Lanin volcano.
January 2011.
Lanin volcano rises to 3776 meters in the middle of a beautiful landscape.
The shore of the lake is covered with volcanic sand.
Children take advantage of a small path to have a ride on the roof of the car.
We buy our bread in a Mapuche bakery.
The Mapuche, who are the Indians of the region,
co-manage the park Lanin with the state and have an exclusivity on almost all the touristic activities.
We will not complain, as the bread is very good.
We sleep in a Mapuche "campamento" along the lake.
Everybody has his job to prepare for a good shower.
The girls are in charge of the wood,
Enguerrand brings the water from a nearby river and Tugdual takes care of the fire.
"Warmer please!"
Our shower tent provides us with a relative privacy at sunset!
We leave early in the morning to climb the volcano, after registrating ourselves with the park rangers.
Matthieu disguises himself with lichen and we all laugh out loud!
In order to motivate the girls, who are a bit tired, the boys go forward and organize a successful treasure hunt.
We go through forests of Araucaria: take care, it stings.
After 4 hours walking and 1000 meters higher, we have a splendid view on the volcano.
The children are delighted to make slides in snowfields, even if they get wet very quickly.
It is 4 pm, and it is time to go down according to the park regulations.
But as the children go slowly, we finally come face to face with a guard left at our search!
The next day, the "campamento" is full of Argentinians, due to the weekend.
Matthieu lends his cable puller to an optimist guy who took his Ford pickup for a Land Rover.
As a thanks, the guy offers to Matthieu a bottle of champagne mixed with strawberries.
Strange isn't it?
You will understand that we loved the Lanin volcano.
