Okay, so I might have pumped up the powder prematurely.
Yesterday I drove with the folks from the hostel next door up to the volcano with very high expectations of the perfect day. After piling 7 people into a truck, we arrived and only one lift was going to open because of bad visibility higher up the mountain. We bought tickets anyways and made the most of it. Four of the guys were going to trek up the volcano and then come all the way down using some of the coolest gear I have ever seen. Two had skis with telemark-esque bindings, and two had snowboards that split down the middle to create two wide skis with bindings in both directions. Each one also uses a "skin," based on seal skin, with hair going in one direction. You stick the skin to the bottom of your skis, then when you hike uphill, the grain of the hair prevents you from sliding backwards. Genius.
Chantelle, old Canadian, younger Aussie, and I were just taking the lift to hit the slopes.
Conditions: dust on crust, and sunny but very cold. Yes, there was a lot of snow, but it was wind-buffed, inconsistent, sticky. Also, with only the one lift open, there wasn't much terrain to tackle. We found some of the famous lava-chute natural half-pipes/gullies, but mostly people were stuck with short corduroy runs. They eventually opened a couple T-bars, but most of the mountain was still shut down. We wanted steeper, deeper, ungroomed, and unpacked. We kept hoping they would "pop the top" and let us go on some other chairs, but as the afternoon wore on the visibility got worse instead of better and it started to snow.
All that being said, Chantelle and I still had a blast.
Canadian was a bit of a pain in the ass, criticizing our choice of runs for a lack of turns and telling endless stories about his mountain in British Columbia and many other things that I eventually tuned out. Aussie was only snowboarding for the second time ever, so he went off on his own.
We piled back into the truck, headed back to our hostels, then 5 of us grabbed beer and bathing suits to take to some amazing hot springs. A half-hour drive through double-rainbows, rivers, pastures, forests, and mountains, then relaxation. These hot springs were right next to a raging river, and there were probably 8 pools of varying sizes and temperatures, all bordered by rocks with sand on the bottom. Amazing. We were there for hours, playing marco polo, watching the stars come out, and talking about living life to the fullest.
By the end of the night, I wasn't sure that everyone was committed to going back to the mountain today, so I didn't force myself to wake up early today. I thought I would mosey over to next door and see what they were thinking, but I just missed them. Instead, I walked into the center of Pucón to get a feel for things and get groceries for myself. It was a bit of a ghost town, to be honest. Most shops were shut down and very few people were around. I knew that winter season is their secondary season while December is their peak summer season, but this didn't really seem like a season at all.
After the supermarket, I headed back to Paradise Pucón. I am beginning to wonder whether there is much for me to do here. Gloria is coming back Tuesday morning, and she is the one I am supposed to talk to about my job. But my job is based on there being other guests at the hostel, and right now there is only one woman who is leaving tomorrow. My mindset is this: I will still do what they ask of me in order to keep my free lodging, but I don't really see why they want/need me here. I hope that Gloria is okay to have me here, even without other guests for me to welcome/inform of activities/lead on activities. I also shouldn't judge my 2 months here based on 2 days here, but of course I think about everything too much and without much to do I dwell on the potential for loneliness. Today it was freezing out, so when I got back to Paradise I huddled up in bed with my gatito and hung out with Jericho on Skype for the first time. Very very nice to see his face. I'm hoping Rael will be on later, too. And maybe some day Yarrow will actually be on when it says he is on. Gatito likes to stand on the keyboard and almost just deleted this whole post, but I really like her company. I should learn her name though.
Tomorrow, I might go on a day trip with the folks next door to Huilo Huilo, a national park/biological reserve.
The town alarm system just went off, followed by many sirens. I hope the volcano didn't just erupt. Yikes.
(Post-Script: volcano didn't erupt. I'm fine.)
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