We didn't rush to get up as the weather was still overcast, and after all it was a Bank Holiday!
In the afternoon we decided to drive up to the lava caves on the side of the volcano. A volcano we still had not yet seen. The road to the caves was rather rough so about a kilometre before the caves we parked the car and walked up. There was a great view of lago Villarica.
The caves were closed but we noticed a board higher up which said there was a 4km walk to a mirador of some parasite craters on the side of the volcano. However there was still no volcano to be seen.
The walk was labeled with 16 interval posts along the way.
Initially the walk was across lava flows, and we were a bit surprised that people had newly built cabins right in their flow.
We then crossed a couple of gorges with some large fallen trees.
The path then steadily rose for a while, through bamboo.
Eventually the views opened out and we began to see that the clouds were lifting. We had a tantalising first view of the snowy slopes of the volcano and a ski lift on its side. We carried on and then at a clearing saw the clouds had lifted more and for a few seconds we could glimpse the summit and its smoking cone. We had waited four days for this!!!
Kevin took some video of the crater.
It was getting late and we had only reached half way in the walk so we decided to turn around, elsewise it would be dark when we got back to the car. The volcano was once again hidden in cloud.
Later that night we sat in the car and blogged - the only way we could get a signal. However by now the skies had cleared and we could see that for the last four days we had been literally living under the volcano!
In the afternoon we decided to drive up to the lava caves on the side of the volcano. A volcano we still had not yet seen. The road to the caves was rather rough so about a kilometre before the caves we parked the car and walked up. There was a great view of lago Villarica.
The caves were closed but we noticed a board higher up which said there was a 4km walk to a mirador of some parasite craters on the side of the volcano. However there was still no volcano to be seen.
The walk was labeled with 16 interval posts along the way.
Initially the walk was across lava flows, and we were a bit surprised that people had newly built cabins right in their flow.
We then crossed a couple of gorges with some large fallen trees.
The path then steadily rose for a while, through bamboo.
Eventually the views opened out and we began to see that the clouds were lifting. We had a tantalising first view of the snowy slopes of the volcano and a ski lift on its side. We carried on and then at a clearing saw the clouds had lifted more and for a few seconds we could glimpse the summit and its smoking cone. We had waited four days for this!!!
Kevin took some video of the crater.
It was getting late and we had only reached half way in the walk so we decided to turn around, elsewise it would be dark when we got back to the car. The volcano was once again hidden in cloud.
Later that night we sat in the car and blogged - the only way we could get a signal. However by now the skies had cleared and we could see that for the last four days we had been literally living under the volcano!
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