Villarica Traverse

Room with a view 

The word ‘resort’ was a bit of a misnomer when we arrived.  An elderly couple manned the small kiosk that served as store, check-in, and laundry service.  We decided to have a walk-about before dropping 200$ on the all-inclusive experience.  A maid showed us the room – circa 1950’s décor – and a short walk to the springs reveal a tired old pool with missing tiles and a temperature of about 88F, hardly what we were hoping for.  We were 30k from Pucon and nowhere near a bus stop.  Now what do we do?

Our adrenaline from the ascent propelled us for the first 3 hours across the trail.  We once again quietly cursed the Conaf maps that said 11km as opposed to the 16km in our guidebook.  Believing the latter, we rose and descended across numerous scoria-strewn gullies, remnants of previous blasts.  The heat rose despite the late afternoon.  Our trail disappeared in one gully, and for forty frustrating minutes wandered before finding the next yellow trail marker cleverly hidden among the yellow Mata Negara flowers. 

As is often the case in hiking, we were rewarded with a great campsite for our 5 hours of hiking.  A tuna, rice, and red pepper concoction was tasty, and a good bottle of vino and chocolate finishing it off superbly!  The sunset over the Chilean coastal range was brilliant as the glacier glowed red, orange, and purple with the fading sun.  It was a 10 million dollar view and we had it all to ourselves!

We awoke to rain on the tent and completely grey morning.  Where had our glorious sunshine gone? Like the weather, yesterday’s eagerness was met with today’s lethargy.  We lingered for 90’ minutes eating breakfast in the tent and packing slowly hoping for the weather to lift. 

Anticipated incredible views were not meant to be as clouds were low for the first half the hike. We crossed numerous large valleys cut out by the last eruption just 40 years ago.  Vegetation is just beginning to resurface in places along the trail.  The first 16k of the walk were covered quickly with few ‘WOW’ moments to slow us.  Entering a forest we descended rapidly to the guiding sound of rushing water in the valley below.  Finally bottoming out after an hour it was time for a lunch break beside the boulder filled river of sediment filled water.

A geologists dream but not for our feet

Unlike how the guidebook suggested the campground was neither inviting or scenic and the light drizzle led us to decide to continue on to our highly anticipated hot spring resort.  Already five hours on the feet we elected to hang a thumb out to passing family we met at the ranger station an hour earlier.  While their teenage took on the responsibility of translator we bantered back and forth both practicing our new language for the 20’ drive to the resort.

The word ‘resort’ was a bit of a misnomer when we arrived.  An elderly couple manned the small kiosk that served as store, check-in, and laundry service.  We decided to have a walk-about before dropping 200$ on the all-inclusive experience.  A maid showed us the room – circa 1950’s décor – and a short walk to the springs reveal a tired old pool with missing tiles and a temperature of about 88F, hardly what we were hoping for.  Now what do we do?

In the back of the truck

While I was sent in to explain to our generous hosts that we would be moving on, Dee ran across the parking lot to flag down a ½ ton truck emblazoned with the Petro – Canada logo that was heading out.  Of course they were happy to let us climb in the back! We hurtled along bumpy gravel roads seeing numerous road-stalls selling everything from  produce to wool sweaters.  We were surprised at the number of vendors given how few cars we came across during the 30' drive. 

With a little luck and a bit of patience we arrived back at the hotel a day early and relatively dry after making a local collectivo connection.  We waited a 5 passed by over-flowing with bodies before our relatively empty one carried us the final 10k to town.  We passed beside Pucon's airport teeming with people watching the one plane on-load passangers.  A quiet town indeed!

Once again we found enough seafood to feed a small town for a pittance gorging ourselves and toasting to our good fortune.