Standing on top of the world (oh well...)

(Very happy and almost on top of the world - Vulcano Villarrica)

(The nice fishermen`s houses in Castro, Chiloe)

Again I`m writing while being filled with great experiences, stories and at the moment beer as well (so if the story gets too confusing...). The last mail was from the island of Chiloe. But my adventure on this island wasn´t finished at that time, because I went to the small fisherman`s village of Quicavi (yes Georg and Irme, I made it!). There was no campingsite there, so the local grocer said I could camp next to the church, in the middle of the village! This was funny of course, every villager who passed greated, some pigs, chicken and dogs were walking around. This place was so nice, it was an ancient fisherman`s village in a rural surroundings, and still quite untouched by tourism.
(If you look carefully, you`ll see my little green tent in front of the big wooden church!).

After that, I took the bus and boat, following the Carretera Austral south. This road is some prestige project from Pinochet to connect the Lake District with northern Chile. But for travellers, it is a great road through evergreen forest and small villages. I only went a small piece, to the Nat.Park Hornopiren. This park is situated around a vulcano, which gives a special view. But the weather was very wet and I still was a bit ill. Fortunately, I had the luck to rent a "cabana" (wooden hut) for only half of the normal price, complete with fireplace and TV. So I could recover completely from my cold and do some nice hiking. In the pub of this resort, the owner asked if I wanted to chat with an American guest who didn`t speak Spanish (so he didn`t have any contact with the owner and we were the only visitors). He appeared to speak Spanish quite well, but he was hiding it, because he (Chris) was a journalist for the Lonely Planet guide! But still we had a nice chat. I hope that Chris writes down some of my experiences that I told him, because the LP is uncomplete in Chile, and also is very focussed on fun and outdoor holidays (so for visiting some natural or cultural sites, it`s not sufficient)...


On the boat back from Chiloe, and later from Hornopiren, you have free and non-touristic animal tours: first I saw swimming seelions and a dolphin and later, we saw a lot of see lions, laying on rocks and gliding into the water!


Then, because Puerto Montt really is the connection between north and south Chile, I had to go back again to this not interesting city. Fortunately, this time it didn`t rain and I found a quite good hostel. But my next target was Pucon. This is in a hilly area, but there`s one mountain: the active vulcano Villarrica, 2800m! And you can climb this steep piece of rock, lava and snow if you want. And I wanted this very much (I had to, because my sister had been on top of it already...) so I signed in at an outdoor activity center (you are not allowed to climb the vulcano on your own, unless you can show that you have a lot of mountaineering experience). this was well organised, with a small group of nice people and some explaining about how to use your ice axe, crampons and mountain shoes, and with a lot of equipment. But after all that I heard and saw, the climb itself wasn`t even that heavy. Fortunately, so that we could enjoy the magnificent view very well. The vulcano is the only really high point in the area, with great views to other vulcanoes in Chile and Argentina, and we had a really blue sky! On top, you were breathing sulfatic smoke, which wasn´t that nice, but it showed that you were really on an active vulcano. And the way back was gliding in the snow on your raincoat and trousers, which went quite quick, but wasn´t really dangerous (although some people got hurt by their own ice axe or by sliding group members...). This was a weird experience and very funny.
(Vulcano Villarrica from Pucon at dawn; climbing up; me on top!; sliding down a vulcano really is a weird experience)

The night before the climbing, I heard some trombone and went into a music school and talked a bit with the people. The following night, two of these people were playing in our hostel (trumpet and piano). This was a nice coincidence. I went to them and played a bit with them, which was very nice. I had been two and a half months since I played the trumpet the last time, so it was quite hard to "keep pressure", but it was nice to play again!
(Dawn over the lake Villarrica in Pucon)

Furtheron, I wasn`t really satisfied with Pucon. OK the weather was great (I could swim in the lake, which had a black beach of vulcanic sediments and had great dawns) and I met some really nice people from the Netherlands, Britain, USA, the Basque Republic (no no not from Spain!) and France, but for me, it was much too touristy and "cool-outdoor like". So I decided to head east, to the Mapuche (Indian) village of Hurarrehue. There, people produce their own products and live in their Mapuche community. This was great. I visited the museum of the Mapuche culture and ate Mapuche food (fruits of a tree, a variation of potatoe and great sauces). I talked a lot with the people there. There is a project running which is partly subsidized by the EU, to organise a sustainable way of life, agriculture and forestry (see http://www.araucaniatierraviva.cl ).
Because the camping municipal was closed, somebody said I could camp at here friend`s place, some 3 km out of town. So I walked down there and met the very nice Raquel and Ivan. I could camp on their property and at night, we had a great talk about the Mapuches and of course about Dutch football.
(A Mapuche lunch)

And now I´m heading for the National Park Laguna del Laya. This is quite near Concepcion and the Chilean version of L.A.. I`m now in Los Angeles, which is just a normal city (200.000 people, loads of neon light, cars, ugly buildings, a horrible hostel etc.), so I`ll go on to the park first thing tomorrow, to enjoy nature again!

I hope to write more soon. I have to head up north and start going back into Argentina now (after visiting some last spots in Chile), because my plane leaves for Amsterdam at the 18th of April - time`s really flying and there`s still a lot to see!

Bye! Jeroen