I arrived on foot at the tiny village of Puesco on a Sunday. The bus back to Pucón was due on Monday morning, so I camped under a cherry tree by the river and lay there in the afternoon sun watching dragonflies. What a great way to wait for a bus.

It's the height of summer here, but as anywhere it doesn't bring all good things. Whilst sitting at a remote viewpoint above 1700m from where the panorama takes in five volcanoes, I made a very good friend. A lizard climbed up my leg and sat on my knee. I knew immediately what he was after. I had spent all morning trying to splat the pesky tabaños (horse flies) every time one landed on me, which was frequent. They were too quick for me; but looking for an easy meal, my reptilian friend had the next one firmly between his jaws before I could blink. Good job!

The six day traverse between Volcán Villarrica and Volcán Lanín (on the Argentine border) was a new kind of scenery for me. I crossed over recent lava fields, saw (and indeed swam in) lakes of different colours, and passed by high waterfalls and stunning vistas; but have returned with many insect bites, bruises from trying to send the culprits to their maker, and despite copious amounts of factor 50, some red skin too!

After leaving Chiloé, and finding myself thrust back into civilization, I was unable to settle for a few days. I spent a night camping in an old guy's garden in Puerto Varas before returning to Bariloche in Argentina in the hope of doing the five day mountain traverse that wasn't possible on the last visit. Despite the regular clouds of ash from Volcán Puyehue that are still occurring, the town was full of summer crowds. And after checking the forecast I found that heavy rains and winds were on the way too; so I fled back through the lengthy border controls and watched the rain from the bus window, knowing that it is much needed and will be welcomed by the locals.

And then I found Pucón. Probably the most touristy place in the whole of the Lake District, but with such a nice feel and loads of stuff to do on the doorstep, I knew I had found the place I wanted to be for the next week or two. Dozens of Chile's 500 active volcanoes are within reach of here, but the horse flies might have put me off a second multi-day trek. This is also the land of the Mapuche, Chile's largest indigenous group, and today I got to see some of their villages when the Monday bus didn't show and I was forced to hitch-hike. It felt good to be travelling amongst proper natives, some of whom were in traditional Indian dress.

By the way, those cherries were delicious on my breakfast cereal.