Villarrica – but where’s the volcano?

The little town of Villarrica is next to a beautiful lake and a splendid volcano. It seems a little embarrassing to lose something as large as a volcano, but I managed it for a while today, although thoroughly enjoying a wander around town.

I wandered down to the lake, but not very early (about 9:30 am). I was surprised that nothing was happening in town. It looked almost deserted in the middle of town, where I am staying. (I am staying here deliberately, rather than nearby Pucón, which is a much more touristy town, catering to various kinds of adrenaline junkies, scaling mountains or volcanoes, snowboarding, zip lining, canyoning, etc … no thanks! But this seemed a bit too far in the other direction:

I found out later, to my great surprise, that it’s a public holiday – for Reformation Day! I am astonished that this extremely Catholic country has a national public holiday to celebrate the Protestant Reformation, lead by Martin Luther! How weird is that? Or at least, how ecumenical is that? Australia doesn’t have many religious holidays at all (just Christmas and Easter), which was why I was surprised. I get the impression that church and state here are a bit more intertwined than in Australia.

The lake is beautiful, and I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting down on the newly made coastal walk and watching it peacefully for a while, before walking further around town (click on the pictures to get a better idea of the lake scenes, which were very blue!).

I was disappointed that I couldn’t see the volcano, because of the clouds, although I could see some lower parts of it. I could also see some distant buildings, including one in progress. What lovely place to stay or live! I hoped that the clouds would clear later in the day, although the forecast was not optimistic.

As well as scenery, I spotted other things lakeside, such as a few birds of various kinds, and lots of sleeping dogs (which of course I let lie …):

Besides me, there weren’t many people around, except for some kids playing football on the (new) black sand beach, and a few chaps practicing for the weekend Villarrica marathon (I assume), including the chap below running along the beach with the (mostly hidden) volcano in the background.

Wandering around town, I found some Mapuche statues and occasional murals, which I have not seen earlier in this trip. The Mapuche are the Indigenous people, who were violently overthrown by the Spanish conquistadores, and are more evident here in the south of Chile than further north. There are various Mapuche crafts available for sale (to tourists, I assume) such as wood carvings, textiles, etc. Here are a few examples.

I also wandered up hill to a lookout just out of town, following the advice of local tourist office. This gave me some nice views over the town, including over the river that flows into the lake, with a snow-capped mountain range beyond it in the distance. I was amused to see all the political signs at the top of the hill (coming into town), next to the cross … it reminded me of the Joan Baez song, With God on our Side, as I assumed all the candidates regarded themselves. I could also see the town church (cathedral?) and noticed again the snow-capped mountains behind it, which looked lovely.

But I continued to be surprised – now even a bit perplexed – at why I couldn’t see the volcano, which last night looked so prominent. How could it have just disappeared, now that the clouds were clearing, too?

The mystery of the disappearing volcano was solved when I happened to see a tourist brochure that showed the volcano behind the building I had seen earlier. It was not missing after all – I was simply looking in the wrong place! And those snow-capped mountains were the bottom bits of the volcano, as became clearer to me as the clouds mercifully lifted a bit. The beautiful volcano became quite visible, as the afternoon wore on and I looked in the correct direction. The image at the top of this blog gives an impression of it.

I took a short boat cruise on the lake – which was lovely, despite all the commentary being in Spanish; this gave me an even closer look at the volcano, as well as other parts of the landscape around the lake. Some of the buildings now looked very close to the volcano, it seemed to me, especially as it is not an extinct volcano. The sights were really quite beautiful. I was swept away by the blueness of the lake and the mountains and the whiteness of the snow on the volcano.

Back on shore, happy that I had not lost the volcano after all, I went for a stroll along the lake again, which by now was more populated than this morning. The black sand beach (not Australia’s idea of a beach, I realise, but it looked quite appropriate here) was popular with families, and I enjoyed watching them enjoying each other’s company in various ways. I hope nobody is offended by the snaps below, taken from a distance, but I thought the kids were pretty cute, playing with their dad and each other. Chile seems a very family-oriented sort of place, and seems to have gone to some lengths to provide things for kids (such as playgrounds, for example).

I also noticed again the bike paths, which gave bicycles (including lots of kids on bicycles) complete protection form motorists, and so there were lots of people taking advantage of that, as you can see:

There was also a bit of street commerce going on along the lake shore walk, unsurprisingly, with food and beverage stands of various kinds, and different crafts as well. Here are a couple of examples; the textiles were fabulous.

But I couldn’t keep my eyes far from the beautiful lake and its beautiful volcano, now that it had re-appeared. For someone from Flatland, like me, it’s always a treat to see mountains, and an especial treat to see a volcano, and – try as I might – I found it hard to imagine what it is like to live where you see beautiful scenes like this every day of your life, as the locals do. I wonder if they ever tire of it?