Friday 16 February 2007

No Volcano

I arrived in Pucon, a smallish touristy town in the lake district of Chile, with the main goal of climbing Villarica, but it appears the gods are not in favour of it just now. I booked to do the trip yesterday, and we awoke to pretty nice clear skies, but by the time we had made the 30 minute trip to the starting point, the clouds had rolled in and the wind was picking up, so we didnt even attempt to start it, dissapointing but at least we didnt have the same fate as the people 2 days before who got to within 100 meters of the summit before they had to turn back.
Pucon is pretty well set up for all kinds of adventure activities, so instead I passed the morning doing "Canopy" which is basicially sliding through trees on a flying fox, which was a good laugh, and then in the afternoon I did Hidrospeed which is basicially running white water rapids in something resembling a tobaggon, and was pretty scary (reminded me a bit of Kayacking, but with less control) but also great fun.
Today I was booked into the volcano climb again, but it was chucking it down at 6 30 so I didnt even bother going to the office. Oh well, at least my phone arrived safetly by bus, and theres lots of nice enough resturants and bars to while away the day. I tried to sign up to do some canyoning but it seems that no one wants to do much in this rain. Had to content myself with visiting the thermas (hot springs) which were a good antidote to the weather.


I´m now in Santiago having arrived this morning on the bus cama. It seems the weather has followed me from Pucon, as just as I reached the top of the statue of the virgin mary (a good lookout point for the city) the heavens opened again.
So instead I made a different pilgramage, to the vineyards of Concha y Toro and the pictured Casillero del Diablo cellar where much of the wine that I drink is made. It was certainly a spiritual experience. I just had trully excellent Thai food and plan on hitting Santiago's nightspots for my last night in South America.
Tomorrow night I´ll be heading off to the land of Jafas for Rays big day.
See ya,
Sean.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

sounds like you're having a fab time.photos great. joey sayd Hi

Mandy said...

Sean - tangoing, singing, king of the world - what the hell is happening to you?
I'm just back from a week in exotic Gran Canaria where we travelled with a bunch of geriatrics who clapped when the plane landed, boarded the package bus to our hotel, went for lovely "trecks" past English pubs and egg & chip restaurants and changed my babies nappy by the pool. Sounds just like your travels..........Well, it wasn't that bad really but you know what I mean. I'm SO jealous - but then somebody has to sit in traffic on the M50 every day!!