Pucón: Land of Volcanoes and Tarantulas

Thanks to my great study abroad program, ISA, we had the opportunity to go to Pucón, a city in the lake district of Chile. It was absolutely beautiful, and really reminded me of Colorado which was really wonderful! After a longggg 12 hour nighttime bus ride, we finally arrived and got a couple of hours to rest at our cabins. From there, ISA took us to several beautiful places throughout the day, including waterfalls, blue lagoons (really really blue!), a lunch at a Mapuche woman's house (so cool!), and to top of the day, we got to soak in some hot springs in the mountains. So wonderful.

Beautiful flowers/river in some old lava runoff from the volcano.

Light coming through the roof of a hut at the Mapuche woman's house

Blue flannel, blue lagoon

The next day was a big one, we had to wake up at 5:45am in order to get all set up to hike Volcán Villarrica! This volcano is absolutely beautiful, and can be seen from pretty much everywhere in the surrounding area! We had quite the group (mostly just girls...girl power!) hiking up with us, and it was so cool! We were pretty lucky with the weather to have been able to go up in the first place... they've said that even if there's one big cloud in the sky, they sometimes won't let groups go up! Thankfully we had perfect blue skies. The first bit was just dirt, but then after awhile we were just climbing in snow... which was the best part! We got to use ice picks in order to help us on our way up and down, I know I was feeling pretty legit, just saying. After about 4.5 hours, we made it to the top. It was not an easy hike! At first I was complaining a little about how slow we were going in the dirt part, but I was pretty glad for the slow pace after awhile. However, it was all well worth it once getting to the top, what an incredible view, so amazing! At the top, we walked around the crater of the volcano a bit, but had to make sure to not get too close because there were parts where there was snow, but no supporting ground underneath the snow, so it could have broken off and had someone fall in! Ouch! After getting our fair share of pictures in at the volcano and finishing our lunches, we had to get geared up for going down the volcano. Remember how it took 4.5 hours to get down the volcano? Yeah... it only took maybe 1 hour or so to get down. How is this possible you may ask? Well, we glissaded down! Basically, we slid down the snowy part of the volcano either on our behinds or on small sleds fitted for someone's backside, and let me tell you... it was AWESOME. To give you all an idea of what it was like, my friend Nolan had his GoPro with him, and took a video of part of the way down... here is it's link!

https://vimeo.com/53548844

Basically, it was totally awesome. I mean, who can say that they've been sledding down a volcano in Chile before!? Once we got to the uncovered dirt part, we had to walk the rest of the way down (super sad day), but it was only about 20 minutes... not too bad. We got bussed back to the tour company, and were welcomed back with some cerveza! Awesome, yet again. Thanks tour company! The rest of the day we just lounged around by the lake... hiking volcanoes kind of takes it out of you.  Pictures from the hike are below!

Chairlifts on the volcano... it also has a couple of ski runs!

Laura and I at the top, with a different volcano in the background

Our last day, we still had a full day around Pucón and didn't have to be ready to go until 7pm. We woke up early to catch the earliest bus, and made our way to Huerquehue National Park to do some hiking and sightseeing. It was really beautiful, and we had a great view of the volcano as well as many lakes and waterfalls along the way! A couple of the girls wanted to swim in the waterfall area, but Laura and Emily and I wanted to keep going in order to see the lakes which were higher up! And luckily, we made it and got to see two of the three main lakes. They were really gorgeous. Hiking down had to be quick, because we had to be back in order to catch our 2:15 bus... with a little bit of running at the end (for about 20 minutes actually!) we made it back with a couple of minutes to spare before the bus got there. Before we did though, Emily all of the sudden asked, "Hey guys, did you just see that spider?" And we said, "No, where?" She then proceeded to point at not just any old spider, but a freaking ginormous wild tarantula. Let me tell you, that thing wasn't a spider, it was a stinking monster! Bleh... the picture still gives me the heebie-jeebies. Gross.

Giant, disgusting tarantula monster.

Laura, myself, and Emily at one of the lakes we made it to!

Oh well, it was still another beautiful day in the mountains surrounding by the beauty that we have in the world! Made me feel right at home again (minus the gigantic "spider"). The weekend ended with another 12 hour bus ride back, brutally just as long as the first one, but well worth it after a great weekend in a beautiful place. I can't wait to head back south in December when I go to Patagonia, it's really like a whole other world down there! It really is true what they say about Chile, God took the scraps of every kind of geography in the world, and put it in this country!