Carlos’ dad lives in the south of Chile, on this enormous property overlooking a lake and under a volcano. It’s stunning. Like Switzerland, but bigger? This was Chilean springtime.
This is the volcano. We climbed to the very top.
Carlos’ dad’s new house
This was their old lake house. Carlos and I stayed there. He grew up going to this place.
So, theme of our lives, we didn’t make a reservation to hike the volcano, we just tried to go. But all the groups had already left. Somehow we convinced this guide to take us, even though it was going to be his day off. I loved this man. He was so tough but sweet. This was an incredibly difficult climb and much steeper than it looks in these pictures, I swear. He does it many times a week.
The best part about going without a guide group is that it was just us, and we didn’t have to wear the official guide group attire. It was really hot climbing up even though we were hiking in snow. And it was so steep that I was scared about coming down. We had a tiny plastic tray with us that we USED AS A SLED TO SLIDE DOWN THE SNOW COVERED ACTIVE VOLCANO. It took hours to get to the top, and minutes to get down.
Honestly, adventure of a lifetime.
We made these sandwiches to bring with us. Gave one to the guide. They were great. Ham, brie, avocado, tomato…but also anything tastes great when you’re exhausted.
A guided group behind us
Did I mention this volcano is active? And you can hear the bubbling lava at the top. Here I am, pretending not to be terrified.
You use the ice pick to slow the descent of your “sled”
We lived through it, those are our sled tracks.
A much deserved glass of Chilean cabernet is waiting for me somewhere.
