Pucon Chile

After crossing the border, where John forgot my set of the car keys, we drove through a rainstorm into the town of Pucon and found El Refugio Hostel. While we were looking we were approached by a man offering a guided trip up the volcano. We knew if we were going to go, it'd have to be with a guide because of the rules of the park. Bummer for us because every agency offered the packaged deal of a guide, gear, and transport, 2/3 of which we didn't need. We told him we had our own gear, and he was willing to give us a huge discount. We decided to still think about it and told him we'd be back the next day. Our first night in Pucon was pretty laid back. We played a bit of backgammon and met a few people. We opted to sleep in the dome tents in the backyard, which were a bit damp, but totally fine. Especially for me because the hostel owner, Peter, would come and plug in the heater in the morning while I was still asleep.

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.

On the Way to the Waterfall

Eating a Delicious Apple at the Waterfall

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.

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!

Osorno, Bariloche, and El Bolson

The brewers of John´s beer of preference.

We drove to Osorno, struggled a bit in the big city, and then found an alright place to stay. As soon as we could we set off to find this craft brew party that Jeff had told us about. John led us about 10 blocks in the wrong direction with his GPS enabled phone, before he realized it was wrong, so then we walked allllllll the way back, stopped at the bar that was hosting the event, and were directed to the party.

John was searched upon entrance, metal detector and all, I was given a pass as soon as I started to empty my pockets. The music was LOUD. and not live, like the posters had promised. There were about 10 craft brewers from the region, though, which was fantastic. They all had at least 2 beers on tap. I started with a Belgian Ale, a style rarely found here, and was pleasantly surprised. Soon Jeff met us with a friend from Germany who was travelling the world on a motorcycle. Unfortunately he wasn't feeling well, so left too soon. John and I sampled most of the beers, definitely all we were interested in, but that Belgian was by far my favorite. I made a slight mistake of ordering empanadas,   the only vegetarian thing on the very limited event menu. I asked for two, but they only came in a serving of 12, so I agreed. I was hungry! $7 USD later, John gave me a bit of a hard time, but after we found some hot sauce I think he agreed it was a solid purchase. I had a giant skewer of meat-chicken, sausage, and lomo- as well as 7 of the empanadas.

I make goofy faces while eating empanadas, and yes, those are 3 cups of beer for the two of us, we couldn´t let Jeff´s go to waste!

We left earlier than we would have liked because we had a bit of a curfew. I called Justin because it was his birthday!!!!!! and ended up going to bed way too late. The next morning I woke up to the woman of the house asking if I was going today. She woke me up an hour before check out!!

I was just walking up to the hostel from a morning walk to get Acacia up in time to make some breakfast, some coffee, and get out of the house by 10 when she met me at car saying the lady working there had kicked her out. Lame. No breakfast is devastating. We drove to the nearest supermarket to get provisions for the next few days since we´d be trekking, and then wandered through the municipal market hoping to find good coffee and some good pastries. We found bad coffee and pastries in the market and settled. Then we drove east towards the Argentine border and knew there was a private farm with access to a trail in the national park surrounding a volcano. The trail was supposed to go to some hotsprings, geysers, and a huge crater in a volcano. So it sounded pretty awesome. We arrived at a closed looking restaurant with the same name as the farm we were trying to go to, knocked on the door, and were greeted by the guy who collects money and registers hikers.

Turns out the volcano erupted in 2010. Our guide book was written in 2009. Which meant that the hotsprings and trail we were trying to go to had been covered by lava and no longer existed. Damn. We paid our 20,000 pesos to get in anyway, and headed off up this road to a refugio that was an ´easy 3 hour hike`, and the biggest concern the guy at the restaurant had was that we don´t get lost since he had to search for an Israeli a few days earlier. For an easy hike, it was an uphill battle on the steep, muddy terrain with a race against the sun to get to a refugio before it got completely dark. It was especially hard because the trail was SO eroded.

We arrived to find a legit refugio complete with a wood stove and a stack of wood, a couple kettles, and a table to do all our cooking  right around sunset. Perfect. Warm fire, mango coconut milk rice, several rounds of hot chocolate whisky, and a cold enough night for me to not be too hot in my sleeping bag. And it was a perfectly clear night, so no rain, and a lot of shooting stars.

The following morning after a slow start with pancakes and coffee, we decided trekking 9 hours along exposed volcanic terrain and camping there didn´t sound as fun as a shorter day hike up to the crater and then another night in a refugio with a fire. We hiked up the face of the volcano with some pretty epic views, but with some pretty dense clouds coming towards us. About 20 meters from the top the ice on the mountain got a bit too sketchy for Acacia and I, so we carefully slid down a bit of the volcanoe on our butts and then raced the rain to our refugio, which we got to just as the first few sprinkles got us. WHITE OUT. It was quite the storm outside, and I was super stoked we weren´t trying to camp. We gathered some wood, made a fire, played some backgammon while drinking some whisky hot chocolate, and I made some pancake batter to rise for the next morning.

Chilly morning

The view out the window as soon as we got inside

The storm was pretty friendly to us. Rained all through the night and shook the refugio quite a bit. but we had a crisp clear morning to relax at our refugio, toss the frisbee around, clean up from the pancake batter rising over the edge of the pot, and enjoy some coffee in the sun. Perfect morning. We snapped a few quick pictures with Rocky the Racoon, and took a leisurely pace down the eroded trail back to our car. We played some more frisbee. Must catch all the frisbees at no expense! Acacia hucked a curve into some bushes, and I was determined to catch the disk. Owwww! Turns out there was a ditch on the other side of the bushes that I fell straight into. Acacia had quite the laugh. It was a leisurely night of camping in the restaurant parking lot.

The valley

The stars were extra twinkly, John was pretty sure it was the elevation. I was positive he was full opf shit, since we weren't even above 1000 m. Seems to be a reoccuring theme. John thinks that we are always significantly higher than we are, and attributes everything to it. 

Anyway, we left the next morning, bound for Argentina. We had our first border crossing with Alejandro, no problems.

On our way to Bariloche there was a pull out with a view of a lake, which also happened to have a photorapher taking tourist photos of families. Not too unusual, except that in addition to the spectacular view (behind the clouds, I'm sure), he also had a spectacular dog to pose with everyone too. His name was Hector. We skipped the tourist photo, and it seemed wrong to take our own of Hector, so we decided to just snap a quick one of the sample photos.

We continued on to Bariloche, stopped at the Parks Office, and learned that many of the trails were closed because of the season, and that high wind and some rain was expected. We decided that it would be best to continue to El Bolson, the hop capital of Argentina, although we didn't see a single hop plant while we were there.

We chose a hostel called Joy, that was owned by a man who was learning English, his favorite phrase in English was a very enthusiastic ¨´HELLO!´and ´Very Good!´ and his favorite in Spanish ´papas fritas con vermouth. Strange. We drank beer from the local brewery, this one was pretty unique because of their huge variety. Between us we tried 5 styles? I think. The standout for me was the aji, or spicy pepper beer. The first I have tried. and mostly well balanced for having such an overpowering non beer flavor. 

We continued our night at the hostel with 2 Spaniards and an Argentinian, and then grabbed a couple of other Argentinians who were drinking wine on the street while we were grabbing more beer. We played something like yahtzee, learned the crucial phrase of ´betchu frio´which means something like cold hearted, but is thrown around sometimes as a joke, but other times seriously.

It was a late night. 

The next day we took it pretty easy for awhile. It was raining and we figured we could hang out in the hostel, try to get some photos uploaded, and have a low key kind of a day. We met the hostel owner´s english teacher from the states, thought about going on a day hike, and spent the majority of the day reading, playing some chess and backgammon, and hanging around the hostel. We tried to find a laundry place with no success. But, I found a phone store so I bought an Argentine sim card for the phone, and we planned a bit for the trek we´d hopefully start the next day when the rain stopped.

The next day the rain didn´t stop. But, we had a late start waiting for the weather to clear. Also, I met a group of guys staying at the hostel, one of which was a forester in Alberta. Crazy? We ended up driving out to the start of the trek at a place that advertised having beer. Closed for the season. Poop. So we made some quick sandwiches and headed off down the trail to the campground outside of a refugio, which was really a few homesteaders opening up there homes to hikers. The trek was pretty nice. We crossed 2 super sketchy bridges held together with wire and rotting wood, made a decent climb up to another bridge that was less sketchy but would have resulted in a tumble to death if it hadn´t held, and got to the first refugio. This refugio was run by an old Chilean guy with a farm of sheep and horses, and a lovely apple orchard. It was a pretty epic place to live. We continued a bit further to the second refugio where 3 guys lived and immediately offered us water and yerba mate upon arrival. We hucked the disc real quickly before it got too dark, then set up the tent and hid our stuff from the rain. We made some pasta and played some backgammon. He's being pretty dramatic about this weather. It was sprinkling on and off this day, but not even enough to wear rain gear.

John´s always packing the camera and having to dig it out immediately after packing his bag

Hudson would hate it

Does it get any better?

The following morning I made some pancakes in the rain, met a fellow trekker from Buenos Aires who was headed up to the same lake/refugio we were heading to, and took off for a decent muddy climb to a spectacular refugio setting. The hike was amazing! We were following a pretty big river for most of it. This day it was rainy enough for rain gear, but it wasn't too bad. A couple waterfall views and fall colors. The highlight for me were more Alerce trees. Soon after we reached the refugio by a lake. Certainly scenic, even though the clouds were pretty low.

Yes, the trail is a log that is attached to a cliff with wire

The revised fire location

 By the time we reached the refugio I wasn't feeling very well. We knew nobody would be at this refugio, but that we could still camp. After scoping things out and determining everything was locked, except for a shed for showering (where I made some hot water for tea out of the rain and wind) we heard a cat. It was behind a locked door on the second floor of the refugio that had definitely been closed for the season. It seemed pretty frantic to get out when it heard us. We tried the windows, and picking the lock. No good. John, uncharacteristically, was pretty worried about this cat. After inspecting the roof I was pretty sure that it could get out, though. Sure enough once John stopped trying to open the door, it was on the roof. After setting up the tent I decided I had enough of the rain and crawled into bed pretty early, with a terrible headache and a sore throat, but luckily a book too. After sleeping terribly that night, the next day I did the same, except I didn't have anything to read anymore.


Before Acacia went to bed, I was determined to make a fire because our jenky stove was not working that well and I was hungry. After about 2 hours of solid attempts I finally got the fire to light, even in the wind and the rain, using the last few pages of my write in the rain notebook. Apparently writing and making fires in the rain don´t require the same set of characteristics from paper, because it did not work that well. In any case, I made some pasta pretty quickly, and let the fire die after that so I could go to bed. As usual, I was out of the tent a couple hours before Acacia and had made some pancakes and coffee. Acacia was feeling terrible though, so instead of hiking up to another lake as originally planned, we spent the day at the campsite. This meant I had a day to kill, and I don´t do idle very well. So I went to work finding a wood fired, super rusty stove laying by the side of a building and carried it over lakeside next to a bench carved from a giant log. I found a stack of dry wood under an awning and went to work making myself a fire again. This worked like a charm. I spent several hours making tea and stoking the fire as I sat in the rain next to the lake. The rain was just hitting the outside of the stove and immediately evaporating which was pretty fun. My Buenos Aires buddy had gone off hiking to the lake we were going to head to, but had turned around at a river crossing and got pretty stoked on the fire. But, he didn´t like the rain. So we stuck a large stick through the stove and precariously carried it over to underneath a roof where we could cook out of the rain and stay warm. I pretty much spent the rest of the day hanging out with my buddy and stoking the fire while serving tea and food to Acacia. We kept the fire going into the night and Acacia came out to hang out a bit, but we both ended up getting into the tent pretty early.

Whata Tree

The next morning was a long 28 km hike I think it was more all the way back to the car, since we had registered with the national park office and told them we´d be back that day. Basically we just walked for 9 hour straight and ended the return right at dark. We headed back to Joy hostel for one more night there and met a group of Israelis who we shared a dorm with. They idled all evening, but decided to pack for their early morning bus, right before they left, around 3:30 am. Loudly. 

We left the next day, with the plan to head north and cross back into Chile to Pucon.