We have been traveling in Germany ... I mean Chile... for 2 weeks now and since a couple of days it feels like travelling through Bavaria. Mountains, lakes and lot of German architecture and street names make the scenery not Chilenian at all.
Arriving in Santiago de Chile we had the impression to have left South America because everything was so organised, cars were stopping to let pedestrians cross and people were actually lining up to get on the bus. Santiago itself has some nice areas but we stayed more to pass time with Fede, an Argentinian friend of Christian who lives there. We had a nice barbecue and went out for drinks. Students are protesting since months in Chile for free education. It was calm in Santiago but when we arrived in Valparaiso the main street was blocked and police was everywhere for a demonstration scheduled that morning. In our hostel people told us that it was pretty bad and the police had to use tear gas to get it under control. Apparently the day we were leaving they attacked a public bus and hurt the driver. Those protests are always attracting people who aren't fighting for the cause but who just want to riot. This morning we saw the news and students were jumping into the river in Santiago to show their protest. The police was pretty rough with them getting them back out but I mean protesting is one thing but this is getting to another level that hasn't anything to do with fighting for the rights to study.
Anyway Valparaiso or Valpo how the Chilineans call it was fun and we got to taste some terremotos a Chilinean cocktail that deserves its name ;).
We continued our trip further south in the direction to Patagonia and stopped in Pucón, a small village which lives from the tourists that come to climb the active volcanoe Villarica which always has smoke coming out of the crater. As this was the thing to do in Pucón we also booked this tour after having breakfast in the bakery "Rostock". You really feel the German influence down here, some people have German last names and you can buy Kuchen and Strudel anywhere you want. But back to the volcanoe. We had heard a lot about the tour and people kept telling us that you really need to be fit to do it so we had a good nights sleep and ate pasta the night before and hoped that we would have enough energy to hike to the top.
We got our equipment early next morning which consisted of a helmet, waterproof trouser and jacket, warm gloves, climbing irons to be put under the shoes and an ice pick. The volcanoe is 2800 m high and on the upper half it is a glacier, that's why all the equipment for snow. But at this time of the year the whole hike is in the snow.
We were Seven People and Three guides and after a few explanations in how to use the ice ax to prevent you from sliding down the whole volcanoe in case you would fall, we started walking and came to a ski lift after 30 min which we could take to safe us an hour of walking. Everybody but Christian and another guy took the lift...we didn't really know what was about to come. The sun was shining and there was no wind, so it got pretty hot climbing but it got colder the higher we came and when we arrived at the smoking crater it was so cold that we couldn't wait going down. The smoke took your breath away, it was smelling so bad of sulfur or whatever this volcanoe was sending out. The view was incredible and it was kind of unreal standing at the crater of this huge volcanoe!
We put on the equipment for the downhill part, which was to be done by sliding down on your bottom! In case it got too quick we were supposed to break with the ice ax. It was so steep, I had to press the ax into the snow the whole time! But it was so much fun!!! What we had climbed up in 5 hours we slided down in 45 minutes.
What a ride!
Next day we continued further south to Puerto Varas to spend some days in the national park Vicente Pérez Rosales and wanted to cross over to Argentina via the lakes. But since it is only offered by one company and they can dictate the prices, it was far too expensive for our backpacker budget so we have to take the bus. We stayed at hospedaje Kuschel :) with view on yet another volcanoe, the famous Osorno. To get there you had to take a taxi boat and hope that they see you from the other side when you want to get back. It worked, we didn't have to stay longer than we wanted at the Kuschels.
There was literally nothing there but lakes and mountains but by coincidence we ran into 5 people hiking the same way as we did and 4 of them were German speeking. We didn't meet so many people during our whole stay but for 10 minutes there were 6 people talking German in the middle of nowhere in Northern Patagonia. Talking of coincidence, on our way back to Puerto Varas we were waiting at the bus station and the only car that passed for half an hour were the two Israeli people with whom we had hiked up the volcanoe Villarica back in Pucón. They told us that they had met the guys from Buena Vista Social Club the night before and that they were going to try to get tickets at the theatre for the concert that same night. We went with them and luckily we managed to buy 4 tickets, not sitting together, but still! The concert was amazing, after 30 minutes the whole theatre was dancing and didn't stop for 2 hours. Afterwards we went back to the cuban bar where the two Israelis had met the band the night before and had a drink not exactly with the guys from the band but kind of next to them ;).
Tomorrow we are crossing the border to Bariloche, Argentina and to be honest I am hoping that it will get a bit warmer there. Somehow we lost track of the summer down here.
Going over to the Oktoberfest next door now... Prost!