After our efforts of yesterday we planned a strictly relaxing day today at the hot springs known as 'Los Pozones'. We didn't need to catch a bus until 13.30 so we had a morning of chilling out. Scott made a yummy breakfast of scrambled egg on toast, and afterwards wrote his blog which gave me an opportunity to nip out and buy a few last minute bday presents for him ready for Sunday and some wrapping paper. I found a brown hoody with 'Pucon- Chile' on it and an emblem of the volcano, a box of chocs and some Chilean dark ale. We had already picked up a leather belt and leather bound note pad in Bolivia so I had a good little collection of pressies for him now.

The local bus we took to the springs took about an hour - luckily we had seats as the bus aisle was crammed with school kids! The sun was shining again and the drive revealed some lovely green views of alpine looking meadows. We had a 15 minute walk down into a gorge where the natural volcanic springs were. There were about 6 thermal pools of varying temperatures, but most similar to a hot bath and one so hot that it left a red mark across your skin from the water level when you got out. We made the trip with a German couple, Annika and Bodoo, from our hostel. Bodoo was very playful and brought out the childlike side of Scott too. They happily larked about throwing boulders into the river and doing handstands in the pools. After going in the hottest pool we then cooled ourselves off by stepping under the fast flowing waters of the river. It was so cold it made me scream as Scott pulled me under the recent snow melt water!

We happily whiled away several hours relaxing in the pools in a truly beautiful setting...it was perfect therapy for our aching muscles! By the time we got back to the hostel it was 19.30. I whipped up a quick dinner of pasta and tomato/courgette/mushroom and sausage sauce and we sat in the communal lounge at Hostel El Refugio planing our trip to the national park for the following day.