View of the Volcano from our Hostel
The next morning we went and met with the man who had offered the guided volcano trip the day before and told him we were down. He told us that the next day was the day to go, according to the weather, and to meet him again at 8pm that night. Once back at the hostel we decided to go hydrospeeding. With a name like that how could we not? We were supplied with helmets, wetsuits, flippers, and a foam boogie board kinda thing. It was around 10 C (50F) both outside, and in the water. Cold. So cold that I put my sweater back on over my wetsuit before we got into the water. We cruised down the river on these boards through some pretty tame, but still exciting rapids. Super fun, and of course, we concluded with a beer. We were led by a guide, who was taking pictures the whole time, which we were given for free. Nice touch.
After getting back to the hostel we met a Danish couple, the first Dane´s of our trip, a couple from Ashland, Oregon who was heading off to a bar owned by a couple from Oceanside, California that we were going to try to get to but didn´t make it that evening because I was busy makin apple turnovers. It isn't fall without baking with apples!. It was another fairly low key night back at the hostel which was turning into the best group of fellow travelers we´ve run into. Everybody seemed to click super well. Around 8pm we headed to the guide agency for the volcano trip, and the owner told us it was going to be super windy the next day so to wait until Thursday. Since we were planning on staying in Pucon another couple of days anyway we decided to sign up for Thursday instead. Back at the hostel we met a Dutch guy who was planning on doing the Wednesday ascent and informed him to switch to Thursday, which he did. Now we were responsible if he didn´t make it to the top because of weather Thursday or something. We concluded the night just sharing stories with other travelers and then headed into our geodesic dome tent.
The following morning I was up pretty early and surprised to see the Danish couple and a few others up and early getting ready for a hike up to some lakes that was a part of our trek in a couple days, so we didn´t join. Instead we hung around until early afternoon and headed out with a group of others all heading to a waterfall that was a couple hour hike up this private road. First we had to coordinate getting all 8 of us into taxis and communicate with the taxi drivers to get us to the right and same spot to start walking up the road from. This was a pretty great hike as well. Through some farms with horses and cows, good views of the mountains around us, and an easy grade up. Though, the crummy hand drawn map could have had some better landmarks, we eventually found our way to this 50 meter waterfall after scaling some pretty steep terrain up and down a few times to find the trail. We all felt pretty dumb once we found it and it was super obvious. It was quite the impressive waterfall, although a bit cold hanging out in the mist. We made some epic sandwiches and had a couple beers at the top of the waterfall and then continued back to the spot in the road we were dropped off.
After getting back to the hostel we convinced the whole crew to head to the Oceanside couple owned bar which had happy hour, hotwings (which the Dutch guy Pieter thought was way too spicy, a common trend we´ve noiced among the Dutch), and fish tacos. It was also pretty fun to talk to the Oceanside couple about thier story. We left the bar and pub around 9 and continued the party back at the hostel. We met a couple guys from Santa Cruz, got some tips on some treks around and had a long conversation about Organic labelling in the U.S. It was a pretty late night.
The next morning was volcano climbing day! Which made the late night a bit unfortunate because we had to be at the guiding office at 7am in the morning. I didn´t forget breakfast though, so we had some oatmeal and french toast, though we ran out of time for coffee which was dearly missed by me anyway. Since we had all our own gear it was pretty quick showing up at the office, grabbing some ´¨ass protectors¨ for sliding back down the volcano once we reached the top. That morning the owner was super happy that he convinced us to climb today because the group the day before had to turn around due to too much wind. Which also meant we saved Pieter from having to turn around the day before. We got to the base of the climb around 8 in the morning and had about a 6 hour return trip to the top. It was a fairly leisurely pace because there were definitely people who weren´t in the best shape, which was actually pretty impressive when most of them made it. It was a super clear day and you could see all the way down to Pucon, the lake, and about a half a dozen volcanos in the surrounding area. The first hour and a half up was without crampons or ice axe, and ended at a ski lift that wasn´t running, so the entire dozen companies and all their clients, about a 150 people, all hung out in the shelter of the lift. It was fun because we ran into the hostel crew (it was controversial for us to go up with a different company, but for half price, ya know) and ate lunch with all of them. Then we all got our crampons, helmet, and ice axes prepped and continued on up. This is the point where a few of the out of shape people from all the groups headed back down. It was a fairly gradual switch-backy climb up with a few snack and water breaks. We shoulda brought more water after a night of drinking :/. But we were one of the first groups to the top which was nice to take some pictures and see the views before all 150 people were having a party on top. We peaked over the crater and got fumes of toxic sulfur smoke, so that was a quick peak, and then attempted to document the entire view around. We made super epic sandwiches and cracked a beer, which all the smart climbers had, including Pieter who had a Dutch beer. We hung out on top for a bit, Acacia convinced a couple girls from the hostel crew to Mt. Babe with her, and then we were one of the first groups to start heading back down. Going down was much faster, kind of just giant falling steps down to be caught by the crampons on the snow.
I tore my rain pants by stabbing them with crampons. Besides that it was a fairly quick descent, and we were back to the hostel by 4:30. We left the hostel to send some letters, grabbed showers before the entire rest of the hostel, and then ended up going back out to the Oceanside bar and pub for some drinks with all the hostel climbers. After hanging out there for a while, we all got hungry and went in search of an ¨ethnic¨ place which ended up being way too pricey. Thus began the long journey all over town with a group of 12 people - Team Famished - to find an open restaurant. We ended up finding an Arabic place, so ethnic after all, and had some pretty ok falafel, hummus, and tabouleh. I went to bed pretty soon after we got back because I was exhausted.But not before we capped the night with the worst rum I have ever had. Everyone knew the bottle only cost $4, but after it was portioned out I was the only one who shot it. Hah. oops.
The following morning we had a pancake celebration and/or exposition with the Danish couple. They were making crepes, and we were making American style yeast rising pancakes from Brodie´s recipe. It was the best! So many pancakes, with peanut butter, jam, fresh strawberries, bananas, chocolate, dulce de leche, and walnuts. Quite the spread. A few other people got in on it and marvelled at the miracle that is pancakes. Yum. This lasted from about 9am to 1pm. Lots of pancakes.
After cleaning up and coming down from our sugar rush we went out and got some food for the next few days of trekking, searched for propane for our stove but got some white gas instead to use with the stove we originally brought down here. I was stoked to try to make it work again. On our way to the grocery store we passed a vendor on the street. Then stopped, looked at eachother, and rushed back. There were two bottles that were originally apple juice, but were now homemade hot sauce, one red, and one green. We couldn´t resist. Immediately after purchasing we opened them for a smell. OH MAN. YUM. The green was avocado based, with cilantro and spicy. The red was much spicier, and chipotle pepper based, perhaps.
I bought some shoe laces since the ones on my boot broke, and we finished up some things on the internet, played with the dog at the hostel a bit, and then headed off towards the mountains! Except I realized that I left my coat, the phone charger, and new laces at the hostel when we were getting gas, so we had a minor delay, but were off to find some hotsprings and some mountains by 3pm!
After getting back to the hostel we met a Danish couple, the first Dane´s of our trip, a couple from Ashland, Oregon who was heading off to a bar owned by a couple from Oceanside, California that we were going to try to get to but didn´t make it that evening because I was busy makin apple turnovers. It isn't fall without baking with apples!. It was another fairly low key night back at the hostel which was turning into the best group of fellow travelers we´ve run into. Everybody seemed to click super well. Around 8pm we headed to the guide agency for the volcano trip, and the owner told us it was going to be super windy the next day so to wait until Thursday. Since we were planning on staying in Pucon another couple of days anyway we decided to sign up for Thursday instead. Back at the hostel we met a Dutch guy who was planning on doing the Wednesday ascent and informed him to switch to Thursday, which he did. Now we were responsible if he didn´t make it to the top because of weather Thursday or something. We concluded the night just sharing stories with other travelers and then headed into our geodesic dome tent.
The following morning I was up pretty early and surprised to see the Danish couple and a few others up and early getting ready for a hike up to some lakes that was a part of our trek in a couple days, so we didn´t join. Instead we hung around until early afternoon and headed out with a group of others all heading to a waterfall that was a couple hour hike up this private road. First we had to coordinate getting all 8 of us into taxis and communicate with the taxi drivers to get us to the right and same spot to start walking up the road from. This was a pretty great hike as well. Through some farms with horses and cows, good views of the mountains around us, and an easy grade up. Though, the crummy hand drawn map could have had some better landmarks, we eventually found our way to this 50 meter waterfall after scaling some pretty steep terrain up and down a few times to find the trail. We all felt pretty dumb once we found it and it was super obvious. It was quite the impressive waterfall, although a bit cold hanging out in the mist. We made some epic sandwiches and had a couple beers at the top of the waterfall and then continued back to the spot in the road we were dropped off.
On the Way to the Waterfall
Eating a Delicious Apple at the Waterfall
The next morning was volcano climbing day! Which made the late night a bit unfortunate because we had to be at the guiding office at 7am in the morning. I didn´t forget breakfast though, so we had some oatmeal and french toast, though we ran out of time for coffee which was dearly missed by me anyway. Since we had all our own gear it was pretty quick showing up at the office, grabbing some ´¨ass protectors¨ for sliding back down the volcano once we reached the top. That morning the owner was super happy that he convinced us to climb today because the group the day before had to turn around due to too much wind. Which also meant we saved Pieter from having to turn around the day before. We got to the base of the climb around 8 in the morning and had about a 6 hour return trip to the top. It was a fairly leisurely pace because there were definitely people who weren´t in the best shape, which was actually pretty impressive when most of them made it. It was a super clear day and you could see all the way down to Pucon, the lake, and about a half a dozen volcanos in the surrounding area. The first hour and a half up was without crampons or ice axe, and ended at a ski lift that wasn´t running, so the entire dozen companies and all their clients, about a 150 people, all hung out in the shelter of the lift. It was fun because we ran into the hostel crew (it was controversial for us to go up with a different company, but for half price, ya know) and ate lunch with all of them. Then we all got our crampons, helmet, and ice axes prepped and continued on up. This is the point where a few of the out of shape people from all the groups headed back down. It was a fairly gradual switch-backy climb up with a few snack and water breaks. We shoulda brought more water after a night of drinking :/. But we were one of the first groups to the top which was nice to take some pictures and see the views before all 150 people were having a party on top. We peaked over the crater and got fumes of toxic sulfur smoke, so that was a quick peak, and then attempted to document the entire view around. We made super epic sandwiches and cracked a beer, which all the smart climbers had, including Pieter who had a Dutch beer. We hung out on top for a bit, Acacia convinced a couple girls from the hostel crew to Mt. Babe with her, and then we were one of the first groups to start heading back down. Going down was much faster, kind of just giant falling steps down to be caught by the crampons on the snow.
Meal-in-a-bar bar anyone?
We made it to the top!
Picture with Rocky the Raccoon
The active crater at the top with super toxic smoke
I tore my rain pants by stabbing them with crampons. Besides that it was a fairly quick descent, and we were back to the hostel by 4:30. We left the hostel to send some letters, grabbed showers before the entire rest of the hostel, and then ended up going back out to the Oceanside bar and pub for some drinks with all the hostel climbers. After hanging out there for a while, we all got hungry and went in search of an ¨ethnic¨ place which ended up being way too pricey. Thus began the long journey all over town with a group of 12 people - Team Famished - to find an open restaurant. We ended up finding an Arabic place, so ethnic after all, and had some pretty ok falafel, hummus, and tabouleh. I went to bed pretty soon after we got back because I was exhausted.But not before we capped the night with the worst rum I have ever had. Everyone knew the bottle only cost $4, but after it was portioned out I was the only one who shot it. Hah. oops.
The following morning we had a pancake celebration and/or exposition with the Danish couple. They were making crepes, and we were making American style yeast rising pancakes from Brodie´s recipe. It was the best! So many pancakes, with peanut butter, jam, fresh strawberries, bananas, chocolate, dulce de leche, and walnuts. Quite the spread. A few other people got in on it and marvelled at the miracle that is pancakes. Yum. This lasted from about 9am to 1pm. Lots of pancakes.
Pancakes With The Danish couple and Pujah
After cleaning up and coming down from our sugar rush we went out and got some food for the next few days of trekking, searched for propane for our stove but got some white gas instead to use with the stove we originally brought down here. I was stoked to try to make it work again. On our way to the grocery store we passed a vendor on the street. Then stopped, looked at eachother, and rushed back. There were two bottles that were originally apple juice, but were now homemade hot sauce, one red, and one green. We couldn´t resist. Immediately after purchasing we opened them for a smell. OH MAN. YUM. The green was avocado based, with cilantro and spicy. The red was much spicier, and chipotle pepper based, perhaps.
Our Hot Sauces
I bought some shoe laces since the ones on my boot broke, and we finished up some things on the internet, played with the dog at the hostel a bit, and then headed off towards the mountains! Except I realized that I left my coat, the phone charger, and new laces at the hostel when we were getting gas, so we had a minor delay, but were off to find some hotsprings and some mountains by 3pm!
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