Chillan doesn't have much to offer backpackers, it's just an ugly city. We booked 2 nights here to give us a full day to gather information of how to get to Valle de Termas and get a trekking map. You can trek through an area of geysers, mud pools, hot pools and camp wild. Not many people go there so it's quiet walking and camping. After booking our accommodation and bus tickets I found out just by chance that Volcan Chillan 80 kms east of Chillan is very lively, the alert level had been increased from green to orange and an exclusion zone has been set up keeping visitors out. What we then found out is Valle de Termas is on the slopes of Volcan Chillan and it's the most active volcano in Chile. With digs and bus booked we decided it was just as easy to go to Chillan as planned, laze around a day then move on. We found our hostel only by the street number as it didn't have a sign! It was a right scabby looking building on the outside and it didn't improve much inside. Donna was far from happy - I had chosen the hostel so it was my fault! It was very cheap though at £23.50 for the night. The beds are made from pallets (no kidding), the bathroom is shared and the bath looks like it's never been cleaned, there are mousetraps in the kitchen and none of the plates or pans looked very clean. Even though we had booked for two nights the owner Erik let us pay for just one and decide if we would stay a second. We explained about our scuppered plans. He seemed to think we could still go to Valle de Termas - his words 'don't be afraid, it will just be some ground shake and some rocks and smoke may come out of the volcano, just go for the day but don't camp'. We decided we wouldn't go at all. We sprang into action to try and get out of there the next day, the less time we spent in this hostel the better. If Chillan itself was of interest then we would have looked for better digs and stayed a while but that's not the case. We booked a bus to arrive in Santiago the next afternoon. That would be back where we started in South America. Loop completed - time to go home, we think not. We didn't want to stay in Santiago as we had already seen it. Hopefully we can get a night bus out of there to Vicuna, failing that we will get a bus there the day after and spend one night in Santiago. Chillan wasn't all bad, we found a great supermarket with some surprising things for sale - strange fruit, Scottish Shortbread, expensive English teabags and bottled English real ale. We didn't buy any of those but we did purchase a great curry sauce and some bacon. Donna my personal masterchef served a great chicken curry and rice for dinner and bacon and eggs for brekkie - double yum. I thought I heard the alarm go off to get up, so I climbed down from my top pallet bunk (which wasn't at all easy). I was so tired I needed a cuppa to wake me up, I put the light on and asked Donna if she wanted a coffee (in bed). Her response was quite hostile 'why is the light on, why would I want a coffee at 3am' - oops! I didn't fancy the struggle back up to the top pallet, so squeezed in Donnas Pallet bed and snored in her ear. At 7.30 the alarm did go off, let's get out of this doghole (after the bacon and eggs).