Vulcanos to Pacific Ocean (January 20 to 28)

We came from "Junin de los Andes" in Argentina and headed into direction of volcano "Lanin" (3747 meters above sea level), an impressive snowcapped summit. One can hike and climb to this volcano with the appropriate gear of crampons, ice pick, helmet, and radio set. Starting height is around 1200 masl and the idea is to do on the first day around 1500 height meters to a shelter. On the second day, you are going then from 2700 masl to the very top and all the way down to the starting point, as the shelter is already occupied with the new people coming from downwards.

Overall never doable to us, therefore we enjoyed the views from much lower heights and spent the night at a nice lake with refreshing water temperatures.

After crossing the border to Chile via "Passo Mamuil Malal" the next volcano "Villaricca" close to the city of "Pucon" was already waiting. Also an impressive summit (2847 masl), but it is not that outstanding as "Lanin".

We took a hike at 1300-1500 masl in the burning sun with views to "Villarica" and several other volcanos for some hours, seeing many lizards, smaller craters, and the hardened streams of lava.

After this, we continued to Temuco, a city with approximately 250'000 inhabitants, as we were in need of a mechanic to fix a worn wheel bearing. The mechanico Jamie Westermeyer is running a typical workshop in these areas: small, not very tidy, but with a lot of helpfulness and improvisation talent. Consequently, we were allowed to sleep in the car in his courtyard, while doing the repair.

We took the chance during the day to visit the local market with tons of delicious fruits and vegetables, which was fitting to the quite summerly temperatures around 25 degrees.

After Jamie finished the repair the next day, we drove to Cobquecura, a small village at the Pacific coast, seeing the "Iglesia de Piedra". It is a stone formation with a church-like cave, cliffs, and a fantastic atmosphere with waves, tons of birds fishing in the sea, and an incredible sunset.

From here, we followed the costal line for some kilometers to "Arcos de Calan", another stone formation and a place for hundreds of birds.

Finally, we drove to Putú, a typical small maritime village, where fresh seafood and empanadas are sold everywhere along the main road.