02/2025
Remember: At 6 am there is no uber in an argentinian small town… Good that I was ready early enough and could do the 30 minute march semi-stress-free.
A few minutes into the walk, a stray dog with a wagging tail came towards me - he turned around, walked a few meters ahead of me, kept looking back as if to make sure I‘m still there.
Then a guy with a hood on came around a corner. I was going to change the sides of the street, just to be sure, you never know. The dog growled at the guy, and he ended up changing the sides.
Without thinking a lot I kept walking, until I heard more paws on tarmac. That was more than one dog - 3, to be exact, coming directly towards me with pretty stiff bodies. I wasn‘t overly excited about this situation. Again, my companion growled at them, but this time I was right in the middle of it, and the others growled back. If there‘s a fight now… I wanted to get away, but the dog stayed by my side and the others followed him - or me? What did they want?
There was more growling and some crying, then the other 3 dogs left. My small black companion kept walking ahead of me as if nothing ever happened. Then he took a left turn - right where I needed to go to the bus station.
He didn‘t want any pets. He layed down on the floor 3 m away from me, slept a little and yawned every time he looked up at me. As I was getting onto the bus, he cried for a moment, then walked away.
The bus was supposed to take 4 hours. But patagonia is burning, everywhere and pretty bad. We had to take a different border crossing and it took us over 12 hours.
Ich döste in meinem Semi-Cama, es war immerhin noch sehr früh. Irgendwann erwachte ich, vermutlich nicht halb so elegant wie Dornröschen, als sich der Argentinier neben mir grad einen Mate gönnte. Ob ich auch will? Ja, bitte, klar doch! Matein, so nennt sich das „Koffein“ der „Yerba“, macht einen wohl auch munter. Und wenn ich mich jetzt auch noch auf Spanisch unterhalten soll, dann brauch ich das auch.
At one point the conversation also involved the 2 girls in the seats next to ours, a German and a Norwegian. One of them was even in the same hostel. That was good, because when we were changing busses and I just quickly popped to the bathroom, my backpack and everyone else was gone. My heart stopped, but then one of the girls came running towards me and told me we had to change terminals and they brought my stuff.
The next day, the 3 of us girls were hiking. The norwegian said it was 8 km, with a view at the top over 4 volcanoes. Of course I don‘t say no.
Well, I thought it was 8 km in total, which is also what I brought water and snacks for. Turns out it was a miscommunication, and 8 km one way with 1100 m of elevation gain. Perfect.
After 20 minutes on the flat it got pretty steep - on sand, of course, as always inthis part of the world, and you feel like you walk 2 steps forward and one step back.
We chatted the whole way, so time flew and it was alright walking. The forest grew denser and changed - we were surrounded by araucarias, trees that only grow here, and are up to 5000 years old.
We refilled our water in small rivers, which we were told at the entrance it totally fine, this is also where the whole town gets their water from. Spoiler: Everything went well.
And then we were at the lagoon. From here it was only 20 more minutes to the view point. That challenged my vertigo and fear of heights - but not looking is not an option.
It was really epic. The way back though was almost harder than up - steep, sandy ground, the quads certainly felt it. And the toes - they were bad. 4 blisters and one almost black toe nail. But well, I will survive.
At night we enjoyed a pizza in the hostel‘s tree house with a view of the sunset over the lake. What a life…
A view of a volcano obviously isn‘t enough. Your girl‘s gotta CLIMB one.
I treated myself to a rest day (much needed) and for mental preparation, and then I got picked up at 5.45 am to go try the gear and pack everything. Safety pants and jacket, helmet, gas mask, crampons, ice axe (!) etc. were neatly packed into the backpack, so that my PB&J sandwiches were as safe as possible and my gatorade was still accessible. Yes, I learn from my mistakes.
Last night by the way I was in for a bad surprise: my period of course couldn‘t wait 24 more hours. With a cramping uterus I decided to do as most of us did and take the chairlift for the first 400 m of elevation. I will have to do 1200-1300 more anyways…
I don‘t know if it was the better decision, the lift was quite the adventure. It was windy, high, i was in there alone and the safety bar was somewhere it didn‘t help me at all. my heart rate was probably higher than during the hike.
We had to do a lot of elevation, with a bag full of gear and up to 2800 m above sea level. We hiked slowly, in perfect for me pace - not too slow, still challenging, but also not too fast.
It was always pretty steep, sandy and rocky, but quite alright to walk. Soon we had to cross some snow. At the end there was a big step back onto the rocks. The guide ahead of me gave me his hand, I took it gratefully, stepped onto the rocks and fell. I lost my balance, and was lying on the ground like a bug. The guide helped me stand up, didn‘t even flinch, and just told me to „be careful here“. Should i laugh or hope for a whole in the ground to disappear in?
Soon we came to the glacier and were putting on the crampons and taking out the ice axe. It‘s getting serious. We were taught how to react when we fall and slide, and how to walk with the crampons.
The feet were even heavier. We have been walking uphill for 3 hours already, and I was reaching my limits. My uterus still cramping, my morale low, I was fighting my own mind, my neck hurt from all the looking down… and suddenly the glacier was over. We were walking on rocks again, were able to take off the gear and leave our backpacks to walk without them the last 20 minutes to the crater.
After a good 5 hours we made it. The crater was humming and steaming and smoking. Every now and again we got a whiff of some not-sulphury gas that made you feel like you‘re choking. So we put on our gas masks and took the most badass pictures.
The views were always good, right from the start, but here? 360° view of valleys, lakes, hills, mountains and 7 (!!) volcanoes. Plus the crater of an active one…
And then came the best part: sliding down the mountain in the plastic things we carried all the way up. There was slides formed in the glacier. We got a quick explanation and off we went.
I of course didn‘t hear that we weren‘t supposed to use the plastic on the first one. I was crashing downhill at top speed, thought that would be it, i would just go flying down the whole freaking volcano. How can you lose control over a piece of plastic? I should remember how to do this from when i was a kid.
Well, at the end of the slide i crashed into the rest of my group, luckily didn‘t kill anyone with my ice axe and the other slides were going to be slower and curvier.
I stood up, promptly fell down again - I‘m just not made for snow - and enjoyed the rest of the way down.
What an amazing idea though! Can we please start doing this at home?
Yes, it was challenging, but surely one of the best hikes I‘ve ever done. It was worth every drop of sweat, every euro and every fear. At the end, we - surprise - treated ourselves to a beer and pizza in the - surprise - hostel‘s tree house, with a view of the sunset over the lake.
