Time in Temuco.

From Lautaro to Temuco it took me around 2 hours, it was a distance of only 35 kilometers that I took way slower than the pace I've been pedaling till this city, I knew it was close so I had no intentions of sweating.

Since I got here I spent most of my time just relaxing and taking small tours to the city, in which, I have been several times before. I took it easy mostly because I was waiting for Pancho and Paula to have free time from work so we could take some tours to the mountains and the coast side of the Araucania region. In the meantime pedaling through the city helped me keep my shape till we finally got the time to go to the mountains and the coast.

Conguillio, the Andes in the Temuco area.

Last Wednesday we went to Conguillio National Park, a really amazing park 2 hours away from Temuco where you get to see what volcanoes are capable of. Right in the middle of the park you see the Llaima volcano, which last eruption was on 2008. Being an active volcano, from time to time you can see smoke coming out of the top of it.

A visit to the park will grant you several kinds of views, ranging from small black deserts made of ashes that came out in every explosion. Many “arms” of rocks made of lava which once was lava making his ways to lower lands. You get also to see lots of contrasts when vegetation shows up out of nowhere or some small tree islands that survived the lava streams down the valleys.

We arrived to the park near 10 am and took a really nice trail which took us 5 hours to complete. An easy trail with many amazing viewpoints, green nature and birds all around the trail. After the trail it was a must to visit the Conguillio lake and have a bath in its waters to relax the muscles and take some light sun rays. Finally weather I can spend the day outside. Compared to Santiago, Talca, and Concepción, where spending the afternoon and evening outside was a torture in such heats, being in Temuco has been nice because temperatures are near the 25ºC most of the time. Nice and acceptable temperatures for my body and my like which makes me happy.

After taking a long bath and being totally tired after the visit to Conguillio park we departed back to the city to have a good night of sleep, but right when we left the park, Pancho got a call from Lito, a friend who was in the south area of the Araucania region. After a long and serious talk I knew something was not right. Lito had been visiting some remote area in the surrounding hills of Lican Ray which is also 2 hours away from Temuco. He had had problems with his car when he wanted to come back the engine didn't want to start. He got stuck in the middle of nowhere. He asked for help to Pancho so he could go there and help retrieve the car with his car. We didn't have any rope to attach one car to the other and drag it from the hills back to the city so there was no option in going straight from where we were. We had to head back to Temuco and then move towards Lito who was also 2 hours away from Temuco, but near the Villarica Volcano.

Rescue mission, a whole night of tension.

We arrived to Temuco nearly at 11 pm, tired as hell after the whole day walking and bathing in the mountains. We picked up what we needed for the night and some blankets just in case we couldn't retrieve the car during the night and had to spend the rest of the time lost in the mountains. After some snacks and a couple of red bulls to be awake while driving we left Temuco a bit after midnight.

We arrived to Villarrica, a small town 26 kilometers away from Lican Ray where we picked up a lad who kind of knew the way to where Lito was. Kind of knew, because he knew how to reach the place but during day time. Things change at night as you can not see the reference point you may have and that are at sight during day time. It was 2 am and we left Villarrica in the hope to find where Lito was.

At 3 am and after passing through pitch black gravel roads, with steep ups and downs we found where Lito was. He got really glad to see us approaching and after some fast assessing of the situation we decided the move the car.

We started by pushing the car to place it in the right position so we could attach one end of the rope to the front of it and the other end to the back part of Pancho's car. The bad assessment of the place made us commit a huge mistake. None realized the slope in which the parked car was. After turning it and placing it in the right position gravity made its trick. The car started moving down the slope and Lito wasn't inside the car to push the brakes on time. Gravity and the weight of the car made it take speed and go down the slope with two persons in front of it trying to stop it. Impossible, it is a huge car with a 2.2 engine. No way two persons could stop it. The car took speed and went down the slope out of control taking a turn, ending up breaking a wood fence and getting stuck again at the side of the road. I yelled to Pancho to know if he was alive. He was in front of the car when it went out of control and I only saw one shadow jumping to the side to avoid being run over. He was alright, he said he got out the path of the car somehow he couldn't really explain. He just saw the car overpushing him and somehow then he was at the side of the car out of control. Lito had his hands over his head in a sign of despair because of the fate of the car. I thought we were fucked, I could hear water at the side of the road where the car went in and my first though was that the car ended up right in the water creek, stucked this time till who knew when.

After taking a look around, lucky for us, the car didn't end up in the small creek. The fence made it stop right before the front wheel went in the creek and the water stream. We still had a chance so we started gambling with our cards. We tried to push it but the car was to heavy to take it out from there. Pancho moved his car and placed it behind it so maybe with the help of Pancho's car we would manage to take it out from there. The bad thing? Pancho's car has a smaller engine than Lito's car. Pancho's car has a 1.8 engine, way lighter and smaller than the other car. We had nothing else to try so we tried anyways. After many tries and with a stench of burnt rubber in the air, after around 10 minutes, what we had done worked. A joint work of pushing the car plus dragging it made the trick and we managed to put the car in the right position to attach it and drag it back to the city.

It was 3.30 am and we still had to get out from the gravel road with long and steep ups and downs to reach pavement and Villarrica lights which was nearly 30 kilometers away. Pushing the car was hell. Pancho's car wasn't designed to push a heavier car so it was really complicated to drive in such a situation where behind's car would make us stop suddenly and violently. There was always the possibility that behinds car could take too much speed and if we stopped too fast it could crash us and make us loose control causing a big accident. We also feared that the rope would break while going uphill which would cause behinds car to go down the hill backwards. Tension was on the air and with lots of cautions we headed back to the city at the nice speed of 30 kms/h, like if I was riding my bike.

At 5 am we reached Villarrica. Pancho was so tired that he couldn't drive anymore, tension had made us all tired. It was my turn to drive from Villarrica to Temuco dragging the car. Another redbull shot to the vein and ready to go the second part of the road, this time in pavement which was supposed to make it easier. Bad thing? Longer ups and downs and a busier road than before. Good thing? It was 5 am, so there shouldn't be that many people on the road till we could reach the 5 south highway and then Temuco.

Damn it was difficult to start moving with a heavy car on the back. After several tries I managed to start the dragging and after getting lost in Villarrica we found our way and left the town. This time I was driving at 60 kms/h, so it should take us a bit more of 1 hour to reach the highway where things would change again thanks to the heavy morning traffic.

Everything went quite fine from Villarrica to the highway. The busy road wasn't that busy at that time in the morning which was complete luck considering that in this seasons, that road is dangerous as hell thanks to all the crazy tourists that want to reach Villarrica as fast as possible. Last week, just in one day, there were 8 crashes, all of them at different points of the road and at different times through the day. Damn crazy tourists, all of them believing they are formula 1 drivers.

Driving through the fog wasn't funny though. Near 6 am fog started to appear diminishing what I could see around. When looking through the rear mirrors I couldn't see Lito nor his car, I knew there was a car behind me but it was a ghost. The only way to see him was when another car was approaching to us and would light Lito's car and him inside it, I would only see shadows though.

Now in the highway we had to go faster, if we had kept the 60 kms/h pace we could cause a bad accident which we needed to avoid so I pushed till we reached 90 kms/h. Sadly we had to pass 2 toll controls. This meant stopping and start moving again, twice. Lucky us, only one toll boot was open so all the cars had to go through that boot making things easier to cross it. The second toll was the same so we had no big issues while crossing the tolls.

We reached Temuco around 7.30 am. With the city awaking we also met all the drivers starting their commute, the buses moving people and the trucks going to take their loads. With the city we also found the traffic lights that would stop us in every corner. Right before entering the city of Temuco, the rope broke! Shiiiit! The car felt way lighter and Lito managed to call us on time and yell the rope had broken. We stopped right before entering the city to fix the problem, had it happened in the toll control or inside the city we would have caused a huge traffic jam.

Finally at 8 am, and after crossing several traffic lights and moving through all of the city we reached our destination. The mechanic workshop, who hadn't arrived yet. We left Lito at the workshop and headed back to Pancho's to get some totally deserved rest. Such a night. I had never drove dragging a car with a rope and had not been in a stress situation during the trip so far. Things could have ended in accident quite easy through the night, but luck was with us and we managed to bring the car back. After that I'm glad I am pedaling and not driving, it's way easier to move with my bicycle than with a car.

Time to move on.

After the car rescue mission and after some hours of sleep we went to the coast side of the region to relax during the evening. Weather wasn't nice as the rest of the days but it's always nice to remember that weather can change at anytime through summer when you are in the south of Chile.

During the weekend I'll start pedaling again. Daniel will arrive on Sunday morning and we will start heading towards Puerto Montt. We will go through Villarrica and Lican Ray, hopefully this time we won't have to drag any car but only push pedals.

I think this portion of the road will take us around 10 days, so I will be off till I reach Puerto Montt. We won't sleep at any couchsurfer or warmshowers because the road we have chosen goes through the mountain range with few towns on the way but with amazing nature and landscapes to be in.

Check the pictures in this link to see more of the Temuco surroundings.

Until then, Cheers.

Santa Juana to Lautaro, that was fast!

Santa Juana.

I arrived after lunch to this small town trying to find a place where to rest after the pedaling from Talca. What I thought would be time alone to be able to rest my legs and not much of anything happening around turned out to be the opposite. I stayed at Doña Olga's, where she offers rooms for season workers who come to the area to work mainly in the wood industry. She offers rooms which include all three meals in a really homey and countryside place. As it is summer, she has nobody else in the several rooms house she owns so I would spend the whole weekend alone and in peace.

Since the beginning she told me the rules of the house and after doing a small negotiation about the price we had an agreement. As I am a passer by, it's not big deal to accept some rules for a couple of days. After our agreement she told me to feel at home. I dismantled all my gear and made myself comfortable, ate some and got ready to rest when out of nowhere lots of people showed up. It was already evening and 'once' time (tea/dinner). As for what I payed included all three meals, they invited me to have meal with all the rest of the people. As this is the countryside in a really small town, relatives are really close to each other, so the people that had just arrived was the family of Doña Olga's sons who are used to pass by have dinner and spend the late evening talking and laughing before going to their respective houses, this mostly everyday. From here on, the show started. As I was the new guy around, and they are anything but shy, questions began to show up. “You are coming from where? By bike? And you are heading where? Shiiiiit man, you are brave”. They liked the story and they invited me to go around with them so they could show me the small town, by car.

Later and after the tour to the town, more people showed up to the house and I had to tell my story again. I don't know what impression I'm giving to the people, but most of them like the idea of riding bicycle around towns and countries, but when they picture themselves doing it they say they would freak out and are too scared to do something like this. I got to go late to sleep that day as everybody wanted to talk to me about things. No rest at all for me that day.

The Potato harvest.

On the second day I got invited to the countryside, the actual countryside. By car we drove deep into the hills through dusty and unpaved gravel roads till we finally arrived to the house of the couple of one of Doña Olga's daughters. A small piece of land with potatoes ready to be harvested. There was a small swimming pool and several kind of animals around with a cozy house in on side of the land. I was invited just to be there, look around and take pictures while they would work harvesting the potatoes. Yeah, like if I could resist not to help. I had never harvested potatoes before, so it was a nice opportunity to get a taste of what harvesting potatoes is and I didn't get disappointed. After taking some pictures I joined in the potato harvest and after a couple of hours the whole potato field was ready for the winter rest with several potato bags laying around the field.

Harvesting the land

Field full of potato sacks

Back in town, and at tea time, people showed up again and the talking kept for hours on till late in the night again.

Last day in Santa Juana was more relaxed, I took it easy in the morning and got up kind of late, had breakfast around 10 am, but that was a mistake, exactly at 12.00 lunch was served on the table and I had to eat again. After eating, people started to show up in the house for dessert but I managed to slip away and take a tour on my own through town to take some pictures and relax next to the Bío Bío river.

Reaching Santa Juana you get to see this.

Bio-Bio River.

Fort built in 1626

On the road again.

Monday arrived and I had to depart as my resting time was over. I had to keep going south but Doña  Olga tried to convince me to stay a couple of days more to rest my legs. I had enough rest for the weekend and the road was calling again. Reports said that bad weather was approaching to the area near Lautaro and I had to go and find the rain.

After saying my farewells I left town early in the morning, as usual. The road would be uphill in the beginning and down hill almost half of it. I thought abour riding near 90 kms and call it a day but for my surprise at 1 pm I already had managed to pedal 70 kilometers. My knee? Hurting a bit, but not that much after all. After having the best cheese ever for lunch I kept on and started approaching the town that was my goal for the day, Angol.

I reached Angol near 3 pm, way to early to stop and call it a day. I had been eating lot that day but still I would feel hungry. After buying ½ kilo of strawberries I kept on till dark clouds started to fill the skies. I had advanced already 110 kilometers and it was 5 pm when rain hit the road. Finally, the first rain of the tour, time to change cloths in order to be under the rain.

Once ready to ride under the rain it was time to decide, it was early, nearly 5.30 pm, sun goes down at 9.30 pm, next town was 5 kilometers away and I had already done 110 kilometers. Way over what I expected for the day. I could reach Lautaro on the same day, but that would mean riding 70 kilometers to make a day of 180 kilometers. 180 kilometers in one day, what the heck? Isn't my knee hurting? Am I not tired?. Indeed I was kind of tired, but when I pictured 70 kilometers ahead it didn't really bother my mind nor my knee. Still, after some debating with myself, I decided I would call it a day, a day with lots of time for other things as I spent the rest of the evening reading and learning things from books I have on the tablet. It's not all about pushing pedals after all, but also about keeping my mind sharp.

I found an awesome spot under a pine tree to cover myself from the rain and to wait for the sun to set in order to mount my tent and stealth camp. There is always a possibility that someone shows up, happens to be the owner of the land I'm in, and kicks me out of the place for violating private property. So I sat there to wait while reading. Nobody showed up, clouds went away, and sun shined again before sun set. I mounted the tent and had a good night of sleep.

Lautaro.

As usual while stealth camping, I wake up at 6 am and as fast as I can I move forward to some other location to have breakfast. People in the countryside wake up early so I have to move as early as them and move forward to have breakfast.

After Collipulli I had breakfast and got ready to push till Lautaro, that for my surprise I reached sharply at noon. 75 kilometers in 3 1/2 hours is not bad at all!.Hell I'm moving fast!. As I am moving that fast I am starting to take longer rest times and have set the goal to read more.

Before Lautaro.

In the afternoon I decided to enter Lautaro town and give a visit to some relatives I have here. I will spend here 3 or 4 days before moving towards Temuco where I will pay a visit to Pancho and wait for Daniel who will join me onwards till Puerto Montt being this part a bit longer than so far.

Rain didn't show up as expected till now, the time I'm writing this entry. It feels like the skies are falling with so much rain right now and I'm loving it. Finally a good southern rain to welcome myself to the beginning of the south of Chile.

So far, since I left Santiago, I've ridden nearly 800 kilometers. Not considering the resting days both in Talca and in Santa Juana, this has been done in 8 days. An average of 100 kilometers per day. Mad, considering I had taken in account riding around 60 kilometers per day. At this rate certainly I can reach Antarctica on time and come back north with decent weather.

If you want to check more pictures of this part of the trip, check this link.

During the weekend I'll move towards Temuco, it will go some time till I post something again. Until then.

Cheers.

Talca - Concepción (Actually Santa Juana).

I left Talca last Wednesday with the idea of reaching Concepción and staying there a couple of days to rest my legs. After having last days really busy in the city, and after spending 15 days in Talca (10 actually as I climbed the volcano) it was time to move on.

The road started with several slopes and with the sun hitting hard. Geez the temperatures I've riding in are crazy, 33ºC, 35ºC, it's insane to ride in those temperatures. The 7^th region, which is the region where Talca belongs is slowly becoming a desert. What I recalling seeing green when I was a child, now is all yellow with few native trees around and mostly pines for the wood industry. People told me on the road that the pines are destroying the land but companies don't really care as they are profiting and filling their pockets. Privates also have started planting pines on their own as companies also buy whole pine forests paying in cash as some signs state. This contributes to acidification of the land, making it unusable for farming or growing things and with the desertification of the area. This is also promoting the planting of more pines around as it's becoming an important source of money for the people that lives in the area and have lands, those that don't own pieces of land big enough to plant pines and can't find anything else to do have started to leave the countryside for the cities. As you start getting away from the cities there is less and less people.

Sunrise.

Gone for good.

What once was for farming, now is for the pines.

Riding under such temperatures made me drink 1.5 L. of water every 2 hours, being people scarce on the way and not having rivers at all where to get water from made the pedaling quite hard till I started reaching the 8^th region of Concepción where weather changed and finally some streams appeared on the way.

Right after crossing Cauquenes, still in the 7^th region, I noticed how people started to change their attitude towards other people and towards me too. They started being way friendlier than so far. It's funny how everybody thinks I'm a foreigner by the way I look, a gringo, as they call me. For them I'm blond and white and when they see the bike with all its load they claim “there goes another gringo”. That till I say hello or wave hello to them, then they reply and some of them say anything along “where are you heading to?” “such weight you are carrying”. Some of them yell something typical for the Chilean countryside which I yell back with another typical countryside yell. From then on, everything becomes talks, and of course, in the local Chilean dialect that I guess no gringo can understand unless you have been living in the area for some time. I wonder what foreigner bicycle tourers think when they hear people mumbling something you don't learn in any spanish course you could ever take unless it was given by some local huaso.

From the movie starship troopers, spiders nest!

It's funny how after hearing what I'm doing they become protective and try to find anything, whatever they have in hand to give me for my journey. In Cauquenes town I went into a small shop to buy some supplies for having dinner, the man and owner of the shop, gave me some packages of dry fruits for the journey, he said they would give me energy for the pedaling south he also gave me a discount in what I was buying so I could save some money for the south. The second day, and now in the 8^th region, a man in the middle of nowhere stopped me and asked where I was heading too, when he realized I was Chilean he offered me a beer so he bought a couple of cans at a local house that seemed to bring things to sell to the locals but that it's not a shop, then he noticed I didn't have water and told to the woman from the house to give me cold water because I was doing an “important travel” south and I was short on water. Some men who were having a problem with their truck, yelled to me, I yelled back, and instantly they offered me some apples they had just cut from some trees (best apples ever). Some kilometres ahead, and after lunch, I decided to stop for the day to let the heat go away, a dude that was hitch hiking and had seen me before stopped for a rest and a talk. He said he really would like to share a beer with me and started looking to some houses in the distance for a small shop where to buy a couple of beers. He was decided to get the beers so he left all his belongings with me and went for the houses to ask for a shop, right before reaching the houses he stopped a pick up truck, did some talking and I saw how the driver handed him 2 cans of beers. He came back with he biggest smile ever, and with a reason, the man gave him the cans and they were COLD, with such temperatures they were more than welcome. I laughed at how he said “we are fucking lucky, he gave them for free because he saw your bike!”.

On the third day, finally the weather changed, the night was really cold and I thanked for it. I really, really, really hate the summer and its temperatures. As I started moving that third day I could see in the distance how bad weather was coming from the coast with low clouds that predicted a dense fog and cold temperatures. My body thanked it. It's way better for me to ride under low temperatures than in high temperatures, some police officers told me to get things on as it was cold, I yelled back, I'm alright with t-shirt! I love the cold weather. They laughed because they had checked my speed; 10 kms/h. I laughed afterwards while down the slope; I reached 60 kms/h. Pedaling with cold temperature felt much better and in no time I reached Concepción, this made me think, what if I just keep pushing on till Punta Arenas and Tierra del fuego instead of going to that hell of a jungle with its 38ºC and 90% humidity. Strong cold winds, rain, fog, and even snow seem more attractive now than having over 30ºC day and night. I guess time will say when it has too, things change and I have to adapt to situations as I ended up doing the third day.

I love cold weathers! Although you see crap :P

Before arriving to Concepción, I decided to check with the friend I was going to stay with, the area where she was living. I didn't want to reach the city and have no idea where to go, so I  texted asking her for the address and some directions to get to her place. Sadly, and as shit happens, she texted back that she had issues with me arriving and that she couldn't host me. Damn, no place where to stay in and at the last minute. I got pissed because she could have told me before that she had issues so I could have searched for a back up plan, but after some minutes I just let go and decided I would decide once in the city what to do.

Entering Concepción was fast, and in no time I was in town, after looking around a bit, the city looked as any other big city, lots of people, lots of cars, lots of noise, lots of pollution and nothing compared to being in the peaceful countryside where I had spent the last 2 days. It was 10 am and I had a whole day ahead to find where to stay. After 5 minutes of thinking I decided I wouldn't stop here and that I would move on to the next town, which probably, would be way cheaper, less polluted and with way less sounds than this big city.

Right after leaving the city, in the outside of it, I stopped at a park with the idea of waiting something to happen. And it did. When I was leaving the park, I waved at a man watering the trees, he waved back and said something about the weight. We started talking. (people talks to me all the time!). I told him that I didn't like Concepción because it was too much of a city and I didn't really care of big cities, I told him my plan for the day, go through Coronel and Lota and stay in Lota for a couple of rest days. He told me those places are really bad places to be nowadays. Drugs, poverty, and too many people coming from Santiago have been polluting the area and making it a bad area to be in. Crime rate is high as there are too many people with nothing to do and no income. Those who work, end up drinking or buying drugs to forget about their problems in life. He suggested another route, much better and safer and with much nicer people. So once again I changed plans and had to adapt to the situations. I checked the road the man suggested and it looked nice so I took it.

Near Santa Juana.

Bío Bío River.

On road towards Santa Juana, trucks passing at 100 kms/h.

Things were much better than expected!. The road this man had recommended was indeed beautiful. Going all the way next to the Bio-Bio river towards Angol and the 9^th region, Mapuche lands, lands in war with the natives of the zone, the Mapuches.

That same third day I reached the small town of Santa Juana, where I am now resting for a couple of days to adjust the bike and give my legs a rest. I've been riding an average of 95 kilometers per day which is a lot considering the weight I'm carrying. No wonder why my knee still hurts, but I think it's getting stronger day after day.

Santa Juana is nice, I'm staying at the only place there is in town to sleep, the owner is an old timer woman who runs her business working mostly with wood companies that send workers to cut the pines from the forests, she has told me some weird stories that maybe at some point I am going to write.

For now, I will rest here till Monday morning, on Monday morning I will depart towards Lautaro, and then Temuco, I am quite close to Lautaro so I think I can reach it in two days from here, and if I wanted to, in the same 2 days I could reach Temuco, I'll see how things go. I'm kind of anxious for reaching the south and the colder weather. I'm sick of having summer, I want some cold winds and rain to cool down my bones.

For more pictures, check this link.

Cheers!.

Descabezado Grande Volcano, closing circles.

After some days of resting in the city it was time to end something I started some years ago. Reach the summit of the Descabezado Grande Volcano. Last time I went to the Andes near Talca I decided I had to reach the summit of the Descabezado while on tour. The last try of a summit we couldn't summit due to a cloud that freeze our asses and forced us to go down. Jota and Maximiliano would try to summit with me this time as it's not all about pushing pedals but also about walking up mountains.

Up the mountain we go.

We arrived to the park early on Friday. Our heavy backpacks were ready to be on our shoulders for the next 5 days but some luck would take them away for the first 2 kilometers. The park rangers who were driving their pick up truck up to the entrance offered us to take our backpacks with them. It's the first time I've walked that part with no backpack and hell it's different to walk up when you don't have anything on your shoulders. I kind of understand now the ultralight people.

Right after the rangers took our backpacks, and after walking 50 meters, a tall fat guy, in a yellow suite and with a really high tone on his voice for being a man would stop us and say; “Hey guys, I need to see your stove.”. I said the stove was on the backpacks the rangers took and the guy then replied he couldn't allow us in. ಠ_ಠ. This kept on 3 times and after some rambling and telling how the rangers offered to take our backpacks he allowed us in.

After entering the park, the trail goes up the mountains in a much flatter manner than the start of the hike. So after registering our presence in the park everything went quite smooth and nice till we found some lost lads.

After 4 hours walking we found a couple of Argentinians men who claimed got lost and had no supplies. They said they had been lost for 2 days and that in the first day they had lost all their gear and food while crossing a river. They were clearly dehydrated and begged us for some water and some food. We gave them some cookies and water and told them how to reach the entrance of the park which was only 4 hours away. The thanked us, swore against the mountains and left. After some talking with Jota and Maximiliano we agreed that the guys were drug dealers trying to cross the Andes through some hidden trail, got lost, dropped the merc, and tried to save their asses. There is not that much water to get all your gear and supplies lost if you fall. We didn't buy their story, I wonder if they did at the park entrance.

We kept on and later in the day, after 10 hours walking we got to Valle del Venado. A nice valley 6 hours away from the base of the Volcano. The valley would have several people camping, most of them camping there for a couple of days to enjoy the surroundings which are really nice. We stopped at this place to spend the night and keep moving the next day towards the base.

We walked the 6 hours early in the morning of the second day, arriving to the base of the volcano with a couple of nice springs that should be waiting for us. Sadly, as there is not much water this year due to the dry season, the springs didn't have much water. Still, being at the base of the volcano was awesome but hot. There is not a single tree around that offers any shadow to protect yourself from the sun. At the base we met a couple of guys who were doing the same route it would take us 5 days, but in 2 days. This guys were not sleeping at all, were carrying ultralight gear and not even sleeping bags, just some emergency blanket, medkit, ultralight stove and some food. They left the base at 4 pm to climb the volcano, and were back at 3.30 am to sleep a couple of hours and leave the park. Ultralight gear for ultrafast hiking.

We woke up at 4 am to start the climb at 5. We started the climb at 1800 meters over the sea level and after 7 hours of walking and a struggle with the altitude that made us tired as hell we reached the 4000 meters over the sea level and with it, the summit of the Descabezado. From there the view of the valleys would be awesome. And it was as the pictures show. The only bad thing, wildfires.

There had bee so many wildfires due to the summer season over here, that when we tried to see the Pacific Ocean, we couldn't. We tried to see Talca from the summit but it was impossible either, the only thing we could see around us were the mountains north and south from us. At the coast, a huge cloud, which we suspected was bad weather, coming from the sea to the valleys, and a weird mist reaching the base of the Andes Mountains near the valleys. Later on our hike back, we would realize it was a cloud of smoke rather than bad weather, and that there were at least 5 wildfires in the Maule region destroying most of the mountains in the coast. With so many wildfires, the skies got clouded by smoke and ash that would cover everything in the valleys, forbidding us to see what was going there from our location at the top of the volcano.

As usual the way down from the Volcano was way faster than going up, and in no time we were at the base again. There's not much to do at the summit of the volcano rather than looking at the distance and getting amazed by the landscape, other than that, the wind, the sun, and the unstable temperatures will force you to go down soon. A small spring was waiting for us at the end of the day to recover energies and to start our hike back into civilization.

Going back to the city was straigth forward. After doing the last of the climbs at night to avoid the heat, we decided to spend the night sleeping under the stars. No tent for the last night up there, and a nice view of the stars with sounds of frogs walking around us. Next day, we were outside the park and on our way back to Talca.

Finally I closed the circle of going up the mountain. It was something I had to do and the reason why I left Santiago earlier than planned. It was definitely worth it and also an accomplished mission. After 1 week, I'm still in Talca, but the itch is starting to appear again. I'm already thinking in the route I will take towards Concepción when I leave next week to continue my tour. I have received a really nice visit in Talca, have met friends and have already said goodbye to some of them too, it's nice to see the people :).

The guessing among some of them still continues though, and it's weird when they ask; “when does your tour start?”. It already has!. As Talca is my hometown, most of them think I left Santiago by bus and that my tour hasn't started yet. At some point for me I felt the tour hadn't started, but when the itch started to appear again yesterday, I definitely realized I'm already on tour.

Next post should be from Concepción if I manage to get Internet there. It should take me around 2 days to reach that city as it's only around 220 kms away from Talca. The hills though may stop me a bit. The only thing, I hope I don't have to cross any wildfire on the way.

Enjoy the pictures, and if you want to see more check this link.

Cheers.