Hot springs in Pucon

So delighted with our ascent of Villarica we treated our selves to some fine coffee and cake in a very obliging cafe in Pucon. We once again filled our bags with pasta and tuna and took a local bus to Huerquehue National park, about two hours out of town.This was to be a short and easy four day walk with our arrival at some hot springs on day two being the highlight. We skirted around lakes and walked through wonderful forests of araucaria trees and watched and listened to Magellanic woodpeckers tapping for their supper. We overnighted in the forest before heading on to the hot springs. Nestled at the edge of a very cold river, boiling hot water ran down the hill and a series of rock enclod}sed pools were formed, at varying temperatures. We toasted ourselves till it was time for dinner, then ate, slept and crawled straight from the tent back in first thing the next morning. The most difficult part of the hike was climbing back out to put on our rucksacks and wander back!

Joe sitting in the hot springs. He is relaxed but the look of concentration is due to the concerns raised by James Lovelock in his book "The revenge of Gaia". Apparently the world is in serious trouble.

Onwards to Pucon

So, Joe has posted some photos of us climbing in Frey. We spent a week camping by the lake there, with the occasional swim, pasta and tuna as usual and some very fine climbing. We meet an American couple and a Polish couple, also climbing. We were woken one morning by a helicopter that came to collect supplies from a branch of the army that were climbing and hiking also. We were lucky to meet some Chileans who told us of the wonderful climbing in Socaire near San Pedro de Atacama, that Joe writes about above. We said goodbye to Brid & Jim and Craig as they headed off on their own adventures. Brid & Jim chose to rent bicycles and visit a few vineyards in Mendosa and Craig had a date in Brazil. We had our last tastes of Bariloche cake and steak and headed to Pucon, Chile.





Pucon is home to Villarica Volcano. This is an active volcano that gives a wonderful backdrop to the town. Joe & I packed bags with a fine lunch, for extreme picnicing, and our crampons, ice axes and wolly hats. We managed to get a lift to the base of the mountain. The only downside was that we were collected at 4am!Well 3.45am as it turned out. This proved to be a winner as daily, tour groups drag stacks of tourists up to smell the sulphar. We would avoid the crowds and have the top to ourselves.





So, with head torches to light our way we followed switch backs up the mountain until we came upon the snow and ice. The moon was helpful and with the aid of the reflective snow, we no longer needed torches as we carefully climbed up the ice cap. At this stage the sun was begining to rise and colour the sky beautifully. More difficult ground of loose scree of wonderfully formed volcanic rock lead to the edge of the crater. A cloud of stinking sulphur constantly rose from the crater and we could hear a deep grumbling from within. We fed it a bread roll, just to keep it happy, before sitting down to our own lunch. The edge of the creator was also dotted with small jets of sulphur, burping and pulsing out.





On the way down we spotted a well established ice slide. A short cut to avoid the steepest section of the downhill ice trudge. Joe, poised with ice axe, climbed in and descended the mountain at high speed. Im delighted to anounce that although I could see the spray of snow as he desperately tried to perfom an ice axe break before reaching the scree at the bottom, he made it down without a scratch. His biggest complaint being that his bottom was quite cold!!!

Joe meets a condor!

While on our very long walk, in the hills above Bariloche, we were greatly rewarded. As we descended down into a valley we could see a condor perced on the cliff edge. We then noticed a second as it swooped in to try an unnerve its companion. Joe was able to get quite close before the resting bird simply "dropped" of the cliff edge, into an updraft and continued to hunt for lunch.

What happened in February??

Well, I shall make an attempt to fill in the blanks. We headed north from Puerto Natales to El Cafate an onwards to El Chalten. Both towns are tourist traps with wooden chalets and expensive coffee and cakes. El Chalten is the gateway to Parque National Los Glaciers, home to Fitroy and Cerro Torre, two fine mountains. We camped in the town and got use to eating dust. The locals were busy puting in a tarmac road and pouring their first footpaths so when the wind blew we all got sand blasted and boy did it blow. We bought a stack of food and walked the 3 hours up to a high camp in the hills. A popular spot with easy access to loads of nice walks. Joe, Brid & James all decided to spend a day getting sick and I was nearly driven to writing poetry about the windy conditions. We woke up covered in dust daily and walked to some fine lakes, to see a wonderful glacier, and to climb the ridge of Cerro Madsen only 1806m but my first Patagonian peak.





Our return to town saw the start of our true fine living. The local shops were very uninspiring but they did sell chunks of red meat. So a series of barbques were lit and enjoyed and we downed chunks of meat like we had never seen before. We also experienced a day of rain followed by a day of wind and that was enough of El Chalten for all of us. I did get the scissors out on the windy day and cut Joes hair. The before and after can be seen here. He returned from the shower with a hairy molly on his lip and I nearly fell over with laughter when I saw it. The french man beside me at the time didnt know what was wrong as he was support a similar growth. All the rage down here a Joe kept it for some time!! A constant source of laughter. Also took a while for the ¨Joe, theres something on your lip¨ joke to not catch him out.





Onwards by overnight bus to Bariloche, with Jim & Brid hanging with the hippies in El bolson for a few days on the way. In Bariloche we once again camped, 3km out of town, to avoid high tourist prices and noisey hostels. Barbques were once again lit and we feasted on even larger chunks of meat and the finest of Malbec wines. Our days started with a swim in the nearby lake that Bariloches sits beside. Oh so different from when we were there on our honeymoon. The sun was splitting the rocks and rain was a thing of the past.We soon found a good coffee house with fab cakes.


You may notice I talk of food a lot. You need to understand that this is not an obsession. It mearly stems from the fact that when in the mountains we have a stable diet of porridge, pasta and tuna, packet soup and cake if we are lucky. Lunches are usually a sandwich, but after 3 days most bread is pretty lame.





So, with bags full of pasta and tuna, we decided to go for a walk. A long one. Six days in total. Not roundabout but strangely up and down. From a place called Pampa Llinda to somewhere else called Colonia Suiza, for all you budding atlas users. Undulating said the guide book. With all our gear and food it was a challenge to get up the valley sides. However, the nature of the walk meant that we camped in a new valley every night, with Mount Tronador a constant companion in the distance. Called mount thunder as ice is constantly crashing off the glacier giving a threatening noise! We had a lake at each camp and our very own valley to enjoy. The sun blazed down on us as we climbed about 500m up and 500m down each day.With quite a few kilometers in between. Sun hats were all the fashion and snow balls were thrown, pasta and tuna were eaten and glacial lakes were swum in.We treated ourselves to a cold beer on reaching a hut on the second last day.





On our return to Bariloche we met a friend of ours Craig Starkey (featuring in a photo below) in the camp site. Stories were exchanged and steak was eaten. Now our group of five headed to the hills again but this time to climb.





I need a rest, its hot here and I think Im sweating pisco sours...