Thought I posted this a while ago but this is the last post of my travels….
We enter Chile through the Andes during the day. Definitely one of the highlights of actual transport since most of our busing has been done during the night (although it was super awesome to be in a bus at night in the middle of nowhere and you can actually see every star in the universe at that moment). We were told to take this trip during the day because of its beauty and gosh darn-it they were right. Something I would highly recommend doing if you ever have the opportunity.
We arrive in Valparaiso and make way to our hostel on Cumming St. (Please don’t laugh) Our cross street was Wagner and Cumming (now you can laugh) and this entertained us for the 3 straight days. Valparaiso was a cool city. Its a port town about 1.5 hrs from Santiago. When we arrived, i barely saw any evidence of the earthquake which surprised me. I expected to see a lot of damage but we mostly saw cracks in concrete and broken windows which still haven’t been repaired. We spent most of our days walking around the city and hanging out with some people from the hostel. There was a cheap sandwich place next to hour hostel that had $2 lomito (steak) sandwiches. We ate this for, literally, every meal. So cheap and delicious. The part we were staying in was built on a hillside so I took a nice walk upward and found some pretty cool view points. My great aunt was born in this city which I thought was pretty cool. My grandmother used to live in a town called Quillota which was an hour north, but I did not plan on going there because I had 1 day left and had already booked a ticket to go to a small town called Pucon, 12 hours south, to climb a volcano. But that night when I went out to a club, I met a group of (sexy) girls from Quillota. This was a sign. The voice inside my head said “get off your lazy ass and go see where your Grandmother used to live”. So I woke up super early the next day (which was very difficult) and took a bus to Quillota. I had to be back in time to catch my bus to Pucon.
Quillota was the farthest thing from a tourist city. I was literally the only tourist there, which made it AWESOME. People were staring at me and asking where I was from. The street names have all changed and unless I could find someone who was over 80 years old and remembered street names, I couldn’t find where my Grandmother used to live. So instead I walked around the main square and the surrounding neighborhood. All the architecture was colonial style which is very pretty. I will be designing my house like that one day. There really was nothing super special about the city itself, it was a normal working city, but to see the city that my grandmothers eyes have seen over 80 years ago was an amazing feeling. I accidentally took the looooong ride home on another bus but it was cool because I got to see more local smaller towns. Again, being stared at. Nothing dangerous, just “why the hell are you here?” kind of looks.
I get back to Valparaiso, eat a lomo sandwich, and go for the bus to Pucon. Originally I was just planning on taking it easy and staying in Valparaiso the whole time but people have been saying how awesome it was to see the Volcano, named Villarrica. On the bus, I met a German guy named Matteus. He and I were the only two people on the bus. We conversed a little and he ends up following me to my hostel. This was good because traveling alone really sucks (Joey and Samuel decided to stay back). It’s good to talk to someone. Since we arrived in the morning, we asked the hostel owner of something fun to do. He told us of this park that 30 Americans bought, and is not in any of the travel books yet. The park was actually “closed” but he said you can just climb the gate to get inside. His directions are “Take this bus to this intersection and hitchhike to the park entrance” So we did that. It was so easy this time to hitchhike. The 2nd car stopped for us. It was only a 1/2 hour drive. The people who picked us up were an old couple in an OLD Chevy Nova. Nobody said a word the entire ride, they just dropped us off, we thanked them and we walked.
Just like the hostel owner said, we walked up to a gate, and just opened it and walked in. There was a booth there to pay someone but it was closed. We enter the park and were told it was easy to follow the trail to the Mirador (lookout point). Just follow the yellow arrows of course! Well we missed one and ended up in a field with like 100 dead trees. It was pretty eerie. We knew we were off track but thought if we climbed the peak just south of us, we would be able to see the volcanoes anyway. Turns out trying to walk though unchartered land is pretty difficult. We were using the dead, falled trees to cover lots of ground but once we were on the floor again it took forever to move. We decided to turn around and try and find the real path, although it was already late in the afternoon. (We brought our flashlights for this situation exactly). We ended up finding the right path (We had to hop another fence to find it) and we make our way. We run into some other hikers that tell us to hurry because we don’t have much time. Since already hiking for 3 hours uphill in the wrong direction, my legs were exhausted. We had to run to the Mirador (lookout point) before the sun went down. Oh did we run. We got to the top and collapsed. Pretty intense but SO BEAUTIFUL! Not a cloud in the sky and you can see 3 Volcanoes from up top and you can see for miles and miles and miles. Villarrica, the one we were both conquering the next day, was the tallest and most intense looking. There was another group of people on the top who left right when we got up. We had a banana and got the hell out of there. Upon running back, we caught up with the other group and nonchalantly mentioned we had to catch a bus. The guys says “Oh you can just hop in the back of my truck, I’ll take you to Pucon. BOOM! We got a ride! Now we just have to make it back to the truck before it gets dark. Which we BARELY did. Walking in a forest at night is very scary. The ride home was quick and cold. What was super cool though was seeing the volcano at night. You couldn’t see the actual form, but instead, just a red pillar of smoke illuminating in the middle of the sky. That night was a restful night. In bed early to be ready for Villarrica.
Villarrica. One of Chile’s most active Volcanoes. Stands at 2,847 meters or 9,340 ft. We get to the base really early. I signed up for a group of 6 people plus 2 guides. At the base, we CANNOT SEE THE TOP. We cannot see up 100 meters. This is because of the heaviest damn fog you’ve ever seen in your entire life. It was freezing, windy, and raining. There are other companies that show up at the same starting point and of the 20 groups that were there, 3 decided to go up. Of those 3 groups, 1 decided to continue after walking a short 40 meters. My group has been waiting at the base trying to make a decision. The guides were not recommending going up. Turns out, 3 out of the 6 people in our group want to go back home because they have tomorrow to hike the volcano in much better weather. I was leaving this same night in order to make it back to Santiago in time for my flight back to the states. I had no other choice to go up, but the guide said I couldn’t go up by myself, there needs to be a minimum of two people. So I said yes, 3 said no, leaving 2 people undecided. These two people were a couple from England, who were also leaving that same night. At first they decided not to do it. I was so pissed, and they saw that. Then they realized they will probably never ever go back to this volcano and finally said yes. I GET TO CLIMB THE VOCLANO!!!! And it was one of the worst weather experiences of my entire life. I’m talking 30-40 mph winds (i kept loosing my footing because of the wind), freezing cold rain hitting me in the side of the face, fingers and toes frozen, snot constantly dripping down…it sucked so much. At least they give you all the necessary equipment to hike. Boots, Clamp ons, ICE AXE!!!!, jacket, snow pants and helmet.
The total climb was 4 hours. 2 hours and 45 min of this hike was complete hell in shitty weather. Then it happened. WE BREAK THE CLOUDS. We are now above all the clouds in this area. Still cold and windy but now we can see. And the sun is warming us up. And it is dry! At this point, we have to put on our clamp on’s and grab our ice axes and climb the ice! This part was so awesome and intense. I felt like i was taking over Everest! We get about 100 meters from the top and none of us can breath. Its because of the wind directions, all of the sulfur is being pushed down right into our path and we are having trouble breathing. We are forced by our guide to turn around for our own health, and that we did. So now we have to climb down, but we are climbing down ice and ice is slippery so what do we do? We slide down the entire snow covered area! The conditions were pretty bad that we didn’t slide so fast so i got up and started running down the mountain. That was pretty cool too. We make it back to the clouds and its just as shitty as before but I am so happy to see what I have seen and to climb a damn active volcano. Not many people can say they have done that. I catch my overnight bus to Santiago and relax there for the day. Walked around a little bit and then took 3 naps that day because i was so exhausted. Joey and Samuel met back up with me at the hostel there and we just took it easy. I had to be up at 4am to catch a plane back to the states. 6 hour layover in Bogota which sounds bad except there were so many good looking women to look at. I arrive at midnight back in my bed and have never slept so well.
It’s great to be back.
This trip was an amazing experience. I am truly blessed to have experienced something like this. I wish everyone may someday have the opportunity to do the same. Now lets get some beers and I can tell you all about it in person!
