During the night there were some weird noises but we put these down to horses passing by the cabin, the cows and the dogs. By the time we got up the sun was already high in the sky. Our plans for breakfast were a bit compromised as during the night an animal (mostlikely one of the dogs) had got the plastic box which we kept cheese in out of the stream and had eaten the contents!

The day was hot o we decided to do some reading. Kevin read a cartoon book by xxxx, A History of Chile, that had been reprinted this year to commemorate the 1973 Coup on the Allende government. Joan started reading Chile in my heart, a book by a Chesterfield women, Kate Clark, who had gone to Chile to be with her love, Ricardo. They were left wing both political activists and Ricardo was imprisoned during the Pinochet regime. We had met both Kate and Ricardo this year at an event in Santiago's restaurant in Chesterfield, again to commemorate the coup against Allende. It was strange to read about places such as Chillan, Puerto Montt and Todos Los Lagos alongside the names of Mansfield, Ashover and Old Whittington.

Later in the afternoon we headed to the waterfall which gives the National Park its name, Siete Tazas or seven teacups. We took a very bumpy and narrow track through the forest, and eventually parked where a sign announced a footpath to three waterfalls – the Carmen, 7 tazas and el salto los leones (the lion’s leap.) Along a narrow path on the side of a gorge we found the first fall which was viewed from a wooden balcony that looked as if it had sometimes been used as a bar.

Further along was the 7 tazas, a waterfall with drops down by a series of seven bowls, created by the water. In 2010, there was a massive earthquake in the O’Higgins region of Chile and the falls temporarily dried up, but now they have found a new source of water.

Finally we walked along a dusty track to the lion fall which fell out of the narrowest gorge down into a pool below. Standing above it and the treetops, it felt like we were on the top of the world.

Back at our truck, we struggled to get it going due to the rocky path but to our relief, we negotiated our way back to the cabin. As the shadows grew longer, we ate fajitas with black fried beans, rice, pumpkin, guacamole and sour cream, eagerly watched by the campsite dogs.