Cave

Our first day in Pucón we visited a cave that was formed by the volcano. We learned that the volcano, known as the Villarica Volcano, is the second most active in South America. The last activity was in 1998 and it erupted in the early 70's. We saw a diagram of what towns and areas would be affected if it erupted again. The most active volcano in South America is in San Pedro de Atacama. We'll be flying there tomorrow.

Here we are all waiting at the base of the volcano to go on a tour of the cave. From left to right: Sylvia, Jorge Jr., Sita, Jorge Sr., and Hari.
This is a view of the surroundings before we entered the cave. You can see volcanic rock covering most of the ground.
This is the opening of the cave.
As we walked down into the cave I was reminded of Carlsbad Caverns. The drop in temperature as you enter is very stark. I was the only one under-dressed and far too under-dressed at that. Our first day in Pucón was cloudy throughout, this ensured that it was jacket weather outside the cave, but once we were inside it must have been less than 50 deegrees F and I was in shorts and a t-shirt.
A view of the entrance from inside the cave.
Just a few dozen feet into the cave you see the last natural light for the rest of the tour. I thought this was a pretty cool natural "sky light".
Sita urging me to go deeper into the cave. I guess I was going to slow taking all of the photos.
A neat viw of the ceiling of the cave.
The whole tour was guided by lights near the ground except for when there were some interesting sights above which would then have lights focused on them. Because of the non-uniform nature of the cave bottom there were many wooden bridges, steps and walkways throughout. At the very end of the tour the tour guide asked us to turn our cameras and cell phones off and ensure we were on solid footing. He then turned the lights off and asked us to remain as silent as possible. It's not often that we can experience such darkness. This darkness combined with the silence (which, despite kids being present on the tour, was amazingly quiet) was for me actually the best part of the tour. It's the surprising/unexpected experiences that make great vacations. Without that I certainly wouldn't have thought the tour was worth the 10,000 pesos we paid per person (By the way, 10k pesos is a little less than $20).


The tour guide asked the kids if they liked chocolate and they excitedly responded "si", he then pointed them at the following cave wall which he proclaimed to be similar in color and texture to chocolate.