Close To Antarctica
Hey guys
I am now in Punta Arenas, right on the tip of mainland South America! Sunset isnt until almost 10pm and even then it doesnt get fully dark until way after 11pm. It is not really that cold, surprisingly, given how close we are to Antarctica but admittedly you need more than a t-shirt and fleece when you´re out and about in the evenings.
I’ve been playing around with the idea of getting down to Antarctica for a bit – I feel that I am all the way on the end of the world, I may as well keep going and see what is right at the bottom! I went to talk to the tourist office about it yesterday and the cost of the flight down is …. £1000!!! OK, OK, If I really want to do this once in a lifetime trip and face the wrath of Neil/Emma/Dave/Selina/my parents/my mortgage adviser for not being able to go visit/go to their weddings/keep borrowing money off/not be able to pay for a house then yes, I could just go. BUT what really put me off going was the lovely woman at the tourist office who cheerfully told me what was involved and how much it cost but then with a hint of sadness said, “that is like a million Chilean pesos. We can only dream about going there”. And I thought, what kind of irresponsible traveller would I be to come to Chile, flash my big gringo credit card and go to a land these people will never see in their lifetimes even though it belongs to them without giving it a second thought? So I thought no. Ill leave it for now.
Volcano climb in Pucon was the toughest thing I have ever done. Tougher than mountain climbing or hill trekking in Thailand. Tougher than running up that bloody hill for games and tougher than the annual 1500m every summer at school. The reason I chose to do it was I was too tired to climb Mount Kinabalu in Borneo by the time I got there and didnt do any glacier walks in New Zealand so I figured that climbing a snow capped volcano here would make up for that. And the boys would rub it in and tell me what I had missed out on if I didnt. And I have always been fascinated by volcanoes.
We woke up at 5am. Walking to the meeting point at 5.30am we passed loads of clubbers who hadnt even gone home yet from the night before. Our driver turned up to take us to the base drunk. I nearly refused to get in the van but some cheerful Germans who were in our group said that we would be OK. We got to base and I balked. Steep gravel hill all the way. Oh god, what was I doing? Our guide warned us that it looked as though the weather may turn and we may not make it to the top. I said we may as well try to make it as high as we could. So off we went. Ben stayed with me at the back of the group. Oh god, how hard it was, uphill, steep and not much sleep. The Germans steamed ahead and enjoyed a long rest about 1000m up waiting for us. We made our way to where the snow started and then this German guy offers to carry my backpack as well as his own! I refused to let him but he insisted. After that I felt a bit better climbing. On we went into the snow and the clouds start to descend upon us. Walking in snow was slightly easier and the guide made me walk behind him. I had to concentrate very hard as I was feeling more light-headed the higher we went and if I stopped for a minute to think about it I would fall over so I kept on, one foot in front of the other, up and up and up.
Eventually, at about 2,300m up or so (my measurements may be completely wrong but if you look at a photo of it, about halfway between where the snow starts and the crater), we become covered in cloud and we have to abandon our climb because of poor visibility. We didnt get to see lava. Poo. But we do get to slide back down in the snow so we attach special sliding mats to our bottoms and whizz back down the slopes that took us hours to climb. The need to pee got more intense the lower down we got, hehehe. What I found weird was that I did not ache physically like the boys but my lung capacity could definitely do with some improvements! Also, Volcan Villarrica means House of the Devil. Yep, thats not wrong.
In the evening after a snooze, we went to a hot thermal spring to relax and we met lots of people there. We got talking to some Germans and Israelis who ended up talking to each other about football. Ahhhh. Football, what else can unite so many different people?
By the time we left Pucon we could not walk down the main drag, O Higgins without saying hello to someone. Pucon is a great place – everyone who recommended it, you were not wrong, and I would definitely tell anyone to make a stop there.
So from Pucon down to Lake Llanquihue where I learnt to play poker very well (any guys up for a poker evening when I get back?) and down to the island of Chiloe where you can see houses on stilts and lots and lots of English backpackers. On the ferry back to the mainland we met people we stayed in the hostel with up in Valparaiso, all following the same route. Chiloe is the site of the end of the Panamerican Highway, Highway 5, which stretches all the way from Alaska, through Central America and down into Chile. Cool…
We made our way down the Carretera Austral, literally the Southern Highway, past amazing lakes, mountains, green forests. Not as scary as guide books would have you believe even though the road is unpaved and there are blind corners on every turn. Great scenery. We got halfway down (an 11 hour drive!) and caught a flight out here to Punta Arenas as the bus would have taken 18 hours to get here, cutting across the Andes and going through Argentina. Now we are on the end of Chile and going to see Penguins later and plan a trek in the mighty, mighty Torres del Paine.
Thanks for all your emails, will reply soon!!
Farrah xxxxx
Tags: Antarctica, Chile, Pucon, Punta Arenas, South America, Travel
PixieDoux
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