Channy's Travels: Hydrospeeding & Volcanos

I've officially left Argentina and made my way to Pucon, Chile for my first stop in the country. Pucon is a volcano and lake side town about 780km south of Santiago. Surrounded by rapids, mountains and waterfalls, the natural beauty of the area speaks for itself. After rushing through a grueling 95 hours of bussing and 5 cities in the last two week minus layovers, I'm quite ready to settle down in one city for a little bit. That city being Pucon! After jamming the fridge full of my own groceries, I began my awesome "relaxing" time in the city.

Hydrospeeding

Think 8 degree celsius river rapids, a wetsuit, a helmet, a bodyboard/raft, flippers and Diego, the crazy Chilean guide. I've actually never heard of hydroing before and was recommended to check it out by my mate Dimumu just before he left the city. Teaming up with another dozen backpackers, we all took the plunge into the cold cold Liucura River. The first bit is pretty relaxed, slowly getting comfortable with the gear but quickly you plunge head first into Class 3 rapids! Heading left, right and head on through the river, you dodge shallow patches, hidden boulders and get absolutely drenched in the process. 45 minutes later and the final rapid approaches, two rivers join together into one HUGE rapid sending you tumbling head over heels until you pop out the far side grinning ear to ear while nursing a huge adrenaline rush.

Pre Hydro Selfie

Volcan Villarrica

When I found out that you can attempt to summit the nearby volcano I was instantly excited. Obviously. However It's still winter in South America.. Even though I've been wearing shorts, beaters and flip flops through most of my travels. But that means that the weather isn't ideal for climbing a 2847m volcano. Two Irish lads, an American, an Uruguayian and myself decided to hire a private guide instead, as the normal tour wasn't running.. because of the weather. The forecast was looking bad all week, with thursday looking like the best of the worst and so our guide gave us a run down Wednesday night emphasizing that we'd be going as fast as we could to beat the rain. He left us with the fact that the decision to climb or not would be decided at 6:45am the following morning. 6:45am rolls around, and for the first day in the city I see blue skies and a clear view of the Volcano! Boo yah!

View of Volcan Villarica from the base

Gearing up, we head to the base and begin our ascent from 1400m. 1.5 hours later we arrive at 2000m and I literally collapse into the snow. Five hours of sleep was probably the worst thing I could've done to myself. Anyway, a litre of water and most of my lunch later, I'm feeling energized and off we go again. Bein the first group up, it was simply just pristine snow that we were trekking through. Zig zagging our way to the Glaciar at about 2/3rds of the way up, the views of the landscape was phenomenal. By that point the weather turned south on us and unforunately we were forced to turn around. Just another reason to come back though!