A Taste of the High Life

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to a Chilean hot spot in the southern gem of Pucon. Pucon has a reputation for being jam-packed with Chilean tourist during the summer months, but in the early spring the village is much more tranquil and serene. The first day we showed up in Pucon was rainy and messy. We went to bed the first night without even realizing that we were sitting on the base of a massive volcano billowing smoke. The eerie quite and cold of Pucon gave it a somewhat haunted feeling.

Of course no trip is ever complete in the world of Brian until I have mounted a horse. On the same rain day we went on an amazing horse back ride up a muddy wet mountain. The horses were sliding all around and our Mapuche guide took a very laissez faire way of letting us ride the horses. Near the end of it I was able to take off in a full on gallop which let me get my heart racing and my adrenaline pumping.

The next day went to some waterfalls about 15 miles from Pucon called Ojos de Caburgua. The area was amazing. An old growth forest with a pond in the middle where two rivers meet forming a 360 waterfall. The old growth forest and waterfalls felt almost mythical.

This stuff alone could have made this the best weekend so far in Chile, and I haven't even mentioned Volcan Villarica yet. I climbed the most active volcano in Chile. The view from Pucon alone blows my mind.

Climbing this bad-boy is a whole different story. This is not your afternoon jaunt, it is a wake up at 6 in the morning, 3 inch steel spikes on the shoes, ice pike to stay upright, calf-burning, sweating to freezing instantly, slide down on your ass kinda climb.

After 6 hours of only uphill walking we reached the summit. It went from so hot I though I would die to instantly freezing. The massive crater of the volcano and the amazing view where we could even see Argentina from the top all made us do one thing... eat. I would normally rule this picture bad since the bottom corner has my finger in it, but I think it clarifies how extremely cold it was at the top and how I had to wear huge mittens just to take pictures.

I can finally cross climbing a volcano of my bucket list. It was all fun because I got to end this adventure with the longest possible sled ride of my life, off a 2900 meter mountain.