Cold Agua Calientes

Today is Christmas, and we´re resting in Pucon, Chile, after completing another 4 day hike. Pucon is famous for its Volcano, which we gave a miss....here´s why.

A few days ago, we went to Los Trancas/Thermas de Chillan, which at this time of year is only a dead quiet ski resort with no snow left on the hill, and therefore almost no-one around. We went on an amazing hike there, walking and hitching our way 8 km up to the ski hill and associated hot spring resort, and then hiking over a low ridge with a hissing steam vent on its shoulder and heading into and up a valley to summit a 2000 metre climb over a ridge and perch on the shoulder of Volcan Chillan.
What a view from our lunch ridge! We were looking into an ancient caldera, the ski hill was perched only on a shoulder of the Volcano. Now we were looking into its center, some unknown size and mostly still filled with snow. Far across the bowl a vent spewed steam from bare rocks and a nearby cliff tumbled a waterfall into a sharp internal valley. Far below us was a patch of green, surrounded by snow and rock, the Agua Calientes for which we were headed.
Ahead of us, a group of 3 hikers were following the actual trail which lead steeply over the rock and snow patches, over the ridge some distance below us, and then rapidly dropped to the hotspring creeks. Since we had already forgone the ¨road more travelled¨by boot packing up to this ridge, we decided to hike around the bowl to the mystery vent before descending to the hotsprings.
What a fabulous experience. The scale of these mountains is so huge and so devoid of features that it seems impossible to judge either distance or size. It was only after cutting hundreds of steps in a long snow traverse, descending impossibly steep snow gullies, crossing numerous patches of volcanic scree, that we finally arrived at the vent. Only then, could we put the volcanic summit, hours above us, our rimside lunch spot, hours up and across from us and the hotsprings, just under one steeply descending hour still below us, into proper perspective. We were actually in a caldera that was a few kms across!
Making it down to the thermals we pitched our tent just off the edge of the snow, next to two thermal creeks that emerged from under the rocks and snow. 150 metres down the patch of green, the three hikers had set up camp. They asked Cheryl what we had seen on our circuitous journey....on the one hand we had seen nothing....on the other hand...everything.
It took no time to set up our camp and we were eating, drinking tea, and basking in a small pool next to the tent, watching clouds roll and spill over the peaks and ridges and marvelling at our unusual circumstances.

Day 2 we woke to cloudy skies, soaked in the creek, and went back to bed, only to rise and eat and pack up during the lunch hour. By 1:30 pm we´d finally begun the steep return directly up to the exit ridge. Cold blasts of wind mixed with rain threatened to literally blow us off the trail, but we managed to top out, and make a rapid descent on steep snow back to a more windless, if rainier elevation. One more low ridge and we were back at the resort and walking back down the 8 km to our hostal in las trancas.

Contrast that with Pucon, crammed with hostals, restaurants that serve Peruvian, Mexican, Chilean, Arabian, Vegetarian, or almost any other ian. Day hikes are offered to the boiling caldera of Villarica, kayaking, rafting, hotsprings tours by day or night, horseback riding, or what else. The volcano tour was only available in groups of identically clad tourists(so that each tour group could tell which gringos were theirs) hiking in bunches with ridiculously early start times. Instead we went for a beautiful 4 day hike to park Querhueque....I could tell you all about it....the monkey puzzle trees, the giant spiders, wild pigs and rainy rainy arroyos, but this picture says it best. Feliz Navidad.....oops....can´t upload pictures tonight, but I´ll post the post anyway, and add the pictures at the next computer.