Light Enough To Travel: Weeklong trip to the Lakes Region -- First leg: Pucón

In the week before Easter Julia and I set off for the southern Lakes Region of Chile -- mostly for an adventure but also to escape the stuffy air of Santiago and to experience some rain for once (it has rained -- really rained -- maybe twice in nine months here in the capital city).

Our bus traveled about 9 hours south through the night and dropped us off under grey clouds in Pucón, a small but bustling lakeside tourist town. Pucón is best known as an adventure destination, with access to all the outdoorsy things that adventurers like to do: mountain biking, rafting, rock climbing, trekking, etc. We made our way through the quiet city streets (due to it being the off-season) to arrive at our quaint and comfortable hostel La Bicicleta.

The service from the hostel owner was great, and after some (real!) coffee Sweet Pea and I (I mean....Julia and I) rented two mountain bikes and reserved a spot in the volcano expedition crew for the next day. With the bikes we made our way to the rumored-to-be-beatiful Ojos de Caburga (Eyes of Caburgua) about 8 miles away. The gravel road was steep at times and the drizzling rain and low clouds made for an ominous and beautiful excursion. After a soggy picnic lunch we finally made it to the waterfalls. We climbed around the falls and afterwards we asked the old man at the entrance of the gate for the story behind the "Ojos" -- if it was named for some mythical monster or had some other interesting folklore -- only to hear that Caburgua is name of the lake that the waterfalls help drain. Disappointed, but not deterred, we made our way back to the city along the desolate paved road. That night we shared a dinner in town with some of our fellow hostel-mates and prepared ourselves for the 6 am wakeup call to hit the volcano.

The next morning Julia and I arrived at the expedition office at 6:45 am, where we were handed our own mountaineering boots and a backpack filled with a jacket, outdoor pants, crampons, helmet ice axe and....a small plastic slide. Our group of 20 and our 5 guides piled into vans and started the 45-minute drive to the base of the climb to the top of the 9,300-foot active volcano. At the base we had the option to pay another 5,000 pesos to ride up a ski lift and avoid the first leg (of four) of the 3,500-foot climb. Julia and I declined -- Julia being the only female in our group to do so -- and we started our ascent. Each step up brought us closer to the smokey summit of this volcano, one of Chile's most active. The hours rolled by and we were still climbing, taking in the sunshine and the spectacular views of Pucón, the lake, and the surrounding mountain range. About halfway up our guides helped us strap on our crampons and we continued up the steepest part of the climp to finally come face-to-face with the sulfuric-smoke-spewing crater. We reached the summit at about 1:30 pm, after maybe 5 hours of climbing.

After taking in the views we started our way down, which included a few long sled rides on top of the plastic slides included in our trekking gear. Exhausted and satisfied we piled back into the vans, made it back to Pucón, and spent the evening relaxing with a beer in our hands and looking at Villarica at a distance from our hostel balcony.

[A little story about the Villarica ("Viya-rica") volcano trip -- when I first saw the price of the excursion to the top of the volcano I thought it was way overpriced. 35,000 Chilean pesos (around $75 USD) seemed like a lot for a hike to the top of a big hill. I was completely mistaken and happily surprised with the result....]