Although the title says “Villarrica,” today we woke up, got ready, went to Villarrica, and immediately left Villarrica, haha. That’s because we are on our way to the nearby town of Pucón. From downtown Villarrica you can get mini buses that go to Pucón (and other locations) quite regularly and at a good price. The trip from Villarrica to Pucón is not very long (~30 minutes) as long as you don’t get traffic. During the summer the traffic between the two towns can slow down to a crawl. Luckily, this did not happen to us. The drive is a nice one where you see some woods, the lake, and some lava flows. So, in no time, we’re in Pucón! Welcome!
As you can see above, you can still see the Villarrica Volcano from Pucón and they call themselves “The Centre of Southern Chile”. Pucón is a very well known town/city in the south of Chile that is a very popular tourist destination with both Chileans and internationals. This means that it can be a bit more expensive than Villarrica. This is also where you can get a tour company to take you up the volcano (if it isn’t a dangerous time to climb).
The first thing we did in Pucón was go to a little handicrafts market… but the signs inside were more interesting than any of the things for sale. The signs extensively detailed the life of the Mapuche, and of course my travel partner took his time to read them all so that he could learn and then pass that information off to the rest of you, dear reader. We may repeat a bit of information we’ve already given in previous posts, but that’s okay.
The Mapuche have lived in a large area of Chile and Argentina since time immemorial. Their time in this land can be divided into discreet periods of time; before the arrival of the Spanish, the resistance to the Spanish, the resistance to the descendants of the Spanish (settlers and Chile), and post-colonization. It is believed that before the Spanish conquest the Mapuche lived in harmony with nature where they had basic horticulture, protected their environment, and were hunter-gatherers. However, after the arrival of the Spanish and the ensuing wars, their economic structure changed to be based more so on cattle raising and selling their products. At one point [no year is given on the sign] the State declares that all of these lands belong to the State and begins to parcel them off and sell/give them to farmers/settlers. During the 1900s the effect of these practices is increased even more as the Mapuche are placed in reservations that are ever dwindling in size. This would eventually culminate during the military dictatorship (1973-1990) where the indigenous lost the majority of the little that remained for them. Ever since, the Mapuche have struggled with urbanization as people have left the reservations and headed to the cities (mainly Santiago), but in the past twenty years there has been a resurgence in the Mapuche trying to reclaim their identity to show that they are still present in Chile, be it in Santiago or their ancestral lands.
One of the ways that the Mapuche have been trying to reclaim their identity is through the preservation of their language, Mapuzugun. The name Mapuche literally means “man of the earth,” while Mapuzugun is translated as the “language of the earth”. This demonstrates the connection that the Mapuche feel with their ancestral land where they refer to themselves as “of the earth”. This is further evidenced by the name that the Mapuche call the land in which they inhabit, Wallmapu or Wallontu Mapu, meaning “the surrounding land.” However, they were not one uniform “group” as they inhabited both sides of the Andean mountains in what is today Chile and Argentina. The mountains (that they called Pire Mapu) divided the Wallmapu into east (Puel Mapu, in modern day Argentina) and west (Ngulu Mapu, in modern day Chile).
Now, the clothing that the Mapuche wear is on the next sign, but there were just small pictures taken from the internet to show you what they were talking about. Instead of using those, we will show you the mural from yesterday again to try to give you a visual representation.
First, is the “first” layer of what a Mapuche woman wears called a chamal/quetpám/küpam. This is the traditional clothing that wraps the body as a dress would. This is held in place by a pin on the shoulder and a belt which is called a trariwe for women after puberty and a pichitraruwe for girls before puberty. These belts are used to highlight some colour in the traditionally black chamal, and they often had designs on them with significant Mapuche motifs. Next, is the black cape that can be seen on the woman in the above mural called a ikülla/iculla/iquila. This hangs from the shoulders to the ankles and can be bordered with different colours, each of which have their own meanings. And now we get to the “jewelry”. The first that you may notice above is the trarilonko, which is the silver headband used to hold the Mapuche woman’s hair back. The headband is formed with interconnecting silver bands that have small hanging discs that form the contour of the head. These discs were originally made using Spanish coins. On the front of the woman you can see the trapelakucha, a silver breastplate that sits vertically on the chest (you can only see the start of it above). These are usually made in “plaques” with the topmost representing two birds facing each other, the middle one having a carved motif, and the bottom having a double line which can have smaller motifs hanging from it. (As an aside, another “popular” style of trapelakucha is with a bird on top with three chains connecting a semicircle bottom plate). To finish the “jewelry” off, you have the chawai, the earrings and rings that are also made of silver. Tying it all together is the percale apron. You can’t see it above, but you will notice it whenever you see a Mapuche woman. Although it is a more modern addition to the Mapuche outfit, it is already considered traditional through its widespread adoption.
Men’s clothing had much less explanation on the sign, haha. You can see the tarilonko that the boy is wearing in the above mural which, as with the women, was used to tie the hair back. However, in men it was made out of leather and not silver. Men would also wear the makuñ, which appears similar to a poncho.
There were also small signs describing how the Mapuche work with wood carving, textiles, basket weaving, ceramics, silverware, and their gastronomy. We could describe it a little bit… but without any good pictures to go with it it would be a little pointless. The only sign that we can sort of talk about is the one for music. They describe four different instruments that are traditionally associated with the Mapuche which are the wada (an instrument made of a gourd filled with small things inside, think like a maraca), pifüllka (an instrument made of wood, clay, or bone with a single opening to blow across), trutruka (a sort of horn instrument made from coligüe with an animal horn at the end), and the kultrung. You can actually see a kultrung beside the boy in the above picture. It is like a drum with leather stretched over a bowl-shaped bottom. These are usually adorned with cosmic symbols which are important to the Mapuche, which can be seen in the above mural.
It’s always nice to be able to learn a bit while traveling, no? Haha. But, with that we’re done reading the signs and continue down towards Lake Villarrica. Yesterday you sort of got a look at the beach in Villarrica and you could see that there weren’t too many people around… well… Pucón is not like that, hehe.
Quite full. You can see people relaxing, swimming, and the beautiful scenery behind everyone. It makes sense why everyone is here. But… we’re not staying. We decide to continue walking just behind the beach. There are people selling things, small restaurants/cafes, washrooms, and a bit of parking. But, it’s actually a nice walk!
As you can see, the ground is not very level… but as long as you’re not in a wheelchair or something like that, it is fine. In between all of the trees you often find people selling food or little jewelry. As we keep walking this way there are less and less people, which is kind of what we’re looking for, hehe. We keep walking and walk along some houses/buildings that are here. It must be nice to wake up every morning and look out over this lake. And, like always, we find a little bit of art.
A nice little piece of “street” art showing off the volcanic nature of the region. We keep walking and keep walking. Eventually the trees sort of thin out and there becomes a more “official” path. The people who live here must have done it themselves? Who knows. But it’s nice.
We keep walking along this path until the trees disappear and we find ourselves at the opposite end of the beach. As you can see… not many people make the walk all the way down here. We’re not really sure why… the view is prettier and you have more space to yourself. What’s not to like? Walking a little extra… maybe…? Hehe.
But this is where we set up for a while. We just wander around at this end of the beach taking pictures, filming, and making time lapses. We’re just relaxing, which is something you don’t read on this blog too much, hehe.
Something that you may have noticed is that the beach is black. The sand is absolutely boiling hot, and it hurts to stand on while barefooted because of the black sand. Well, the sand is black because of the Villarrica Volcano. Around the south of Chile many of the beaches are black because there are just so, SO many volcanoes in this region of the world. So, might as well take a closer look at the volcano, no?
Why aren’t more people down here…? It’s so much nicer down here than where all of the people are. We walk a tiny bit more (~2 minutes) and we’re in such a picturesque area. The surrounding nature closes in on you and it’s like you’re taken to a different world. Very, very pretty.
Always with the volcano in the background, hehe. How could we not? But, we can’t stay here forever. We start walking back towards the Pucón beach, and we’re soon there. We walk back into the actual town that is absolutely dotted with signs telling you where to run if there is a volcanic eruption.
We eventually make it to another little point along the coast of the lake, again where everything is aimed at you taking pictures of the lake, with the green trees behind, and the volcano in the background. From this dock you can take little boat tours along the lake. We’re not exactly sure what they’re looking at or if it is more for transportation… but there are a lot of people filing onto the boats while we take this picture.
But, with that it is time to stop wandering around Pucón. We go back towards the downtown area and buy some food to take back with us. Pucón is definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in this part of southern Chile.
And if you want a more “budget friendly” option you can stay in Villarrica and just take the little busses that go back and forth all day between the two towns. That’s where we’re headed now to go back to Villarrica for the night. It’s a quick ride back and then we just prepare some food and settle in for the evening. So far Chile/Villarrica has been a lot of relaxing, which isn’t a bad thing after our days that always felt packed to the brim in the Middle East, haha. Good night from Villarrica!
