We had a short but very sweet 10 days in Chile. Coming from Bolivia to Chile we had quite the culture shock, in reverse! One moment we were in a building whose 4 walls were comprised solely of salt, crossed the border, and the next minute we were surrounded by revolving restaurents and the a better public transport system than the UK or US. We also immediatley noticed the difference in the people. Chileans love life and love their country, it was the first time in South America that we saw locals enjoying themselves. It was really refreshing. Another shock to our system, was the food. The food in Boliva was far from appetising, and Greg was starting to waste away. Chile soon fixed that with delcious seafood and fine wines, our tastebuds were slowly brought back to life.

The 24hr bus ride to Santiago was surprisingly confortable, so much so that we immedately boarded a two hour bus to Valparaíso. Valparaíso is a seaport in central Chile, built on hillsides, giving great views of the Pacific ocean no matter where you are. It is like San Francisco, only much nicer. We spent a few days wandering around the steep cobblestone alleyways, riding funiculars, and admiring the multicoloured Victorian houses. We then caught a train to Vina Del Mar, a seaside resort beside Valparaíso. Out came the flip flops and to the beach we went. Its is a really cute buzzy town. We could have easily got stuck here basking on the beach for weeks. But with too much to see and far too little time, we had to move on. It was here, however, that we discovered that we were beyond the shadow of a doubt ¨gringos¨.We know this because no less than 4 individual informed us of this fact as they walked past us all in the span on a single day.From here we caught a luxury, fully reclining, overnight bus to Pucon, due to no seats availble on the cheap bus. Well at least we will get a full night´s sleep. Or so we thought. Once tucked in and drifting off to sleep it became very apparent that we had the gold Medal winner of Olimpic snoring on the bus. I could hear the money spent on the expensive bus trickle down the drain. At a particulary high point of my frustration I proceded to throw my peanuts at him, in an attempt to wake him. My plan failed but he was now covered in peanuts, which made me feel better. Hiding the empty peanut bag, I resorted to sandwiching my head between two pillows and lulabying myself to sleep.

We arrived in Pucon a little tired but it is such a beautiful area we didn´t want to miss anything. The town is nestled in between a lake and snow capped volcano, in the lake district of Southern Chile. The location results in a numerous amount of adventure activites, which we jumped right into. First up was white water rafting down the Trancura river. The guides were crazy, where else in the World would the guide point at a bewildered dutchman and say, OK you be the guide now? The afternoon ended with a couple stranded on the ¨rescue boat¨, without a guide, drifting down the wrong river, clinging to a tree, it was hilarious to watch. From there we all headed to the bar to enjoy the afternoon sun and drink the evening away. All in all, a great day! The following morning, at 3.30AM we woke to hike up Villarrica, the active snow capped volcano. We had only left the bar less than 5 hours ago and now we were in for a full on 7 hour hike up 5300ft, in the snow. After our experience of volcano hiking in Guatemala, we were a bit sceptical about doing this one. The terrain however was somewhat different though. We were fully kitted out with snow shoes, crampons, ice pix, helmets, headlamps, the works. The first 2 hours in the dark was not much fun, but the amazing sunrise made the early hungover morning all worth it. Being with the only company who started the hike at 4.00am, meant we had the entire volcano to ourselves. They advertise the hike as a tourist activity, what they should say is, if you are a serious climber and want an introduction as to what to expect climbing Everst, then come and do this hike! It was tough to say the least. The added elements of the fiercely bright sun and cold wind didn´t make things any easier. But after 7 long hours we made it to the top, where we could look down the crater and had a first class view of the surrounding volcanoes all the way in Argentina. Now came the fun bit, going down, which for the first time on a hike was actually fun. It involved putting a "nappy/diaper" on and sliding all the way down the volcano, with our ice pix as a break. After a quick dinner back in Pucon we ventured out to the 24hr hot springs with a bottle of wine, to soak our tired and sore muscles for a few hours gazing up at the night sky. Today the adventure was supposed to continue with zip linning through the forests Canopy, but the weather decided otherwise. In retrospect, I´m not sure I could have handled any more adrenaline. Tonight we board the bus back to Santiago and fly to the great city of Buenos Aries.