Excursion al sur

So, we got back this morning off of an overnight bus from Villarrica where we had our 3 day getaway in the south of Chile. IT WAS AWESOME. There are several towns in the area we stayed in all about 30 minutes away from each other, and they were all so adorable with a lot of German influence in the architecture. We stayed in Villarrica but we went to visit Pucon and Lican Ray. The scenery in the south was breathtaking. Villarrica sits on a lake with a view of a mountain and I don't think I would have ever gotten tired of just sitting by the lake.  Here are some pictures, but again, the pictures don't do the town justice.

Volcan Villarrica

Lago Villarrica

The first day we went to Lican Ray, which is there "beach" town. Its not really a beach because its on a lake but it was still super nice.  It was though extremely crowded. Apparently this is the area where Chileans go to vacation, and seeing as its their summer, it was popping. 

Then the second day we went on a tour of the waterfalls in the area. They were really spectacular. I really wanted to swim in them but just even the spray from the falls was so cold. I asked our guide if there were any that people swam in, but he said they were all too cold. 

Finally on the last day we were there we hiked up Volcan Villarrica and this was what made our trip. The excursion left from Pucon and we were staying in Villarrica so we had to take the earliest but out of Villarrica at 6:55 to make it there by 7:20. We got there at 7:30 and after running with a backpack full of a days worth of food and water, we got to the tour office to find out the excursion we were with had left. Luckily the people were super nice and after they essentially threw our gear at us, we piled into a van and headed to the volcano. 

When we got there there was the option to take a ski lift part of the way up, but Miriam and I had already decided that we were going to tackle the whole thing. Only later did we learn that the ski lift also cost 7.000 pesos which is about $14 US dollars, so we wouldn't have done it anyway. But there were only 3 of us that decided NOT do the ski lift- Miriam, myself, and a pediatrician from Santiago. However, that first part was definitely the most difficult. It was the steepest uphill. 

After that part there was another easier terrain section, and then we were in the snow. The snow was less of a cardiac workout but it felt much more dangerous. We held this stick like tool to with us to steady us as we walked and also in case we slipped and fell, we were supposed to put it in the ground with mucha fuerza, which I kept translating to myself based on the hand gestures and facial expressions as 'as much strength as you can muster'. 

It took us 5 hours to hike up the volcano and once we go to the top it was all worth it. The view was phenomenal.  

The best part of the volcano hike by far: To get down the volcano, we slid down the snow. We had these plastic seats they called 'plasticos' attached to our belt. We were sliding so fast and so much snow was traveling with you. At the bottom you ended up in a pile of snow.  But don't worry, we actually did have a lot of control over our speed with our stick-tool (I forgot the word for it). And there were several of these that we went down. So you would slide down one snow slide then walk over to a different one and then slide down that one. We were one of the last groups down the mountain for the day, too, so the slides were pretty formed. If they had given me the option of hiking back up the mountain at the bottom of the snow to go sliding again, I would have done it in a heartbeart. We didn't get any pictures of that but it was something like this: 

Coming down only took 3 hours. Unfortunately, both Miriam and my cameras were on the brink of life so we didn't get that many pictures (what I uploaded here is all). But luckily doctor from Santiago, Cristian, was nice enough to take some of us and agreed to send them to us later.  I'll add them to a facebook album when I get them.