After a whistle stop in Santiago I was back on the road again, this time with a tour group called Pachamama. Pachamama provided a tour of the Chilean lake district. As this is quite a large area. some of the national parks and other little gems within the district are quite difficult to reach by public transport. By doing this tour we would be able to see a lot more in a shorter amount of time (five days). It came in at a pretty decent price too!

During the first day we stopped off at a little village called Pomaire. A typical rural town where the main craft was pottery and then some more pottery. There was a pimping travelling hat there that I regret not buying now!

The stop for the night was at Pichilemu. This and the next town, Punta de Lobos, are renowned as the best surf spot in Chile. Every year they hold worldwide surf competitions here such as Big Wave World Tour and several others. We headed over to the rocky outcrop that is Punta de Lobos for sunset. We sat out on the rocks watching the sunset with a few beers. We were also lucky enough to see some surfers ride the massive waves.They seemed to be able to do it effortless. It was a pretty sweet way to spend the evening after sitting in the back of a minibus all day.

Day two was set to be the longest day on the road as we were going to cover about 700km down to Pucon. The upside was that it was going to be a two night stay in Pucon. One of the days was reserved for doing some of the multitude of activities on offer in the region. Before getting into all that we stopped of at one of the most unique museums that I have ever been to - Museo de Colchagua in Santa Cruz.

Owned by Carlos Cardoen, who during his life was on the FBI most wanted for dealing arms to the middle east during the Cold War. As he is now unable to leave Chile due to the risk imprisonment he built this museum(I'm sure he has other interests/hobbies too). What made it so interesting was the complete range of items/topics on display. Every other museum that I have been to was a collection from a specific period or subject matter.

Museo de Colchagua began with prehistoric life, evolution, Inca history, Mapuche textiles, to the wars that raged through South America (Spanish invasion, Pacific war between Peru, Chile and Bolivia). Declarations of Independence, memorabilia... of General San Martin. The list is endless. There was also a section on modern life and the advances in technology. To top it off he had a automobile collection containing vintage fords, a model DeLorean from 'Back to the Future' and a handful of Chevrolet pickups. There even is a display of the Chilean mining disaster a from last year. However, we all managed to miss this. Don't ask me how!

After about seven hours and several petrol station hot dogs later I arrived in Pucon. No time to rest my weary bones though as we had to go to the adventure center. With our activity booked for the morning it was time to hit the supermarket to get some supplies. We have been on so many trips at this stage it is like auto mode once we get there. Bit of bread, ham, biscuits, cereal bars, fruit and some liquids. Seriously, if I don't have to eat another ham sandwich in my life it won't be a sad day!

As Pete and I had an unsuccessful attempt to reach the summit of Cotopaxi in Ecuador we were ready to face our fear. Villarrica Volcano was calling us and to be honest I was optimistic from the outset. The summit is 2847m which is not that high. The elevation of Quito is around that alone. I know I had not been in altitude since the dizzying heights of Bolivia but I felt confident.

Off I trotted and soon enough I was strapped into my crampons with my ice pick in hand. The ascent was going to take about three or so hours. It was broken into four forty minutes treks which made it quite manageable. We got some stunning views and photos of Parque Nacional Villarrica which is literally just snow capped volcano's. Trekking over the final glacier section we reached the summit in good time.

Villarrica is an active volcano and the crater at the top is 200m wide (lava below was a toasty 1250'C) The sulphur tasting ash was not that pleasant whenever the wind decided to throw some in your face. In the distance we would see Volcan Llaima which was pumping out serious amounts of ash out over the valley. At first I thought they were low lying clouds.

The descent was the part I was looking forward to most. Basically the quickest and best way to get down was every one's favourite - tobogganing! Equipped with proper ski attire, a flat plastic type seat and an ice pick as a break device I was ready to go! I was zooming down the mountain with snow flying back into my face and eyes I couldn't see a thing. Clearly, I was not going to use the break as that would ruin the fun. As a result I ploughed into a few people and got flipped and rolled a lot. It was quite a bumpy ride and I did go over a few randomly placed rocks or go off a ramp only to land with a ferocious thud. At one point I squealed going off a ramp and at that exact same moment a huge chunk of snow/ice flew into my mouth. My squeal turned into choking. It was such good fun. I think it'll be a long time before I get the opportunity to do something like that again I reckon. To mend our aching muscles we headed to the natural hot springs of "Los Pozones". Delish!