day one... 10k´s ascent up a near-vertical slope
After stocking up on nuts, chocolate and canned tuna at the supermarket, we took the 2 hour bus ride into the middle of nowhere to begin our trek up volcan puyehue.
We signed in at the resturaunt at the base of the valley, marking the beggining of our voyage, and then headed up the hill. We knew the first day would be hard, but fuck, i nearly died, it was nearly vertical the entire 5 hours and with only my sneakers on, lack of grip was deffinately an issue. A streamlet marked our half way point and we stopped for a drink and lunch. The view below was absolutely amazing but the fact that we had 3 more days of this really didnt help push me on. This was our last water source before camp, luckily the bush was reasonably thick and the shade helped keep us cool so water wasnt really an issue.
So we climbed and climbed and climbed and slippèd and climbed some more until we were above the point where trees stopped growing, by this time my legs where throbbing so it was a huge relief when we finally got to the top and could see the two shacks the marked the camp below. On arrival we set up our tent and i feasted on my lovely dinner of nuts and chocolate, staring up at the VOLCANO that we where about to conquer tomorrow.
