This posting is well overdue. I went to Pucón about three weeks ago.
Pictures, top to bottom (for some reason, this won't let me intersperse text and photos):
- Requisite touristy photo with wooden snowman cut-out. (Which strangely says "Snow" instead of "Nieve". I am not amused. It's impossible to get away from English sometimes. Things like this do not help me on my quest for fluency.)
- Volcán Villarrica, or Rukapillán in Mapudungun (Mapuche language). All 2,847m of it. That's 9,340 ft for you people in the country that refuses to go metric...haha. This is Chile's most active volcano; the last major eruption was in the 1980s.
- Posing with an icepick (my friend Christine with the Chilean flag) at the top of the volcano. Yes, that's right: I climbed it! It was probably the most physically-taxing thing I've ever done, but totally worth it. It took over 5 hours to reach the top and only 2 to get back down (sliding on my butt most of the way while wearing a huge red diaper-like thing to keep from ripping a hole in my pants). Christine and I shelled out $10 to cheat and take a ski lift up part of the way. It was the best $10 I've ever spent, needless to say.
- This is the best lava shot I got without someone's head getting into the frame. Every now and then a big rock would go up into the air. I was nervous the entire time we were at the top. The stench of sulphur was almost overwhelming, and I kept thinking what would happen if a) I fell into the crater; or b) the volcano decided it was a good day to erupt.
- Going ziplining. This ended up being much more terrifying than standing on the edge of an active volcano crater. I paid to be attached to a steel cable stretched between two trees located up to 1km apart, and then travelled at speeds of about 40 mph about 100 ft off of the ground. On one line, they told me I could do it upside down, but I refused. This is NOT for someone who's afraid of heights. It took just about every last muscle contraction I had to keep from wetting my pants, and I overcame my fear of heights when I was 10 or so.
2 comments:
At least in South America they tend to know proper English. When you travel to China you will see many signs in English that make no sense.
Great pictures. They are truely worth a thousand words!
D
PS: At 4 am it is 36 degrees in Chili and only 48 here in Bardstown. Gas prices just hit $3.20 per gallon! Not sure what that is converted to metric.
Fantastic photos! What an experience with the volcano. This place seemed like a great place to visit.
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