Hi Everyone!!

Well another day, another South American country. We are now in Chile! We’ve spent the last few days in Pucon, a little town famous for its outdoor activities and its volcano. Though it was tempting we decided to give climbing the very steep and snowy Volcan Villarica a miss and instead decided our adventure sport for our stay would be rafting! We booked in for the next day and spent the next morning walk ing around the town. It is very cute if a little touristy but you don’t see many of us turistas this time of the year- it’s hugely popular in summer as evidenced by the massive boarded up discos and bars on the edge of town. I (Hayley) may or may not have lead us away from the volcano to see it (it was really cloudy ok?) Also because this volcano is active (last eruption was in 1985) they have a volcano warning system complete with siren and traffic light system - green light means OK, yellow light means warning, red light means RUN (I guess).We were a little concerned to hear it sound in the middle of the day, though all the townspeople seemed unconcerned. We later found out that they sound it for midday (or as our host Claudio put it, it means “men stop work and look for their dinners on the table“) So after lunch we met our guides and headed for La Tranchura the river we would be rafting on. It was just us and a Dutch guy from our hostel Arjen and three staff members David, Max and Alberto (yay one staff to save each of us in case we fall out!) We also had support staff (?!) of a bus driver and professional photographer! David (a Belgium born guy with an American accent who travels around doing raft guiding where ever he goes and has been “stuck” as he explained fondly, in Pucon for the last year and a half.) took us through a very comprehensive safety lecture before we began including an example on how to haul someone out of the water, using me!! We also got suited up in all our gear including life jackets and helmets. We were already wearing some very sexy wetsuits and waterproof shorts and jackets. When giving out some pairs of gloves, as Max would hand them to Alberto to pass to us, we got the following commentaries: “por la chica (Hayley), por el hombre pequena (for the small man, Arjen) y por el hombre gigante (that of course, was Ryan). The wind was roaring as we began which made the next twenty minutes of flat water rowing pretty hard especially with just the four of us (the other two staff members supported us in one man kayaks.) However we were excited to be on the water and the scenery was beautiful including some cool looking ducks though the sky threatened rain. Soon we approached our first rapid with some strict instructions- “get down” means kneel in the raft and “positions” means gets back up and row! Though we were never worried Max kept the excitement up with some loud yells of FORWARD, FASTER, FASTER, VAMOS! to encourage us. And when we were done we celebrate by putting all our paddles together and yelling PISCO SOUR (ok we’ll explain about them later). Of course our paparazzi took some snaps as we tackled our first rapids. It was shortly after this that we had our only accidental de-rafting of the trip - we hit a rock kinda hard (going backwards at full speed) and Arjen was thrown into the rather chilly water. He was fine of course the only downside being he was obliged to buy us all beer J Not to worry, soon after we all got the chance to experience the cold when Max said “OK I know it’s cold but if you like you can swim next to the raft” And we did. Just for the hell of it! After our second rapid we rafted a little further before getting out for a short walk as there was a Class 6 (Rapids are classed from 0 - 6- the ones we had been doing ranged from 3 to 4 ½) This one was just not “commercially raftable” as David put it. We walked for a little way and as we negotiated some rocks, David ask “Who’s brave?” OK I know most people probably learnt in primary school that answering Yes to that question only gets you in trouble. But foolishly I put my hand up. And David said - “Alright Max is down there with the raft, you’re up here. Jump down into that pool.” At first I seriously thought he was joking, but after establishing that there didn’t seem to be any other way down I figured he was serious. “Is it safe?” I ventured…”Of course” David replied “Thousands have done it before you” And with my brain and my body thinking “No, no I do not jump off things” I jumped. Now I know you’ve heard of a belly flop before but have you ever heard of a butt flop? Cause that’s what I did. The heaviest part of me first, SCHMACK into the water- rather painful but I did resurface and gratefully swam to the raft. The worst part was after I went first having no idea what was ahead of me, Ryan, Arjen and about TEN people from another companies raft jumped after me having watched the guinea pig succeed. But it was quite an adrenalin rush, I must say.

We all rejoined Max at the raft after taking our turns to jump in to the icy water, and began the final part of our trip. We hit another rapid going around in a circle before getting through, and then pushed on to the last rapid, and the toughest of the day, a grade 4.5. On the stretch to the last rapids, we came across another couple of rafts being run by another agency, with whom we started a friendly water-fight with our paddles. We soon approached the grade 4.5 and although it was the most impressive rapid yet, we took it with surprising ease - we’re getting good at this! Afterwards we paddled into a small inlet, and the end of our trip, where our van was waiting for us, along side some changing rooms and a pile of refreshments! (beer, coke, biscuits).Also waiting for us was our paparazzi, with a television displaying all of the great shots he had taken that day (including a video of Hayley’s famous butt-flop). After about 30 mins of recharging our batteries, we made our way back in to town, where warm showers and dinner awaited us.

The next day was our lazy day in Pucon. We bought our bus tickets to Santiago, for the amazing price of 8000 pesos (much better than it sounds), and decided our mini-activity for the day was to explore the monastery and cemetery which lay behind and above Pucon, providing some great views of the town and lake. Everything was quite peaceful at the monastery, with signs demanding Silencio! After some time here, we made our way down and around to the adjacent cemetery, where watching over the plots and in fact, the entire town, was el Cristo grande or the big Christ (sounds a little more reverent in Spanish I think). Was quite impressive (albeit no match for the one in Rio I’m sure) and again, great views were to be had of the town. From our viewpoint, we could even see down into the monastery, some 200 meters away, where we saw a nun hanging out her washing (is it a sin to see a nun’s underwear?). Afterwards, we made our way back into town, where we sampled our first ever Pisco Sours (Chile’s national drink, comprised of lime, Pisco (a local spirit) and egg whites!). Very tasty, almost like a margarita without the ice. We then retreated back to our hostel for a lazy afternoon of books and tv, later followed by a delicious asado, whipped up by our host Claudio. Very tasty!

For our final day in Pucon, we decided that we hadn’t done enough relaxing. Sooo, we jumped on a colectivo, or minibus, and made our way about 50 mins out of town to some amazing hot springs. Before boarding our bus, Hayley received a colourful shout-out from a local aboard a bus, departing for some unkown destination of "Hey, hey, I LOVE YOU!!!" Quite entertaining! On arrival at the hot springs, we paid the equivalent of about $8 aussie dollars for entry, and began our small descent into the valley where the springs awaited us. When we finally arrived at the springs, I think we were both a little surprised as to how well they were set up, with ample showers, change rooms and toilets scattered in between the 5 or 6 different wells. We soon discovered that as we had arrived on the first bus for the day, we had the whole place to ourselves! We started by making our way right down to the last spring (which was the hottest), and after putting our toes in for a couple of seconds, decided it might be a little too hot. So we retreated to the one before, which was still hot, but bearable. I just have to stop to point out here that these springs were pretty much the most relaxing thing ever, like a bath at a perfect temperature that never gets cold. On the subject of baths, we did see a sign prohibiting the use of soaps and detergents, so there goes that great idea! (Also prohibited in the springs are personas desnudas y sexo - we’ll let you figure those out) After getting all warmed up in the well, we decided to cool off by going for a nice little dip in the river, which ran alongside the springs. MY GOD IT WAS THE COLDEST THING EVER!!! But nonetheless, very refreshing. We spent the rest of our time hanging out in the cooler pools (still warm though) and after about two and a half hours of lounging around like sloths, we made our way back to catch the bus into town, were we killed the rest of the afternoon just walking around, strolling along the beach and playing with the local dogs, taking some more pisco sours, all capped off with a nice dinner (accompanied by one more round of pisco sours, they are too delicious!) - quite a nice way to round out our final day in Patagonia. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel, said our goodbyes, collected our things and headed for the bus terminal, from were we (and half the other guests at the hostel-I think Buses Linea Azul should pay me for promoting their 8000 peso special!) caught our 8:30pm night bus (11 hours long) to Chile’s capital, Santiago!

Well once again, that brings us up to date. Keep reading and don’t forget to write us a message!

All our love,

Ryan and Hayley (pronounced ash-leszh in Argentina)