travel interlude: getting to antuco

after getting out of yerba loca i caught a ride back to santiago to meet up with Nicco and JP. they had been planning a 10 day tour of the southern chile volcanoes for some time and invited me to come along. it sounded awesome and i was pretty bummed and i when i found out i was confused about what day it was (this happens a lot) and they had allready left for volcan antuco (maybe 8 hours south by car). after some self pity i kicked into mission mode, googled ¨ski antuco¨ saw ¨92 km from los angeles¨, grabbed my ski kit and remaining oatmeal packs and hike-metro-hike hustled to the terminal omnibusses just as one was leaving for LA.

it was sept 17, the night before chilean independance day and the red velocidad sign at the front of the bus hovered between 0 and 25 kph for the first 2 hours. when we got to LA at midnight, the bus station is empty and in an emptier part of town. i took my best guess and struck out. of course it starts to rain and i dodged from awning to awning until i got to a more inhabited part of town. internet cafes and hostels were not forthcoming and the only hotel i found was too pricey so like any good ski mountaineer errant (credit) i headed for the liveliest tavern i could hear. i had the good fortune to pick a table next to the owners family and by 1 was enjoying all the pisc-cola i could drink. karaoke started around 2, i doubt finer rendition of ¨she don´t know she´s beautiful¨ has been heard south of the equator. mostly we sang songs like ¨puerto montt¨, and my favorite, one that had a line about los piedras del camino (?) . more importantly, along the way someone drew me a map to antuco. when things shut down around 5 i politely declined offers of youuuu staaay at myyy hoooussse from my new amigo/a´s and started hiking again.

the rain soon came back and i found a shed to nap in for a bit. a little after daylight a woman caught up to me and assured me (in elaborate pantomime) that nobody was going to stop for a hitchhiker and if they did they would cut my throat. at last a bus stopped that said antuco, saved! i payed my $2, and promptly fell asleep. when i woke up the bus was empty and we were stopped with no buildings or side roads (or volcanoes) in site. the driver assured me this was the end of the line, and antucco was only 10k away. i think he was confused about his numbers because roadsigns soon revealed it was over 3 times that. 6 painfully short hitches (including the house-house bread delivery van which isnt any faster than walking but way more interesting) got me to the entrance of the park. the valley below antucco is pretty amazing (and a little like VT down low) and i was well stocked with bread so it was a pleasurable morning. i walked the last 5k or so up to the small ski resort and arrived at 11:00 just as JP, Nicco, Sebastian, Tom and Claudio were hoisting their packs to head up!