I departed Chillan mid morning on Friday, August 23 heading further south to Pucon. As I was driving back through the town of Chillan I noted that it was much more cheery during the day. The ramshackle tin shacks that I had passed were quite colourful and the fog/dust/smoke was absent. The drive was a similar length as the trip between Santiago and Chillan. About 5.5 hours later I rolled into Pucon greeted by the sight of lake and volcano Villarrica. At the first opportunity I parked the car and jumped out to snap ‘the picture’ that you will see associated with every article on Pucon/Villarrica — lake + volcano. As I jumped out I was startled as it felt like the wind almost ripped the door off the car. Taking the photo was interesting as it was challenging to keep the camera steady in the high winds.
I settled in to my room for the next few nights at CasaEstablo. It was perched on the side of a hill up a very steep driveway a few KM outside of Pucon.
My main goal in Pucon was to climb the volcano. However the winds were so extreme this was looking doubtful. On Saturday, my first full day, this was definitely not in the cards. I had found a guide with the help of one of the staff (Alejandra) but it remained to be seen if Sunday would be a go. Instead of climbing the volcano on Saturday, Alejandra recommended visiting the national park (Huerquehue). So, I headed out with a rather late to see what I could find. I arrived at the park around 1:30PM. From what I gathered the main hike to a series of lakes was supposed to take around 6-7 hours return and I had about 5.5 hours of daylight. I started out of the gates with a pretty crazy pace and made it to the first lake in 1.5 hours after a little over 600m of elevation gain. I slowed down at this point, realizing I was well within my time target. I visited the other two lakes and had a snack before descending.
The second lake was the most picturesque with a nice mountain backdrop and a frozen surface.
On the way back down I took more time to stop at a viewpoint and take a picture of the volcano with lake Tinquilco in the foreground.
The round trip for the hike ended up being about 4 hours with the slower pace on the return. I made it back to the casa by daylight and had some time to relax before another tasty dinner. After dinner I met with the guide. It looked like a summit attempt would be possible on Sunday, he was going to pick me up at 6AM. UGH! I organized my gear and went to bed with visions of lava craters dancing in my head.
5:30AM, up and ready to go. I went downstairs to grab some breakfast that had been set out a bit earlier for me. I headed back up to the room to grab my gear and got a phone call from the guide. The winds were still way to high to attempt the summit. Damn! He said he’d call at 7AM if the situation changed. Rather disappointed but still bleary-eyed I took the lunch that the staff had kindly prepared for me and went back to bed. The phone call didn’t come. A bit disappointed I had a second wakeup around 10AM. It seemed quite nice out by that point so I decided to head to the little ski resort on the volcano and get some runs in.
The resort was very small. There were only a few main runs and 3 main running lifts. Still, it turned out to be an amazing bluebird day. The snow was very icy off of the groomed runs so I stayed on piste. The winds had completely died down by this point so it seemed like a summit attempt could have been made with a much later start. I noticed one group of 4 specs making their way up the cone towards the summit. Alas, another time.
That evening I went into town for dinner. It wasn’t anything special, the food from the CasaEstablo cook was better. I packed up my gear ready for the drive on Monday AM. It was time to cross the border to Argentina.
