We arrived into Pucon around 11 having passed into Chile (for the third time for me taking up even more valuable passport space) and went straight to our hostel. The weather was glorious - but we were informed that it was about to change and it would be unlikely we would be able to climb the volcano before Sunday. We made the most of the good weather on Thursday afternoon though and went for a wander and ended up in a nice bar by the beach by lake villarrica!

Friday was spent pretty much exclusively in the hostel because as predicted the weather changed and it poured rain all day! It was good though because the hostel we were in had a really homely feel with comfy couches a massive open fire (although it threw out very little heat - my dad would not have been impressed) and two big dogs the size of bears!!!

Saturday brought a little improvement in weather - not good enough to climb the volcano but good enough to attempt riverboarding - which is basically floating down some rapids on something akin to a swimming pool float! The water was freezing and also relatively shallow so there were a few bashed knees and feet but it was also incredibly fun! We travelled 14km down a range of rapids and reached the end in one piece so all was good.

On Sunday the weather had cleared sufficiently to attempt the climb of the glacier/snow covered active Volcan Villamarca at 2800M. We set out early on Sunday morning, the first part of the hike should have been done on a ski lift but unfortunately it wasn't running, after that we started walking on the snow! We walked for a bit before taking a break and getting told to put our crampons on and get our ice axes ready! The next part of the trek was a little difficult but only because of the exceptionally violent and cold wind (it really made me feel like I was on an Antarctic expedition). We continued a little further to approx. 2600m but could not continue any further because of sulphurous smoke coming from the volcano - we waited almost an hour to see if the wind would change but alas it didn't so there ended the climbing part of the hike!

It was ok though because the best part of the trip was yet to come - the best method to descend the volcano is on your arse - so we did - it was a bit like sledging down the volcano and it was a LOT of fun!! We returned to the town were due to make our way to Mendoza but unfortunately Tara fell over and we had to go to hospital. There were no xrays available in Pucon on a Sunday so her arm was put in a temporary cast and we decided we'd travel as far as Santiago where we could have the arm looked at again in the morning!

We stopped off in Santiago where a Dr took one look at it and said it was a fracture (after we sat for 3 hours), so an xray, cast, (a lot of pain for Tara), and another xray later we were back on the road en route to Mendoza!