Volcano Copahue: the smoking crater and ice cream
The waterfall in front of us was incredible colors: red stone, the dark green of the vegetation and the deep blue sky. To this was added a multicolored rainbow formed by water droplets in suspension. The pastoral peace around us that we were not foreshadowed at the foot of the only active volcano in Argentina. The Rio Agrio, delighted us with its waterfall, had its birth on the side of the very Copahue volcano mapudungún named (Mapuche language) means instead of water with sulfur.
After taking lots of photos follow road to the town of Caviahue, where we would spend the night. The lake, the edge of which is the population, Agrio called because its sulfurous waters from the river of the same name. But his name Mapundungun, Caviahue, means meeting place. My mind of novelist imagined in that place where we were Mapuche tribes on both sides of the ridge, on special, to trade and perform their rites.
The Rio Agrio, delighted us with its waterfall, www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/Ascenso-al-crater-del-Copahue-1.jpg
Returning to the world today, and taking advantage of our remaining few hours of light, We did a short hike to the nearby Laguna Escondida. As its name implies, this is not visible from the village because it is higher, hidden in a sort of terrace on the side of the volcano.
After a half-hour walk up to the mirror of water arrived surrounded by Araucaria, pehuenes for Mapuche. When I saw him I knew immediately that it was an ancient volcanic crater. But peek into the natural balcony over the lake Caviahue and understand that the people of the lake and sit in a crater much larger than the Laguna Escondida. I was a long time admiring the scenery while I visited the ghosts of the thousands of people they would have gathered at the site for centuries. Behind me, omnipresent, the majestic volcano Copahue watching me and maybe even challenged me.
On the Argentine side of the mountains are extinct volcanoes only Chilean side while there are plenty of active cones
At night I read more of the history of the area and went to bed early, since the day after the long climb emprenderíamos the crater. By closing the eyes of Aboriginal ghosts came back to me. Between dreams I saw Dr. Pedro Ortiz Velez he asked the Cheuquel cacique permission to bring their sick to the hot springs of the volcano, betting its healing qualities. Thus whites, huincas for the Mapuche, began arriving in the area and thus the Mapuche began to lose their land.
In the morning breakfast time fast to get to the meeting point with the rest of the group would rise with us. We did a uphill in our van through a place called the "slot machines". Probably took its name from the fact that the thermal water sheds there lot of steam into the cold air, remember what, those explorers of the late nineteenth, the steam machines.
Three craters aligned
We leave for the summit on a long walk under five hours of ascent. As we walked I started chatting with the guide. What were those old craters? He explained that the lowest, where the lake and the people, is the oldest. Thousands of years later, where it is now created another Laguna Escondida. The latter was formed in the current, the summit of the volcano.
Three craters aligned But why the fracture was moving westward? I explained that it is generated by the movement of tectonic plates moving in that direction. For this reason, the Argentine side of the Andes are extinct volcanoes only Chilean side while there are plenty of active cones. We could almost say that Copahue is the firing of Argentina. In a few thousand years a new crater appears on the Chilean side. Meanwhile Copahue can still act up from time to time ...
There was a thick sheet of ice cut by a stream of water lined with colored stones very strong. Here comes the Agrio river
At first the climb was not difficult, but slowly tilt was accentuated. We start from just over 1.000 meters above sea level, and after two hours the guide, knowing that there was still the hardest, We did stop to rest. He chose a very special place. There was a thick sheet of ice cut by a stream of water lined with colored stones very strong. "Here comes the Agrio River"He said as he warned the group not to touch the water. Not only was boiling but its huge concentration of minerals make it poisonous to humans. "And the color of the stones?”, I asked. I replied that it was because a certain bacteria, only able to live in that water.
We keep climbing, tilt already very strong. After the 2.000 meters, height allowed us to appreciate other mountains of the Cordillera. Some with characteristic conical, told us that it was other volcanoes. Perhaps waiting to "his" eruption.
The group was tired not only by tilting, but also by the effect of the height. Above 2.500 meters feels strongly the effect of "altitude sickness"
Shortly after we had to stop again. The group was tired not only by tilting, but also by the effect of the height. Above 2.500 meters feels strongly the effect of "altitude sickness". We still had over an hour to reach the 2900 meters high volcano.
In the last section we had to cross a slippery surface dirty ice with a steep slope. When asked again and some stop to rest the front shouted for joy: "We!”
Quickened to see the crater, but Copahue threw me his latest challenge. An incredible wind over a hundred miles an hour I peppered his face with dust particles. I could barely see what interested me ... The wind Pacific, nothing that stopped him in his mad rush to the Pampas plains, was the last trick to blind us Copahue his big secret.
The Copahue showed me his latest challenge. An incredible wind over a hundred miles an hour I peppered his face with dust particles
The crater of the volcano is very particular, as it is almost perfectly circular and its hole is full of water. This strange gap, the vital hot geothermal activity, steams and bubbles as if it were a vision of hell. But there was more. Bordering the west side of the crater, a thick plate of glacier ice reminded us we were almost 3.000 thousand meters height, with the cold that means. Ice and boiling water ... that place so special!
This strange gap, the vital hot geothermal activity, steams and bubbles as if it were a vision of hell
We sit huddled behind some stones to protect you from the wind. We sit huddled behind some stones to protect you from the wind, active. In its last eruption, in the year 2000, the lake suddenly evaporated and ice running downhill was liquefied. Something similar had happened in previous eruptions 1992 and 1995. Ie, that came with continued activity Copahue. Why so many years now leisure? They say the longer you go without activity, the greater the pressure build, which involve a powerful eruption fatally. "Let's go down!”, I proposed unwilling to challenge those hidden forces.
We resume the path carefully, as the decline also has its dangers. While trying not to dirty ice skating I saw the distant Lake Caviahue and the green around him araucarias. I remembered the last presence Mapuche. For them the volcano, and especially its crater, had a deep religious significance. A strange inner strength made me turn and, with a last look at the summit, Copahue say goodbye with great respect.
Comments (3)
Nacho Melero
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The picture with the waterfall, the rainbow and green moss left me breathless. BESTIAL.
Copahue I point to my long list of places to visit before death.
A hug
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Gerardo Bartolome
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Nacho: is the jump of the Agrio. A place to spend hours admiring. You… Without People! There are hardly any places so.
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Gerardo Bartolome
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The Copahue volcano erupt just.
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