Pucon, Chile June 8th to 11th 2006 Well it would appear that our prayers have been answered for now at least as the rain is holding off. We get the bus from Panguipulli at about 10am and the sun is poking his cheeky little head out of the clouds. We are dumped by the roadside in some little village (Lanco) somewhere and amazingly our connecting bus arrives in less than 10 minutes. We arrive in Pucon at 12.30pm and pay 15 quid per night for a lovely little room with attached bathroom in a great little hostel - Donde German (literally meaning where is German in Spanish) bit confusing but the guy who runs the place is called German and is Chilian. Right, still with me? Ok. The major thing that they appear to have overlooked in the hostel is that little thing called central heating and we are only allowed to use a poxy little heater for 1hr every night (well at least we are told this, others have to lie in their rooms freezing their proverbials off with no heating whatsoever!) We are given the low down on the hostel and given the full spiel about the climb up Volcan Villarica. Through our probing questions we assertain a number of key points such as 1) It shouldn't be too difficult to climb the volcano as long as one is of medium fitness 2) The weather tomorrow is going to be perfect for climbing the mountain 3) There are a number of other people doing the climb tomorrow most of whom have been waiting for nearly a week to climb this thing due to the bad weather 4) The ski lifts weren't working 5) We have to get up and out for 6am. OK lets GO FOR IT! Amy is kinda wondering how we got ourselves into this situation already. We spend the rest of the day walking round the pretty little village again mostly constructed out of local tree resource giving it an upmarket alpine feel. We have a great vegetable soup for once and thankfully we don't have any allergic reaction to all things healthy. A walk around town is rewarded with some fabulous views of the lake and the snow topped volcano in the background. Sunset is extra special with golden views across the lake and a beautifully illuminated pink volcanic cone (see photos). Dinner is not bad either and we are in relatively high spirits after a meal of trout, salmon and mash potatoes washed down with a couple of beers. It's a very bleary eyed Stu and Amy that awake at 5.40 and trudge round to the equipment shop and get all suited and booted. The climbing team consisted of 12 people in all, 2 instructors (Oscar and the legend that is German) 2 Dutchmen, 5 Brits,1 Kiwi and 2 Canadians. After a very bumpy ride to what I shall refer to as "base camp" at about 500m above sea level we begin our mammoth 7 hour ascent to the summit (2900m ish) Crampons are put on after little more than an hour and the sunrise is a glorious one. We can see the smoking volcano in the distance and its one of those climbs where the summit never seems to get any nearer. The views are stupendous and the weather absolutely perfect, how lucky are we???? Lunch is taken and swiftly consumed as its totally freezing as one might expect. About 2/3rds of the way up Amy is not feeling too well and the legendary German takes over from there leading Amy by the hand up the rest of the mountain until she can go no further and at about 2400m above sea level they stop and the rest of us trudge on. In places we were sinking up to 1m into the fresh snow and in others the ice was rock hard and we had to be sure of our footing. For sure if we would have slipped we would have slid right off the edge of the mountain unless we acquired the skill of digging our climbing axe into the snow (which for some reason we didn't practice!!!) The last 400m were an absolute slog and easily the hardest thing I have ever done, we had to make it to the top before 2.30pm as otherwise there wouldn't be enough time to get back down. We made it to the top at 2.00pm and after several minutes lying on the ground we explored the craters edge to the backdrop of thunderous eruption beneath us and frequent mini eruptions of lava (again see photos), What an awesome sight to see and an amazing achievement. Of course there were no handrails anywhere so we could easily be gonners and with just one false move we would be in the volcano having a very hot bath indeed! The climb back down was no fun at all with Stus feet absolutely killing him. We get back to Amy and German and discover that they have been building igloos and stuff and that German has fallen and busted his knee. Plonker. We get back down to "base camp" at about 17.30 just before it gets dark and we are very welcome of a warm bath at the end. We reward ourselves the next day by vegging out and watching 3 games of footy. England are functional at best and beat a very poor Paraguay team 1-0. We head down the pub in the afternoon with a couple of brits and other who have turned up to climb the volcano. Unfortunately the weather is due to be terrible for the next few days so we have been really lucky (again) and enjoy telling all the new comers to the hostel what a great climb up the mountain we had. Next stop San Martin de Los Andes (5hrs on the bus) and the border crossing is a relative formality. Stu half expects the border guards not to let us in cause we are English and the Argies hate our guts right? But there are no problems. True to form its raining all the way and we cant see one of the biggest volcanoes in the area as its too murky and generally crappy weather. All the best and keep the messages coming. Lots of Love Stu & Amy