Pucón was easily one of the highlights of our trip. A bustling, touristy town set on lake Villarrica with views of the nearby volcano; the place had such a great vibe and we could have easily stayed longer than our 5 days. We had booked a hostel right on the lake where we could watch the beautiful sunset with a beer every evening and stayed in an amazing converted campervan with a private terrace.
One of the main reasons people flock to Pucón, apart from its beauty, is to climb the volcano; and we were no different. Villarrica volcano (also known as ‘Rucapillan’ in the local indigenous Mapuche language, meaning “Devil’s house”) is one of the most active volcanoes in South America and last erupted on March 3rd 2015 – and guess what… we were climbing it on March 3rd 2020, not ideal!
The climb began with a 5am start in order to arrive at the base of the volcano for the sunrise. We had a choice of taking a ski lift up part of the volcano to save an hour of hiking or just hiking. Naturally, as budget backpackers, we chose the free option and decided to hike… a painful hour into the hike we regretted this slightly (although we knew the sense of achievement at the end would be worth it). There were three stages to the climb: the first part involved climbing/sinking into small volcanic rocks and sand. The next stage was hiking on a glacier (another thing ticked off the bucket list!) for which we wore crampons and used an ice pick to avoid slipping down the volcano and into one of the many terrifying ridges in the ice. The slope was very steep and so it was an exhausting climb, but the experience was one to remember. The final part was then a steep climb up huge rocks to the crater.
The view on reaching the top was spectacular – 360 degree views of beautiful volcanoes, hills and lakes. We were so lucky to have uninterrupted blue skies for the whole hike. It was an immense feeling to be stood in the crater of a volcano; we had to use gas masks due to gases billowing from the volcano, this was nothing however when compared to the huge noises the volcano made every few minutes, for a split second you were convinced that it was about to erupt! So after some pictures and time to appreciate the jaw-dropping views it was time to go back down the volcano.
This is usually the worst part of any climb; without the excitement of reaching the top the descent can be draining and feel even longer than the climb. This one was different, however, as they had created winding ice slides in the glacier which we slid down. This was so unique and memorable – how many times in your life can you say you slid down an active volcano!?
It took a couple of days to recover from this tiring hike, but we certainly managed to relax on the sunny lake beach. Pucón was so full of many other adventure activities – rafting, kayaking, horse riding, hot springs and skydiving (we were very tempted!) but we decided to save some for later on in our trip.
We left Pucón with very fond memories and naïvely unaware that this would be our last bit of real freedom for quite some time.
On to the next stop: San Rafael, Argentina (after a 24h bus journey…)
Josh & Lisa in South America 