Well I am absolutely loving Chile and am so gutted not to be staying longer. Started my 3 day trip to the Lakes District on Thursday and there are 6 girls who are all lovely. On the first day we visited a traditional market and bought some souveniers. We arrived at Pachiluma (spelt wrong!) which is a surf town and the waves were huge!! The town was lovely and we had a walk around and had empaganas for lunch which were delicious. Then went horse riding on the black sand beach and through the forest which was hilarious. We couldn´t communicate well with our guides and our horses were doing their own thing. We eventually got them to go faster and they would do some crazy trotting for a while and then stop abruptly! The beach was lovely and it was so nice riding along it. Afterwards we watched one of the girls have a surf lesson (I wasn´t brave enough after the last experience on a surf board) and then went to watch the sunset over the cliffs which was beautiful. Had a homecooked meal at our hostel which was delicious, had some drinks and then hit the town at 1am. Had such a brilliant night, we ended up in a bar called Cheers!!! The barmen were so lovely and went and picked us all flowers! I asked the barman if they were serving chips and he said no but that he had a potato out the back and he went and made them especially for me!! Have found everyone in Chile to be so friendly and I just wish I could communicate better with them as I have been strggling with my limited vocab. Sampled some traditional Pisco Sours and then staggered into bed at 4.30am.

The following day had a ridiculously long bus ride to Pucon. Stopped at a museum in Santa Cruz which was fantastic considering we had all slept for 2 hours! Found all of the displays about Chile to be so interesting and we even got free lemon meringue pie at the end!! Arrived in Pucon at 9.30pm and went out for some dinner in the town.

This morning I woke up at 6.30am to see if I could do the hike up the volcano but it is too windy which is a real shame so we are going to the National Park instead. Will be getting the overnight bus back to Santiago tonight. Really want to stay in Chile longer as don´t feel I have seen nearly enough of it but I am so excited about starting my spanish school as I want to be able to communicate properly!! xx