Middle Chile update
Its been a while since the last update and looking back time seems to have flown by and I seem to have done a lot - somehow a week relaxing on a beach just doesn´t appeal at the moment when there´s a volcano that´s just erupted to be explored in the north!
5 day boat trip
I decided to take the slow route back to mainland Chile through the beautiful chilean fords spotting whales from time to time and relaxing. We only had one day of sun and the rest of the time it was an envigorating Force 8 weather (ie. strong winds but unfortunately coming from the wrong direction so we only had 3m high waves). Good bunch of people on board as well pity about the cargo of cows and sheep going to slaughter reminding us of reality as the beautiful scenery went by.
Fruitillar
I thought I was in the German/Austrian alps! There was a mass migration of germans earlier this century down to the south. A man named Hirsch is running for president and you can buy from any coffee shop flaumenkuchen and apple strudel - bizarre but beautiful and laid back.
Valdivia
A nice town especially down by the river front where some sealions have made it their home, being extremely lazy and basically waiting for fish to be thrown to them from the fish market rather than bothering to fish for themselves in the sea! A nice life for some. They appear so cute and cuddly in this environment compared to in the wilds in NZ.
Pucon
A few highlights here. I´ve climbed an active volcano, met some cool people and experienced my first quake (3.5/4)!
The first was trying to climb a mountain with mountain goats Mariano from Argentina and Raphael from Austria. I stopped early on to save my energy for the volcano trip. They eventually appeared in the dark and then we ended up trying to jump start a car with Raphael standing on the back of the pick up with a torch to light up the track and me pushing, before eventually hailing the first car to come along in 3 hrs to jump start it successfully and safely. Then on to natural hot water springs by a river. A nice end to a bizarre day.
Climbing the active Villarica Volcano. There is constantly smoke coming out from the top of it and at night the top was lit up red from the lava fountain. Unfortunately although we´d climbed 1000m the winds were too strong to go to the top to see the inside of the volcano (6th picture) so instead we had fun sliding down the volcano (5th picture) on our butts using an ice axe as a break. In my case the ice axe didn´t work so the guides with crampons on had to physically stop me as I hurtled towards them feet first clinging onto the ice axe for dear life - exhilerating. 4 hrs to go up, 1 1/2 to go down - cool.
5 day boat trip
I decided to take the slow route back to mainland Chile through the beautiful chilean fords spotting whales from time to time and relaxing. We only had one day of sun and the rest of the time it was an envigorating Force 8 weather (ie. strong winds but unfortunately coming from the wrong direction so we only had 3m high waves). Good bunch of people on board as well pity about the cargo of cows and sheep going to slaughter reminding us of reality as the beautiful scenery went by.
Fruitillar
I thought I was in the German/Austrian alps! There was a mass migration of germans earlier this century down to the south. A man named Hirsch is running for president and you can buy from any coffee shop flaumenkuchen and apple strudel - bizarre but beautiful and laid back.
Valdivia
A nice town especially down by the river front where some sealions have made it their home, being extremely lazy and basically waiting for fish to be thrown to them from the fish market rather than bothering to fish for themselves in the sea! A nice life for some. They appear so cute and cuddly in this environment compared to in the wilds in NZ.
Pucon
A few highlights here. I´ve climbed an active volcano, met some cool people and experienced my first quake (3.5/4)!
The first was trying to climb a mountain with mountain goats Mariano from Argentina and Raphael from Austria. I stopped early on to save my energy for the volcano trip. They eventually appeared in the dark and then we ended up trying to jump start a car with Raphael standing on the back of the pick up with a torch to light up the track and me pushing, before eventually hailing the first car to come along in 3 hrs to jump start it successfully and safely. Then on to natural hot water springs by a river. A nice end to a bizarre day.
Climbing the active Villarica Volcano. There is constantly smoke coming out from the top of it and at night the top was lit up red from the lava fountain. Unfortunately although we´d climbed 1000m the winds were too strong to go to the top to see the inside of the volcano (6th picture) so instead we had fun sliding down the volcano (5th picture) on our butts using an ice axe as a break. In my case the ice axe didn´t work so the guides with crampons on had to physically stop me as I hurtled towards them feet first clinging onto the ice axe for dear life - exhilerating. 4 hrs to go up, 1 1/2 to go down - cool.
posted by boozysoozy at
4:22 PM
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