22:00 - We left Pucon early this morning on a public bus in the direction of Puerto Varas on lake Llanquihue (one of the largest lakes in south America). We arrived a little earlier than normal and after dropping off our luggage at the hotel we went for a quick empanada and then onto the Vincent Perez Rosale national park to see some rapids/falls. Water on water as it has rained all day long unfortunately. It would have been a lot prettier in the sun I'm sure. T...

23:00 - Mmmmm... So... Egged on by Phil and Sally during the Pato Andino trip, I had actually signed on for climbing to the top of the Villarrica vulcan. One of the most active vulcanos in Chile but perfectly safe to climb. On a good day you get amazing views from the top of this perfect cone. So off I went at 6.15 this morning to meet Claudio at Summit Chile. He was to be our guide and by the end of the day my walking stick :-). Me and Tina (from Finland and a r...

23:00 - We left Santiago this morning for Pucon. We flew first to Temuco and then drove through Villarica to Pucon. We got there rather late at about 3.30pm and Toby hadn't been able to keep in touch with the rafting people to see if they were going to do a 5pm start, so I had to let the rafting go... I had told him on the first day at the briefing, so I was rather disappointed and opted to go to the hot springs with 4 of the others. I also had some difficulty fi...

22:55 - Just got back from dinner at Liguria. It was one of the places Sally had actually suggested had my flight been on time on Saturday, so glad I got to try it anyways. Food was great, the waiter cute and I sat next to Toby (the tour leader) and got a chance to chat with him. His brother works on the options desk at Tradition and he was curious to see if I knew him. This morning we visited Valparaiso on the coast. It's a couple of hours from Santiago and whe...

22:13 - First day on the new tour! And a very hot one! 35 Celsius!!! But unlike Lima where it was hot and sticky, here it doesn't feel unpleasant as it is fairly dry heat. I got up late and had breakfast in the hotel. As I was due to meet the group at 3pm there was no rush to do anything and as Santiago looks like a standard clean European city, I had no particular curiosity or desire to walk about too much. I did however venture out to try and change money with ...