diary week 3 [17.04.2006-23.04.2006]

don't forget to take a look at the related albums in the  photo gallery. click  here to go to the  main page of this journey report or  here to see  my other journey reports.

day 15 [17.04.2006] - in the national park volcano "conguillio"

today we left  curacautin in direction of volcano "conguillio". around this volcano is a national park called "n. p. conguillio". already yesterday, the hotel staff told us, that the street will turn into an offroad way right after the village. and that was true!

the hard thing about these kind of roads is, that cars and heavy trucks ride them also. that's why these roads look and feel like a "mogul piste"! to ride it with a bike is normally funny, but with the luggage it isn't. every ground wave hits through the bike directly to the cyclist. you also can't do a normal days distance.

after a long time and only a few km, there was a junction to the " ruta interlagos" (lake connecting road). the view was impressive! it was the best place in chile we have been until now and one of the best places ever. the road didn't get better, but startet to climb. the combination of this hard uphill and a bad quality road with stones on it made it almost impossible to keep on moving with the bicycle. we sometimes had to carry one bike after the other for only some meters. some hours later we have reached the top of this mountain pass. we stopped and camped there. surrounded by nature and the so special trees "araucanias", that only exist in this region in chile, nowhere else! this tree looks very special and it was an important nutrition supplyer of the mapuche. this tree gave its name to chiles IX region.

- 37 km -

day 16 [18.04.2006] - mapuche, la araucania, cherquenco & temuco

in the night it began to rain. a hard wind almost blew our tent away. i was quite happy, that we decided to fix all storm ropes that day. we knew that it should rain the next days, but now it wa too early. we have been waiting in the tent with the hope, that the rain will stop. at 1.30 pm it was still raining and windy, after about 10 hours. we decided to go further. it wasn't that easy to decide this. we didn't really know how the road will be.

but the way got better and it went all the way down. we had to be very contentrated while riding downhill. because of the rain, it wasn't almost possible to see anything and the road was full of wholes. only one mistake could destroy your bike that way, that it would be impossible to keep on riding. even in the rain, the  national park conguillio was interesting. after about two hours in hard rain we arrived in "cherquenco", a small mapuche village. there was only one restaurant. we were quite happy to get a hot coffee. the mapuche family gave us some fresh roasted araucania nuts. they told us, this will empower us for our journey.

we waited some time. it didn't stop to rain and the forecast told it would be that way for the next days. we asked if a bus is driving. to our luck, we got the last one to  temuco. for only about 3 us$, we got in 1.5 hours to temuco.

- 17 km -

day 17 [19.04.2006] - day of rest in temuco, "ciudad de los mapuches"

after some hard days, we had a day of rest again. this gave us time to recover us and the eqipment. the brake pads were almost unusable. the combination of sand and rain was like sandpaper. there was almost no rubber anymore. so we bought new ones. we dried the tent and packed it well.  temuco is called "ciaudad de los mapuches" (city of mapuche). as we walked through the city, we saw why. the people looked somehow native and were surely descendants of mapuche.

day 18 [20.04.2006] - villarica & "la torre suiza"

when we woke up, it was stil very cloudy. some time later it started to rain again. it was now raining for three days with almost no break. after we have read the weather forecast, it was clearly. we went these 87 km by bus to villarica. all the way it was raining. when we arrived in villarica, we went directly to the swiss driven hostal " la torre suiza". we used this day to cook a nice meal and talk with the hostal staff.

day 19 [21.04.2006] - pucón & volcano villarica

when we woke up this morning, i saw out of the window. it wasn't cloudy anymore and i was able to see the " volcano villarica". the breakfast in the hostal "la torre suiza", was the best in chile at all. the selfmade bread was so delicious, that i have eaten too much. thanks again to mrs. zbinden. she told us about the way she and her husband got to chile. they were on a two year cycle journey almost all around the world. when they arrived in chile, they knew they want to stay here. it was interesting to listen to her. impossible to meet such people in switzerland.

the weather got better and we decided to ride to pucón. it was a nice ride along the lake "villarica".  pucón is situated in the other end of the lake. i was happy to be on the bike again. we did some sightseeing in the small, but very touristic village. in the evening we used the time again to cook a nice meal and drink some chilean wine. we decided to book a tour to climb the active volcano villarica. they told us it would be decided in the morning. the sky should be clear and it shouldn't be windy.

- 25 km -

day 20 [22.04.2006] - local tour around pucón

in the morning we have called the tour operator. he told us, that it is not possible to climb that day. but it would look better for tomorrow. we decided to spend another day here. the tour guide was "klaus", an older german. we made a local bike tour on our own around the volcano, without luggage. a really nice region to spend the holidays.

- 35 km -

day 21 [23.04.2006] - climbing the active volcano villarica

exactly at 6 o'clock the alarm clock was ringing. we had to wake up very early. we had the breakfast in record time. we went directly to the tour operator office where klaus already waited with three britains from cambridge. after some time later a frenchman and two israelis came along. they group was complete and we were ready  to start.

klaus thiele, the german tour guide, is already thirty years in his business. in the summer he does the same job in peru. he surely is an experienced alpine guide. the weather was fine. we had to ride with klaus' bus to the national park villarica station. after about 20 minutes and paying an entry fee, we arrived there. we were armed with climbing iron, helmet and an ice pick. there was no defined way from the beginning.

klaus told us, that during summer the volcano is completely wrapped up by snow. it is a famous winter sport destination for people from all around the world. there were many other groups climbing the volcano. 300 meters below the peak, we had to wait. it was really windy, what could get dangerous on the ice. after one hour later, we had to go back. it was hard. we climbed for several hours, just to turn around 300 meters before the target.

in the evening we have cooked another great meal. there were some new guests in the hostal. almost 90% percent of them were israelis. they told us that it is a must for each israeli, before going to the army, to travel to india or south america. we had to tell them to clean the dishes. i think they are not so clean at all.