We finally made it up the volcano at the third day of asking. The weather was bright and airy and we managed to stumble out of the guesthouse in time for our 7am equipment fitting session, and soon discovered the others on the trip a) looked considerately fitter than us, and b) consisted of mostly Californians (at least two of which were embarrassed Arnie was now running their once proud state) and c) had already tested their equipment. Thus we left a little dis-spirited. Our guide, Claudio, who turned out to be an egotistical prick (!) decided he would go with the slowest group (us, obviosuly) and a jolly fat-bloke from Chile called Rodrigo. After hanging around at the top of the ski lift for 40 minutes for no apparent reason we headed up Volcan Villaricca, some 2984m high and completely clad in snow and ice. Claudio then decided to do his version of uphill running, and left the three of us for dead, clearly deciding it was much more important for him to reach the summit for the 1,300 (and first) time than to help guide the unfit people towards their goal, after all we clearly had paid for a guide (HIM) to help us get to the top. By now it was nearing 3 o clock and with still 2 hours trekking ahead of us (we wasted over an hour at the bottom waiting for the cable car to heat up...) and suffering with the altitude (now at about 2,400m, 7-8,000 feet) we decided to eat our packed lunch and wait for Claudio to realise we were missing and come back down to us...which he didn´t do, instead he asked another guide on the way down to go back down with us whilst he proceded to the top. As it happens Rodrigo, the new guide, and a group of attached Israelis (yes nice Israelis, a first for the trip!!!!) were superb and we started our descent. The descent was the best bit...we got to slide down pretty much vertical slopes (or at least they SEEMED vertical) on our backsides, using our ice-picks as brakes. This is more like it we thought!!

We eventually got back, utterly shattered, at around 7pm, and although we didn´t get to the top it seems no-one else did either as the smoke coming from the volcano was too acrid and people had to stop a couple of hundred metres short. It was a good but knackering day and our meal at our wonderful guesthouse (La Tetera) was really welcome. We shared it with Mark and Lucy who also had a go at the volcano (they got a fair bit higher than us) and are now in a shared house with them...in Valdivia, a university town on tha coast. Our stay at La Tetera was wonderful, and we can thoroughly recommend it to anyone staying in Pucon.

So far here we have been to the fish market where fat lazy sea lions live and get all the left over fish, they´re so lazy that they study the bit of fish thrown their way before deciding whether to leave their plinth (where they lie all day sunbathing) to go and eat it...although they look friendly enough they{ve got big teeth so we didn´t want to get too close...After this we bought some local chocolate which was devine and pottered around for a bit before finding t´internet...

We´re probably heading into Argentina over the course of the next couple of days, the only pain in the proverbial being that we want to go on Sunday and you can guess the only day of the week with no direct buses...so that´ll mean an extra day here and we´re a long way from being convinced there´s enough to do here for a few days. Tomorrow we´re heading to the beach area, Valdivia was an extremely important strategical port in the 17th and 18th centuries as it is at the confluence of three rivers, and there are some great little forts and a nice coastal walk which the four of us will attempt tomorrow. As long as there aren´t any vertical ice climbs or Chilean guides we should be OK...