Chile: Rafting, zipwire, and volcanoes

Now we truly are in the Andes. Surrounded by mountains, at least three of which are active volcanoes, lakes, and wild countryside. Get to spend more than a few days in Chile this time. This is just as well because the passport the filling up quickly with all the multiple border crossings: two between Brazil and Argentina, four between Argentina and Chile. Add to that the fact the Argentina immigration seem to want to start a new page every time they stamp the thing and pages are running short.

Anyway having moved on from Bariloche we left Argentina and crossed the border at the first large volcano in this area: Lanin. Destination for a few days is Pucon. Staying at a family run hostel and the hostle organise all sorts of activities for you. Yesterday´s entertainment was white water rafting for the first part of the day and then a little bit of zipwire in the afternoon.

Rafting was a little tame - it was claimed to be mostly level 3 rapids with some at level 4. However because the water levels were quite low, we don´t think anything reached grade 4. Still good fun though - our guide was brilliant, probably the best of the 3 we had on our boats and had a good sense of humour as well. He certainly needed it with the crew he got: Jen and her guys, Tony, Mark, Rich, and me. Had a great time rafting, laughing at the other boats when they got stuck on rocks, took the chicken route down a rapid, or just looked stupid. Have to admit to a little bit of splashing of water too but we soon found out that the instructors were better at it than us. Part way down the river was a rapid we weren´t allowed to attempt (though we did think about mutiny), so we had to walk around. Meant we had the opportunity for a nice cliff jump of 6 or 7 metres back into the river. Final highlights were a race with one of the other boats, where not only were we faster than them, but we managed to keep our line, and ran them onto some rocks. Then we persuaded Ricardo that it wasn´t a real day´s rafting without capsizing the boat, so over we went.

Late afternoon was spent on a zipwire course very close to the rafting (although I didn´t know that until returning back to our hostel and then travelling back out to the zipwire). Good fun but nothing too thrilling. For once an early night but only in preparation for a very busy day tomorrow.

Today life became a little bit more strenuous as we climbed the closest of the snow-covered volcanoes: Villarica at 2780 metres high. Luckily (!) our hostel is the only one licensed to set trekkers out before sunrise, so we were all up early for a 4:30am departure. Trekked for two hours uphill to see a beautiful sunrise (one of the reasons for getting up so early). Then when daylight came we split into two groups (fast and not-so-fast), for another hour´s walking uphill and then on to glacier ice and snow for two hours of hard work. Full gear donned: helmets, gloves, gaiters, boots, crampons, and ice picks at the ready. Got the full demo of how to use the ice pick just in case anyone falls and starts to slide back down the glacier. Surely no-one would be stupid enough or clumsy enough to do that! Reached the summit just before 10am and our advanced party were the only people up there (15 including two guides). This was the second reason for starting out before everyone else around - apparently later in the day there could be a hundred people at the top. As it was, we had the chance to walk around the cater rim and stop for photos of the view and down into the crater itself without loads of people milling around. Spent and hour at the summit and left just as our slower group arrived. They still had the volcano to themselves for a while. Then back down the first steep part of the ice slope. After a vicious assault by the two Argentinians who were with us, Kris has a nice bruise on her leg. They were not the most careful of walkers and all the way up and down kept dislodging small rocks, which gravity then sent flying in our direction. I then decided to try out the training on how to use an ice pick by tripping over my own shoe laces. Had a nice slide down the ice, before operating the pick as a brake and stopping just short of taking out some of the others who were already further down the glacier. Despite all of that excitement, we made it off the ice safely an the final part of the route was an opportunity for a bit of fun: loads of volcanic ash and scree. So off John and me headed to do a bit of scree running. Rich joined in for the final section and we got up some real speed. Five trek up the mountain became a two hour descent.