Upon arriving in Pucón, Chile, a small town near the base of the Andes Mountain range, famous mainly for its active volcano that lights up the night sky. This is a tourist destination because you are allowed to climb the volcano and look down into the bubbling lava from the top, although climbs only happen on clear sky days. When we arrived, it was anything but.
Raining and overcast, we booked into a hotel and waited. During the days that we waited, rather than staying still, we hired bicycles and went for a ride through the countryside, and then hiked in a forest close along the Argentina-Chile border to see some rare Monkey Trees and other interesting flora.
Finally on New Years Eve the weather cleared enough and we got a call at 4am that the hike was on. Before sunset we were already equipped and on the mountain, and as early as we were, there were other teams ahead of us. By the time we reached the top the clouds were starting to build up, and when we finally returned to the bottom news was that some teams had not been able to reach the top for the clouds that had formed.
With the elation of completing such a special climb, we stayed in Pucón to celebrate the new year before continuing our journey onward to Bariloche the next day.
Bike Ride | Forest Trek | Climbing Pucón Volcano | New Year Celebrations
Pucón Bike Ride
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Pucón Forest Trek
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Climbing Pucón Volcano
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A Pucón New Year
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So what will we be doing here in this amazing place? Trekking through those amazing peaks and mountain ranges that we can see for three or four days. The path that we have chosen to trek is one of the most difficult and least frequently trekked paths in this area. The track is hard to follow and climbs over the top of a number of mountain ranges on the way, often over ice and snow. To me it sounds perfect.
Then everybody told us that there was nothing there. So what did we do? We went there anyway. And you know what? Everybody was right. There is nothing to do there.