weekend trips

on the weekends we've been taking short trips to some of the destinations nearby that we've been missing.

a couple weeks ago, we went to puerto saavedra, a small town on the coast. there we ate crab directly out of the shell and laid on the beach, watching the waves of the atlantic. we saw a bunch of weird bright blue jellyfish washed up on shore, which unfortunately i didn't photograph.


also, we went to pucon again, to finally climb the volcano! villarrica volcano is 2,847 meters high and one of the most active volcanoes in south america. approxiately 200 people go up it every day. sometimes it is not possible to reach the top, due to the poisonous fumes the volcano emits.

the day we went, it was really windy, which was unfortunate. it meant we could not take the chair lift (there is skiing here during the winter) for the first part of the climb, meaning climbing on scree. but once we got a bit higher, to the part of the mountain that is still covered in snow, things got even tougher. we went up in single file, zigzagging across, and always with our ice picks anchored in the snow. it was slow going, but we were one of the fastest groups. it was even more difficult because of the altitude, i developed this awful-sounding cough on the way up, which quickly disappeared once we were back at sea level.

once we were almost at the top, it was unclear whether we would go all the way up. the volcano was smoking a lot, there were a lot of fumes, and the wind was blowing the wrong way. we kept getting drafts of biting sulphur fumes, which burn the throat and nose.
for the most part, we could just follow in the footsteps that were already there. but our guide decided to go a bit sideways rather than the usual route, due to the fumes, which meant more work, namely striking a path. at the top the snow was a bit icy, too. it was a bit scary, because the volcano was quite steep, if you would fall you would just keep on rolling down the snow for quite a while....

but we made it all the way up to the crater, we were the second group that day to reach it. we only hung around for about ten minutes, then our guide made us leave. once we were back out of the stinky fume-y area, we got to the really fun part: sledding all the way back down! we had been given plastic butt-sleds and there were already luges in the snow from the sleds. so we just had to sit down and go, using our ice picks as breaks.
at the first one i was really scared, as it was really steep. but it turned out to be really really awesome. in total we covered about 1,500 meters altitude difference on the sleds. we were soaked through by the time we reached the bottom, despite all our waterproof gear. but it was hot and sunny, and once we got back to pucon, me and steffi hit the beach.

although that way up was incredibly difficult, it was totally worth it for the view, the crater, and the sledding!

here are the pictures:

-puerto saavedra
-pucon