I have just returned from the turn of the century.....Four friends and I decided to explore Southern Chile this weekend, taking a bus to the relatively big city of Temuco, (many other villages in the south, including the one we ended up at, have populations of less than 500 people,) and from there southeast to Parque Nacional Conguillio, home of one of Chile´s most active volcanoes.  In theory, the trip sounded pretty painless, a simple nine hour bus ride, cabins conveniently close to the national park, and plenty of hypothetical restaurants and stores eager to cater to the countless tourists willing to brave the chilly southern weather. 

    However, all did not go according to plan.  There was more than one bus station in Temuco, and we found ourselves waiting for the Narbus (one of  Chile´s more "affordable" bus companies) that would never come.  We passed the time lying around on the bus station floor in sleeping bags, sampling the local chocolate, and reading one of Chile´s more conservative national newspapers, El Mercurio.  After finally finding the right bus, we were able to take two more connecting buses and a suspiciously expensive taxi over countless unpaved roads leading up into the mountains, and finally arrived at our destination nearly 24 hours after beginning the journey. 

    Undaunted, we ignored the warnings of our dueño (cabin owner/cook/tour guide) who mentioned that the trails in Parque Nacional Conguillio are not nearly as well marked as those in US National Parks.  After hours of trekking over jet black volcanic rock, with Volcán Llaima smoldering in the background, we did manage to find Lago Verde, a small lake carved out by lava after the most recent major eruption in 1963.  (According to our taxi driver, two less severe eruptions occured in 1994 and 2001.)  The lake was gorgeous, deep green and surrounded by hundreds of eerily bare tree trunks (think "Dante´s Peak."  We were so distracted by the wonderful exfoliation properties of the pumice rocks that no one noticed it was growing dark...

    However, one of our group members is good with directions, and as we found our way back to camp we were rewarded by a planetarium-like view of the night sky.  Aside from a few summers in Northern Wisconsin, I have never seen anything which rivaled the clarity of those stars; it felt like we were looking through a telescope.  Over the next few days we hiked around several mountain lakes, may have seen a wild puma, learned to live with almost no electricty or hot water, developed a taste for the apples growing next to the cabin (when we ran low on food,) and mastered the use of a CB radio (our only form of communication with the outside world.)   My favorite part of the trip was riding back to the village at the foot of the mountain in the neighbor´s pickup truck in order to catch our bus on the last day.  Let´s just say that safety regulations here aren´t quite the same, and the excitement of the ride was due to much more than just the scenery...

     It was tough to handle the return to city life when our bus got in at 7 this morning.  There is something to be said for taking time to soak in natural beauty and live with the bare minimum for awhile.  But there is something reassuring about coming back to full immersion in humanity as well.  Traveling has helped me to  appreciate both perspectives.