Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Ascent of Volcan Villarica

Dominating the skyline above Pucón, and for miles around, is the Volcan Villarica, (2,840m) one of Chile's three most active volcanos. On clear days, smoke can be seen rising from the summit and postcards in the shops show the active crater with visible lava. It is an obvious and desireable acomplishment for the adventurous visitor to have reached the summit. When Hannah Van Arsdell and Bobbi Jo Tolman said they wanted to make the ascent, Susan and Richard decided to give it a try, too.

We arranged a guide and gear from Sol y Nieve, our landlord's agency and set out from the second ski lift at about 8:30am. In summer and during the ski season, it is possible to ride the upper chairlift and save about an hour of the climb, but it wasn't running this day, so we trudged alongside it on the loose volcanic grit.

Far below us we could see Lago Villarica in the distance.

We noticed one of the chairs had fallen off the cable and was still lying on the slope below. The lift was purchased second-hand from an unnamed resort in North America. When we finally reached the upper station at about 1,850m, there is a sign warning not to proceed without ice axe and crampons. However, we soon discovered this was not always the highest part of the resort.

An hour later, just above the summer snow line we passed "The Chapel", an abandoned chairlift station from the resort's fabled past. In 1971, there was an eruption in December when the lava melted part of the ice cap and sent avalanches of boulders and hot mud that destroyed the upper half of the ski terrain and the village of Conaripe. The last eruption was in 1984, when the volcano spat out "bombs of lava" further damaging the slopes. No eruptions have occurred since then.

About two hours later, wearing our crampons to climb up the frozen surface, we reached a small plateau called la pinguinera (2300m) where we ate a quick sandwich. We were moving too slowly, and Sergio, our guide kept urging us to climb faster because he did not want to be on the summit after 2:00pm.

After forty-five minutes more of difficult cramponing in breakable crud we reach a point even with a steel pipe called El Tubo, at 2,410m. It is almost 1:00pm with an hour of climbing to the summit. Susan tells Sergio she will wait here while the rest of us push on to the summit.

Looking back at Susan waiting on the exposed slope. Later she reported being frozen by the chilling winds while the rest of us sweated from the exertion of the climb.

On the summit at 1:55pm. Shifting winds brought suffocating sulphur vapors preventing any approach near the edge to look down into the caldera.

The Summit (cough,cough)

Leaving on schedule to begin the descent.

Hannah was wearing her brace the entire climb, but going downhill her knees were being re-injured with each step. Sergio gave her his ski poles to use for extra support. Far below, the penninsula of Pucón projects from the town into the lake.

Sergio carried Hannah's rucksack as she fought back tears of pain. It was 5:30pm before we could see the van that would take us home. It had been a long and difficult day.

We stopped at a turn in the road for a final look back at the volcano in lengthening shadows and the glow of the setting sun.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Cruise to Punucapa

Sunday morning brought sunshine and blue skies, so we decided to leave our comfy hotel for the day and take a boat tour.

We walked down to the waterfront and watched the rowers sculling their racing boats up and down the river. The boats glide quickly along the river and always remind me of those water strider bugs that use surface tension to scoot across ponds chasing their prey.

Which then reminded me that the only predators on the water are the Lobos and how you wouldn't want to scoot across one of them in a little boat.

Anyway, we boarded the Embarcaciones Bahia II and headed north of Isla Teja up the Rio Calle Calle into the Santuario de la Naturaleza Carlos Andwandter . This nature sanctuary is located in wetlands formed after the devastating 1960 earthquake when Valdivia city and much of the land around it dropped three meters.

As we cruised, the captain explained over the loudspeakers (in Spanish) what we were looking at. This was hard to understand, but we saw some birdlife and it finally sunk in that they were looking to show us the famous Black-Necked Swans whose population had greatly declined in the autumn of 2004 and since then had become hard for our guide to find.

At last we caught a glimpse of a pair of swans splashing in the reeds and then another pair flew overhead. Apparently, a pulp mill had been built 25 km upstream by a company called Celulosa Arauco y Constitucion (CELCO) in 2004. Ecologists and others from the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia accused the forestry company of polluting the river. The pulp mill was forced to close while the case was being investigated and as of this time the case is still being debated in court.
UPDATE: July 22, 2009 CELCO loses appeal.

We continued up the Rio Calle Calle past the confluence into the Rio Cruces and pulled up to a landing at the pre-Hispanic village of Punucapa, famed for having the oldest church in the region.

The church was very simple inside.

Each year this shrine to the Virgin of Punucapa gets carried in a festival at Valdivia.

As we headed back to town, the wetlands seemed even more mysterious with fantastic plants and trees filled with cormorants.

Suddenly, more Black-Necked Swans appeared and we had a great view as they swam alongside the boat.

Soon we were past the confluence and into the channel that led back to Valdivia.

The fishmarket looks much brighter and more colorful under blue skies.

Pelicans also joined the scramble for discarded fishparts.




Here is our guide and driver, Manuel, who took such good care of us during our visit to Valdivia.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Universidad Austral de Chile


Friday, it was Katy's turn to leave us on the taxi to Temuco to catch her flight back to the USA. She isn't graduating this year like Chiara and Hannah, but had to get back in time to begin a new job. The Pucón English class especially will miss her good company at the next language lunch. We wish her buena suerte!



We'd planned to visit the Museum of Modern Art in the old brewery building at the Universidad Austral de Chile on the Island Teja across the river from the hotel, but it was being remodeled, so we toured two other museums on the campus instead.

The Historical and Anthropological Museum is located in a house built in 1860 next door to the old brewery. It contains collections of antiques, pre-Hispanic pottery, Mapuche silver jewelery and gives an idea of how the family lived day-to-day in the house a century ago. From there we ran to the Museum of Exploration next door devoted to the early naturalists of Chile who collected specimens in the wilderness and established scientific networks with the scholars of Europe.

In another section of the campus is the Botanical Garden.

A rainforest succulent.

Henry and Bobbi Jo pose for comparison.

Joslyn and Cate stroll among the autumn leaves.

Then we went back to our hotel to shower and decide what we wanted to do that evening. In the end we shopped for souvenirs and had dinner at a local restaurant.

Dia de las Glorias Navales

May 21 is "Navy Day" in Chile, or the "Dia de las Glorias Navales". The holiday celebrates the same day in 1879, during the "War of the Pacific" between Chile and the allied forces of Peru and Bolivia, when an old wooden corvette, Esmeralda, captained by Chilean Arturo Prat, was rammed and sunk by the ironclad Peruvian warship, the Huáscar. Prat was killed in the encounter and his death mobilized the Chilean public to support the war and became one of the factors leading to Chile eventually winning the conflict in 1883.

"Arturo Prat" is the most repeated street name across Chile. There are 162 communes in Chile which have a street with this name.

We stepped out of the hotel Friday morning to see an incredible spectacle of rank after rank of sailors, soldiers and policemen standing at attention in the rain on Avenida Arturo Prat along the waterfront near the fishmarket.

Officers of the Armada prior to reviewing the troops.

The rain was pouring down at this moment when one of the street dogs decided to join the formation. Discipline prevailed and no one moved a muscle.

The honor guard stood alonside the monument to Prat.

Stirring words issued from the big brass. Elsewhere in Chile on this day, President Michelle Bachelet makes the annual address to the nation.

One of the platoons standing at attention was much shorter than the others. Looking closer I was intrigued to discover it was made up entirely of women.

Here is a trooper in uniform who knows the importance of obedience.

They won't get this fellow into uniform!

Next came the student auxiliary.

Susan helped some students keep dry while their band waited to march past the reviewing stand.