Trek under the volcano Lanín

If you leave Pucón to Lanín in full field for at least two days, the logistics are not as complicated, if only as easily for one day as I do, it is quite a nut. An international bus leaves Pucón for Argentina at 10:00. You must arrange in advance with the driver to drop you off about 4 km before the border at Lake Quillelhue, where you will reach about 12. But beware, international buses run only in the morning and local transport back to Pucón only runs from Currarehue about 25 kilometers back from the place landing, which you do not want to step on after a day's hike. So you have to hitchhike part of the way back, but be careful: the border closes at 20:00 so you have to be back on the road at a reasonable time for something to go too :-)

The start of the tour is at the beautiful Lake Quillelheue. I'm not even surprised to get off the bus alone.

The path leads through a bamboo and Araukaria forest. The only ones I meet are two cops who unexpectedly emerge from a bamboo bush, but they just ask where I'm going. After about half an hour I arrive at the Escondida lagoon

Lanín Volcano (3,747 m above sea level) is a truly amazing landmark of this tour

Another lake on this tour is Laguna Huinfiuca. A little further on, a real crater begins, where it picks up a few hundred meters of altitude

Suddenly the forest ends and you are in a completely different world. Huge volcanic wasteland. The lava normally stopped by an older mountain ridge from which only the peaks protrude – amazing

The view from the volcanic field is really great. Below us you can see this beautiful mountainous green landscape. However, the trail has disappeared, the only reference point now is the poles, which have quite large spacings. In ideal weather as it is today, it is still possible, in bad weather, the orientation must be really difficult

Lanín is a beautiful volcano with a glacier cap. A good destination for those who want to go to the volcano, which was definitely not everyone

Laguna Verde is the main destination of a classic trip under Lanín. If you want to continue and return through the second valley, count on it being quite difficult in terms of orientation and I definitely do not recommend it in bad weather with fog, etc.

From Laguna Verde, the path is really more challenging and less marked. Sometimes you have to look around the stone for a long time before you see another stick or a stone man on the horizon. It is often just intuitive and you will be happy for every brand you meet. But the basic rule is clear, you have to go around the lava ridge and go down the valley behind it

I finally manage to find the descent path and even come across a sign warning against animals. I didn't know the words at the time, so I guessed more about snakes because the sunny patties among the trees explicitly called for it.

The road leads for a while along a lava field, which reached behind the ridge. From here is the last view of this beautiful volcano

The road through the forest sometimes disappears and after half an hour of occasional uncertainty as to whether I'm going really well, there is a steep descent down and the road is more comfortable. I turn my head up on the steep walls of the mountain ridge, which on the other hand is almost completely filled with lava – really dense. The canyon is subjectively quite endless. In the end, I come across cows, so civilization is not far away. I arrive on the road at 5:15 pm, so I survived. I'm not waiting on the spot and I'd rather go if no one stopped me to go to the city in the worst case. After an hour and 6 kilometers of walking, the fifth car that passed in the meantime picks me up and brings me to the town. So he takes me to the body of the pick up so the experience is finally :-) I chase the local bus and in Pucon I am completely out of volcanic dust in the evening, but it was a great day.