had planned on joining us in our mendoza tour. she and i had a quick powwow at the back of the line for ticket refunds and five minutes later had exchanged out tickets for a twelve hour overnight bus to pucón, chile, leaving at midnight. given that the average temperature difference between mendoza and the south of chile is a solid thirty degrees, we deftly navigated our way through santiago’s metro system to jean’s apartment to stuff her backpack full of as much warm clothing as we could find. literally running to make the last train out before the subway closed, we had just enough time to grab the necessary provisions (chocolate and cookies) before hopping on the bus for a good night’s rest.
twelve hours later we awoke in pucón. one of the main adventure sports outlets of the country, the small town is sandwiched between lake villarrica and an active volcano with the same name.
lake villarrica
smoking mt. villarrica
after the most amazing breakfast of my life (our waiter was really concerned as to why i was ordering yogurt at noon), we shopped around all the companies to find the best deals on the various tours offered, and settled on climbing villarrica on sunday. saturday dawned rainy. rainy rainy. and with my backpack filled with sun dresses and shorts i was more than ill-prepared. we had a lazy morning reading in front of the fire, and then in the afternoon braved the elements to visit some nearby waterfalls. we were not disappointed.
sunday morning we were up bright and early to meet up with our tour group to climb the volcano. first things first. gathering the necessary gear. if we had been under the impression that this was to be a simple hike, such thoughts were quickly yanked out of our minds by the weight of our equipment backpack. we were outfitted with waterproof hiking boots, wind and more-or-less-but-not-really-waterproof pants and jackets, super sexy sunglasses, helmets, glove liners, mittens, gaiters, an ice-pick, and crampons (connor, you know what i’m thinking). by eight we were standing on snow at the base of villarrica, looking up at the partly cloud blanketed summit, as smoke rose from the top of the volcano.
oscar, one of our three fearless guides
a twenty minute hike and we reached the bottom of a chair lift. decision time. pay twelve dollars and cut and hour and a half off the trek? or muster up our ganas de subir and do the whole thing. clearly we opted for the second one. ten minutes later and the snow was icy and steep enough to require crampons. and thus initiated the five hours of zig zagging switchbacks to the top.
other groups trudging up smoking villarrica. from here it’s three and a half hours to the summit.
at the start of the trek i was rather enthusiastic, practically giving our guide flat tires i was walking so close behind him. i even overheard him tell another guide that jean and i are really good climbers and that he would like to marry one of us. at which point he asked me if i had a chilean boyfriend and then told me that all the other guides have foreign girlfriends. i thought for a second he was actually going to pull out a ring and propose. but after an hour or so of trudging up the slope, my energy began to diminish. the climb quickly became what might be one of the hardest things i’ve ever done. and humbling. as if that hasn’t happened enough. about halfway up i began to wonder if i had reached the extent of my physical abilities. but with a little chocolate, a brief self motivating pep talk, our trusty guide oscar’s duct tape blister remedy, and a whole lot of prayers, i made it to the top.
actually an active volcano. like the kind you make for an elementary school science fair. complete with a smoking crater. and this being chile, standing a mere foot and a half from the edge was clearly not a problem. some days you can see lava, but we weren’t so fortunate. we did get our fair share of questionably toxic sulfuric steam and smoke. and the view from the top was incredible. far above the clouds, it was difficult to see where the snow of the mountain stopped and the clouds began. two other volcanoes in the region were visible, and wherever the clouds cleared, we were greeted by green rolling mountains, lush valleys and sparking lakes. incredible.
with our german and italian climbing partners. what characters.
volcano. what?!!!
safety measures? psh. and who’s ever heard of a waiver?
about twenty minutes shy of the summit was a stretch of climb that, had i not been huffing and puffing and focused on simply getting one foot in front of the other, might have caused some concern for my safety. slash my very life. it had snowed and rained the day before, and this particular stretch was a ledge the width of a our crampons, stomped into the ice only by the twenty or so people ahead of us. not exactly tried and true in terms of security. sitting above the clouds, looking down on the valley way way way below, i started to wonder how in the world we were going to get down. i’m not exactly known to be the most graceful or coordinated person.
i shouldn’t have worried. turned out there was more gear stowed away in our backpacks. meet the sledding diaper, nicknamed pampers by the guides. you strap this waterproof padded rectangle around your waist and thighs, and plop down on the snow to slide down the mountain on your rear. not a huge fan of sledding under normal conditions. especially when it’s literally down the side of a mountain. but oscar and jorge were not going to no for an answer. they demonstrated how to use our ice-pick and feet as brakes, and then more or less shoved me down on to my bottom and gave me a push. brakes? that’s a joke. more like careening out of control down the side of an ice cliff. kinda like penguins. a little bruised, more than a little wet, and grinning ear to ear, we reached the bottom of the mountain in under an hour. i can think of worse ways to bajar.
penguin sliding down the slope
LOOK WHAT WE JUST DID!
monday we rented bikes and gave ourselves a tour of the countryside. pictures will never do justice to the landscape of southern chile. i’m in love. rolling green fields with grazing sheep, meadows enclosed by wooden fences, meandering streams and rushing rivers, sheer rock faces and abundant trees, all with the backdrop of snow covered villarrica.
we ended our time in pucón with an incredible meal at the same restaurant we went to the first day. i actually have never been so pleased with a plate of food before in my life. 
chickpea, basil and goat cheese gnocchi in a roasted red bell pepper sauce. yum.
all in all an amazing amazing weekend.
