After my last update, I ended up spending about six days in Pucon. Pucon turned out to be a very popular place to kayak. I spent two days adjusting my schedule so that I could hang out with other people all night and get into the kayak scene. Once there, I met the right people and went kayaking.
On whatever Monday it was after the 14th of January, I joined a few others for a paddle down the Lincura River. It was not too difficult and I only had to swim once. Amazingly, I was still able to roll the kayak and was able to rescue myself the other half a dozen times I ended up-side down.
On Tuesday, a bunch of us headed out to the San Pedro River. This was a little more challenging and a very long day. Again, I only came out of my kayak once. Though, on a few occasions it did take me four attempts to roll the kayak back over.
On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon on the Lower Trincura River. This was not too bad at all and I think I only flipped twice and saved myself both times. I still think kayaking is a lot of fun and could be one of my next sports, but I still like trekking better and it was time to head out again.
After a rest day, I went to Osorno. On the Saturday, I made my way out to the start of my next hike. I stayed in a very nice National Park campground and had a look at a couple of waterfalls.
On Sunday I began my traverse of the Puyehue Volcano. The trail starts by crossing a private farm, and they charge ten dollars for this privilege. It was a bit of a rip-off, but as they say in Nepal "Ke Gar Nay" or "What to do". The first day's walk was uphill and in places very slippery. It passed through a nice forest and ended up near the tree line. That night I met three French Canadians who work as tour guides in the summer and travel each winter. It sounded like a good life to me.
The next day I climbed up to the top of the Puyehue Volcano and then continued on to the next campsite. That night, and the next, were spent camped next to some natural hot springs. Very hot water bubbles up from the ground and an icy cold river flows near by. Right where the hot and cold waters meet, a small bath has been dug and I spent two hours trying not to burn or freeze. Overall, I was successful and had a great soak as the stars came out.
On the Tuesday morning, I got an early start and walked for two hours to the nearby geysers and boiling mud. I am a big fan of boiling mud and spent two hours there taking in the scenery, eating lunch, reading my book and, once they joined me, talking to Jason and Sarah from London.
This area was all above the tree line and very dry. The terrain looked like sand dunes, but was really a very light (colored and weight) volcanic rock called pumice. The rocks float in water and get ground to dust in your boots, which saves stopping and emptying them. I was in heaven, it looked like sand dunes, but was much easier to walk on. My plan for the day was to head way off the trails and explore this high deserty plain.
About every hour I came across another amazing feature of this volcanic area and thought "Now I have seen it all, it can't get better than this." Then, an hour later, I would come across something even more amazing. I saw big volcanic rocks sticking up and deep snow filled chasms between them. I strolled along the rim of a crater and saw where the rim was cracked as pieces of it slid down the slope. I found a little crater made of rough lava that was steaming. The lava was all cold and solid, but steam was coming out of the rim. Then I found another big area of geysers and smelly sulfur.
I had high expectations for this day walk and was not disappointed. My normal days are great, my normal trekking days are excellent, but these are the days I live for. I usually only get two or three days this good each year. No hill was too high, no valley was too deep, no lava field was too rough, no crossing was too hot or too cold. With nothing to carry except some food and water I was able to walk all afternoon without getting tired.
In the end I probably did not even walk 15 miles, but it was great. I was able to look north and see the volcanoes I walked around two weeks earlier. To the south I could see the volcano I would walk around next. This day was definitely one of the highlights of my trip south.
I could have spent another three days in that area - exploring. But, I did not have that much food, so it was time to come down. Sarah, Jason, and I spent a very long day walking north and eventually came to a farm on the other side of the park. They did not charge us an exit fee, instead they sold us some bread and cheese.
The next morning we went back up to the farm to get a bit more bread. The dogs did not remember us and attacked. Four of them ran up to us. One of them bit me on the leg, but did not break the skin. Then he bit me again and ripped my sock and put a little hole in my boot. This brings me back to my point last month - why buy expensive gear that can break when skin grows back all by itself. At least the bread was good.
The farm is at the end of a dirt road and after a few miles, we got a ride in a logging truck. He took us a few miles and then stopped to unload the logs. This was pretty impressive and Jason and I stopped to watch. Our next ride was in the back of an open pick-up truck. The road was very dusty. The three of us sat next to each other, but somehow Jason only got a little dirty, Sarah got pretty dirty and I was just a mess.
We caught a bus to Lago Ranco after the pick-up truck. The bus driver laughed at me because I was so dirty. We spent the afternoon at Lago Ranco and after a good swim nobody stared at me anymore. Our next bus brought us back to Osorno for the night.
The next day was spent on a bus and waiting at borders. In the evening, we got to San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. This is a very very touristy town, in the Swiss style. Every other store is a chocolate shop and the buildings are all Swiss mountainy looking.
After one night in the city, we hit the trail again. This time we went to the nearby Nahuel Huapi National Park. Jason and Sarah are on South American time and we did not start walking until 3:30 p.m. We got to the first campground a little late, after a nice walk up through a forest.
The next morning was rainy. We hung out in the tents until after lunch and then started walking. First we climbed up the wall behind the lake and then we came down the other side. This took a lot out of us, so we stopped at the bottom of the valley. Day three of the walk started with good weather. We climbed up the other side of the valley and down again after the pass to the next camping area. Both of those downhills were among the toughest I have ever done. Looking back on them, they both appeared to be sheer walls of scree and impossible to negotiate. But, somehow, we made it down them.
Day four started with a real downpour, which continued the entire day. I had planned to do the most difficult section of the trail next, but the rain kept me in my tent all day. To survive such a situation I had to keep myself on a strict regimen of eat, read, sleep. After my first cycle of this, Sarah and Jason packed up and left. They had less time than me and were not planning to go the same way as me. They headed down the valley, in the rain, and finished their hike. I then repeated my regimen two more times.
Day five was perfectly clear and I did the hardest day of hiking in my life. The first section was a lot more like rock climbing than hiking. At one point I was supposed to follow a rocky chute up the cliff, but thanks to the rain it was a rocky series of waterfalls. On one section, I had to put my foot through the water to find a place to stand. So as I went up, my leg was in the icy stream and my handhold was too, which allowed the water to also run down sleeve. On the sides of the water was slippery ice and the rocky chute was so narrow, my pack scraped both sides.
I eventually made it to the top, spent the next few hours moving along the ridge and then had a huge down hill section. This part eventually went below the tree line and I spent a lot of time bush bashing. The last hour of the day was finally on a real trail and not just a nearly imaginary one. I was happy to finally be able to walk, instead of climbing, sliding, pushing and figuring out my next step. I seized the opportunity to finally walk and went up the 1000 feet of steep switchbacks in well under an hour.
After camping by yet another lake, I hiked up another mountain, along a ridge, down a long ways to another valley for lunch. After a bit of uphill, I had to do an extremely challenging uphill. From below I had dismissed this section of the trail as impossible and looked for the trail elsewhere. Eventually, I convinced myself that the trail really did go 1000 feet straight up a very steep scree slope. This took me a long time because nearly every rock I stepped on slid down a little ways.
From the top, I was 3500 feet above the bus stop and no where to go but down. The first bit involved a bit more climbing then the trail opened up below the tree line and I made pretty good time.
I spent today relaxing and eating in Bariloche. Tomorrow I will start my next five or six day hike.
Thanks to a few more passes through my trekking guide book, I now have eight more hikes planned and had better get moving if I hope to finish before the middle of spring and before my return to the States on the 4th of April.
Also, Argentina is so expensive that I will go broke if I stay in hotels and eat all day. I can only afford this country if I camp for free and am not tempted by ice cream and chocolate every five minutes.
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