Villarrica

Villarrica is a small, local's town in the lake region of Chile.  It's right on the lake and at the foot of the active Volcan Villarrica. On the clear days, you could see the volcano through our bedroom window from the hostel. It was pretty amazing.

Our first day in Villarrica was a bit chilly and overcast - a perfect day for the "termas" natural hot springs. There are many in the area.  We went to the most rustic ones called "Los Pozones". And indeed, it was a bunch of nice pools built from river boulders.mall. We spent all afternoon in and out of the hot water...

...and Semu was busy building rock towers.

The next day we just hung out in Villarrica and tried a "completo" which was actually really tasty. You can find this favourite Chilean snack all over the place. It's a bun with a salchicha hotdog, sauerkraut, tomato, avocado, and mayo on top. Being a vegetarian, I chose to get aji (hot sauce) instead of the salchicha.

Our last day in Villarrica was our big day, we climbed the Volcan Villarrica! We had to book a tour, which was a good desicion because they provided us with all the equipment needed. We had a slow start because they were supposed to pick us up at 6:10 am and didn't get there till 7:00. But it turned out great. First of all we had a private tour to go up the mountain, which helped a lot to pass the larger groups on the way up while they took longer breaks. The snow was in great condition so we could hike up in our regular hiking boots and no crampons were needed. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day with a clear view of the volcano as well as the region below us. Can you believe it, we were actually the first group to reach the crater and got to walk around the rim for a bit. We walked as far as you could go without being blown off by the heavy wind gusts and intoxicated by the stinging sulfur-like smell. There was a lot of smoke coming out of the volcano that day, so we didn't stay up there for long.

We had the most fun on the way back down. They provided us with waterproof pants, jackets, a butt pad, and a disk sled. We got to slide down the snowy part of the volcanoe. The only brake was the ice pick in your hand and we got going pretty fast. Yeeeeehaaaaaa!!  : )