After a late start to the morning and seeing THE staute of Osorno, a giant bronze bull with super big balls, we caught our bus to Parque National Puyehue. After almost 2 hours, the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere at a rather nice looking restaurant. Slightly confused we went inside and ordered dessert. There's nothing like going out for pudding!! Even in the middle of nowhere in Patagonia.
There we met a lovely Chilean couple, Benjamin and Ilana, who were on their holidays visiting Benjamin´s Uncle, who happened to own the restaurant. We organised to go up the hill with them as they were doing the same hike as us. This hike consisted of us walking up to a Refugio and camping there the first night. The following day we planned to accend the Volcano and walk on to the Banos, some natural hot springs, and camp there for the night before going to see the Geisers and making our way back to where we camped the first night.
The Chilean couple knew so much about our surroundings and educated us in the animals and plant life of the area, teaching Steph the Spanish names. As it was a late start, we didn´t get to camp till 9.20pm. While some of you may think this risky, as Steph is not always the fastest of people, the tent was up and we had finished course one and two of dinner by 10.05pm. Talk about efficiency!!
The following morning, after a night of wind and rain, was suprisinly clear. However, within half an hour of us getting up the weather had started to close in. We started walking with our travel companions at 9.30am. By half 10, the mist had drawn in even more and we could no longer see the Volcano. We soon came across a couple heading in the opposite direction saying they were fast walkers and it had taken then 2 and a half hours to get this far. We had been walking for an hour at this point and were drenched. They said the weather was horrendous on the other side. Steph and I had a wee whisper behind a rock and decided to turn back. Why hike in the pissing rain to hide in a tent all day, wet and cold? 30 minutes later, we were back at the Refugio (bothy).
We set up camp for the day as more and more people arrived from both directions. By the time we got into our sleeping bags for the night, there were 22 people sleeping in a bothy made for 13!
The following morning, we woke to fresh snow fall on the Volcano. Cosy!! By 1 o'clock Steph and I were back at the restaurant. Why be wet, cold and miserabke on your holidays? Of the 22 of us that stayed in the bothy, 10 came down. We set up camp behind the restaurant at about 5, after hiding for most of the day inside. After a amazing burger, with amazing fillings, we headed back to camp. At about 9.30 at night Steph spotted two hikers coming along the path. It was Benjamin and Ilana!
We went and met them to find that they had walked from the Banos that day, leaving at 2pm when they realised the weather wasn´t going to change! They had encountered hail which had ripped their ponchos, a white out, where they couldn´t see the path and thick fog. Think we had made the right decision!! Especially as we had spent the later part of the afternoon drying out in the sun.
Today we have made it back to Osorno, where the sun is shinning. We just hope there is enough to keep us busy for two days, when we head to Santiago. Somehow, I don´t think it will!!
Anna and Steph
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