So, I have an irrational fear of heights. Irrational, is the important word here. The fear doesn´t exist when I stand in a tour agency weighing up options on how to while away the days: Maybe it´s the clean faced sales assistants, maybe it´s the effort of speaking Spanglish, maybe it´s the sun shining assuring me all will be well... whatever it is, it isn´t knowing myself that allows me to keep booking trips that terrify me!

Examples:

1. Inca Trail.

2. Death Road (the name should be enough here!)

3. Sandboarding

4. Colca Canyon

After pledging to Mat, through tears and gritted teeth, during each of these activites to, "never do something like this again, it is so stupid to kid myself into thinking it will be ok" I insisted we came to Pucon to climb a volcano. That´s active. That is covered in a glacier. A volcano that you sledge down.

Villarica Volcano, the facts {stolen from Wikipedia, which on closer scrutiny stole all its info from another page!}

Villarrica is one of Chile's most active volcanoes. The volcano is also known as Rucapillán, a Mapuche word meaning "House of the Pillán", a reference to the belief Gods inhabit volcanoes and cause eruptions when displeased with us mere mortals.

Villarrica, with its lava of basaltic-andesitic composition, is one of only five volcanoes worldwide known to have an active lava lake within its crater.

It is 2,840m high.

Soooo, climbing to the top should be easy then!

Well, the climbing bit was easy in comparison to getting a chairlift at the start. A chairlift with no safety bar! There I am, backpack full of ice gear strapped to my front, legs dangling into thin air and only Mat's hand and a side bar for security. Once again, I questioned the reasons I put myself through these things as my heart rate increased to a painful rate. I also hated myself a little bit for wishing Chile had the same Health and Safety laws as the UK, really, how old am I?

The climb up took a little over 4 hours and despite being motivated by a 9 year old being capable of doing it, not a figurative comment either, a real 9 year old... his parents brought him to South America for a 6 month trip of a lifetime and took him to climb a volcano, I still got the heebie jeebies at the dizzying steepness of the glacial part of the volcano. Zig zagging up with krampons and small rocks tumbling down and seeing voids behind me induced some tears. The guide however, from Summit Chile, was ab fab, he made me walk with him and kept me chatting. So, instead of turning back and not completing the task, as was the outcome of the sandboarding debacle when I saw the height of those dunes, I made it to the top. We stood at the top of a volcano. We peered inside it. We saw all the different colours of rock and got to hear the reasons for this. We smelt that acrid sulphur. It was just beyond incredible.

I particulary loved the view, one side was forest covered in thick cloud, the other national parkland as far as the horizon, undisturbed trees and glacial lakes except for the presence of 5 active volcanoes, one of which has been erupting and covered us, and the horizon, in dust back when we were in Bariloche, it was strange to finally see it and for it to look so serene, it took informing for any of us to realise the picturesque 'cloud' above it was actually dust still spewing from it.

The descent. Glad it didn't turn out like the terrible film of the same name... in short I managed it. I actually loved it. Maybe it was still being over the moon that I made it to the top, maybe it was temporary insanity. We sledged down all of those same spots that had my knees knocking on the way up. Mainly, the idea of trying to walk down it was a driving factor of getting my arse into a sledging gulley and giving it a go, standing up and looking down was like immediate vertigo!

Mat 'need for speed' kept sneaking his little plastic shovel sledge between his legs part way down, on the ones we were told we could only do on our bums as they were too icy, and I was the other end of the spectrum... dragging down so much snow with my ice pick break I would keep grinding to a halt until someone else crashed into me. By the end though I was screaming, yelling, snorting and making general silly noises to nothing but the great blue sky and volcano as I careered down.

In short, a highlight of our trip. Oh, it was also rounded off with ice cream back at Pucon where we all laughed ourselves silly about a cyclist who insisted on riding in the middle of the road for about 3 miles. Even Tierry (the 9 year old) knew she was ridiculous keeping us stuck behind her in a 4x4 as she rode her 'one too many mince pies' bum back home.