Leaving Patagonia – I was happy about two very different things: 1. For many years I had wanted to visit Patagonia, and I had managed to see all the major sites I had wanted to see. 2. After weeks of not getting enough sleep due to the ridiculously short summer nights that far south, I would finally be moving further north and thus hopefully get more sleep.

When I fly, I sometimes put in one of those bids on the economy plus upgrade, but I always bid ridiculously low amounts and thus never win. Upon arrival at the airport, and trying to drop off my bag, I was told that they need to reprint my boarding pass. I was confused, till I saw I was in seat 1A, and realised that my $5 bid had actually been successful. I was happy to still be in a window seat, as I had high expectations for the views from the upcoming flight.

The views from the flight actually exceeded my already high expectations. Starting with a great view of Torres Del Paine National Park, and later of the Patagonian Icefield. Flying from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt is highly recommended, for those who have the opportunity.

The area around Puerto Montt is full of volcanoes, many of which are active. There are four particularly large volcanoes in the region, but getting access to summit any of them is difficult, for completely understandable reasons, being active volcanoes. My plan was to attempt Villarrica, which has daily tours ascending it. As you come in to land in Puerto Montt, you get a great view of the four volcanoes.

Not much to say about Puerto Montt – I had a sketchy Uber driver who took a rather scenic route to get me to my accommodation, my accommodation wasn’t particularly great, and it wasn’t my favourite town – but it was nice to have a short relaxed period, and to start planning my next phase of the trip. By the time I finished the W-trek, I had abandoned my plan to attempt Aconcagua, and was now looking at visiting some other regions of South America, before heading to Central America. Nearing Christmas, I knew I should hurry up and book a few things before prices get out of hand, if I wasn’t already too late for this.

I did some running on the promenade, bought some new clothing, and spent a lot of time on my laptop planning flights and accommodation. I was very far behind on sorting photos, so catching up on that a bit helped too.

After two nights in Puerto Montt, I was on a bus to Pucon – the main reason I was in the area.

While Puerto Montt wasn’t my favourite spot, it was far from unpleasant. However, getting off the bus in Pucon – I knew this stop would be worth it. And yes, that volcano behind me in the photo above is the one that I would be climbing. The town is only around 250m in altitude, with the volcano summit at 2847m, it really towers above the town. There is also a beautiful lake with a lovely beach and a lot of ducks. While Chilean towns like San Pedro De Atacama and Puerto Natales set a very high standard for scenery, Pucon beats both in terms of good food and atmosphere.

After dropping my bags at my accommodation, I walked around the town. I had pre-booked a tour to climb the mountain, so I would need to stop at their offices to try on the gear they provide, but that would only occur later in the day after the guide returned from the day’s ascent.

After finding the most important site in any town – the local bakery, notably the best one I found anywhere in Chile – I met the guide, and prepared everything for the next morning.

The following morning, I found myself joining two British hikers – Becky and Luis – and we set off for the start of the hike. The guide said it was too misty to attempt, and if we started the hike, and turned back – even after 10 minutes – it would count as an attempt – meaning we would have to pay again if we wanted to try again tomorrow. Becky and I had both read of others having this issue, and thus had a reserve day, but Luis was leaving the following morning. Nonetheless, we took the guide’s advice, and went back to Pucon.

Our guide recommended a visit to Huerquehue National Park, a place I had never heard of. I wasn’t overly interested, but you always regret these things if you don’t go, so I quickly repacked my bag, checked my email to find an email from the Suriname Embassy requesting proof of onward flight, and then made my way to the bus station – where the three of us managed to get some of the last seats on a very full bus.

Its a long ride out to the park, and the Suriname question was on my mind. I had two choices – a direct flight from Suriname to Guyana, or for $10 extra, I could add a 10 hour layover in Trinidad. Now I’m going to hazard a guess that 99% of travelers would be confused what my dilemma is, but how often do you get to visit a new country for a day for just $10 extra? When we discussed it, Becky just laughed and said obviously I must take the layover. As to whether or not I did – I guess you’ll have to wait and see if I post a writeup about spending 10 hours in Trinidad…

Knowing nothing about the park we had just entered, the three of us who had literally met that morning set off into the forests of Southern Chile. The trail has a stated highlight of a waterfall. My love of waterfalls is well known, so I was curious what this would be like.

It was a decent waterfall, although it wouldn’t be worth traveling to the region just to see the waterfall. Anyway, on we went.

As the trail climbed, the weather cleared and Villarrica appeared in all its splendor. I felt a bit bad that Luis would miss it, since we would have been fine if we had opted to continue earlier in the day. Conversely – I would never have visited this park otherwise – and as we had climbed above the waterfall, I was already very happy we had come here.

As you reach the top of the first hill, there’s a lovely lake, but what was really interesting was the trees. It was like hiking in a Dr Seuss book.

For context on how tall the trees are – that’s Becky (above) or me (below) standing in front of them for scale!

After a great day of hiking through the trees, we made our way back to Pucon. When I got back to my room, I sent the necessary paperwork to the Suriname Embassy. My visa was approved the following day.

The next morning, with a much larger group (12), we set out to climb Villarrica in perfect conditions. Some climbers opted to use the ski lift for the lower section of the hike, but wind was too strong and thus the lifts were closed after a few people had started up on them.

For some reason, we set off really fast. I was lagging behind the group early on – which is unusual for me. I’ve often had this problem with guides pushing groups too fast, although it is unusual for me to be at the back of the group in these instances. I’m not sure if that was fatigue, or if we just had a very fast group.

The mountain was very crowded this morning, with probably around 100 hikers across the various teams.

We soon reached the snow. We were all carrying crampons, but with how many people had hiked over the snow, we didn’t need them.

A bit higher up, we passed an old broken ski lift station that was destroyed in an avalanche some years ago. It was a shame to have an eyesore like this in such a beautiful location.

Our ascent on the snow was a lot slower than we had been on the earlier section – with our guide making an effort to keep us together.

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again – the area around Pucon is really beautiful!

As we neared the top, the gradient got gentler. We left most of our gear about 150m vertically below the summit. We would usually require gas masks for the sulfur dioxide gas the volcano breathes out, but the wind was blowing it in the opposite direction, so we carried it up in case, but ultimately didn’t need them.

The snow was getting deeper, but it wasn’t as slippery as I’m used to on snow.

Now one may ask why I was specifically interested in Villarrica over other volcanoes in the region, or why this one is the most commonly climbed one. The answer is simple – there aren’t that many places on earth where one can see lava, and seeing lava has been a major bucket-list item of mine since I was a dinosaur obsessed-five year old. My first attempt had been Sangay Volcano in Ecuador a few months prior – a week before I was there, one could see a one kilometre long flow from the nearest town – but it had been so misty when I was there that I never even saw the volcano. Some goals in life take a few tries to get right.

Me: I don’t see any lava.
Guide: there hasn’t been any lava visible for a few weeks.
Me: is that common?
Guide: no, but it happens sometimes.
Me: I’m just quickly going to go to the summit, so at least I can claim the peak.
Guide: this is the summit.
Me: this isn’t the highest point, the summit is over there.
Guide: you aren’t allowed to go to the real summit, if someone in my group goes there, I get a two year ban on coming back to this park.

43m below the summit – it doesn’t sound like much, but with summits, you either got to it or you didn’t, and the reality is that I didn’t. It wasn’t that I lacked the energy, sometimes summits are denied for reasons beyond your control, and I guess 100 people walking around the crater rim could actually be dangerous, so I guess it makes sense. Nonetheless, I had been to the crater rim of a volcano that is very active, and got to climb a beautiful peak in a beautiful area, so I really have no right to complain.

The way down is a major reason many people climb this mountain – you essentially just slide down a series of narrow channels through the snow on a small piece of plastic they give you. I know this is a highlight for many people – it was great to get down so quickly, and was occasionally a bit scary – especially when you’re right at the back and are on all the powder that has been dislodged into the channel by everyone else, thus giving you almost no control over your speed.

We soon found ourselves back in the bus, with everyone taking their wet shoes off.

Back in Pucon, I had a good burger. It was strange to do a hike with over 1600m elevation gain, yet be back in town relatively early in the day.

Overall, I really enjoyed Pucon. If I was looking for a Chilean town to relax for a few days, it would be the obvious choice.