Well we have finally left Argentina behind and got across the Andes to Chilie after two four hour bus journeys that were broken up by a night in San Martin De Los Andes, which is a nice town but only if u want to visit but we just caught there in transit.
We arrived in Pucon Chilie which is in the shadow of an active volcano an also still i the lakes district so it is a pretty cool place and definatly has different characteristics from argentina.We decided to a volcano climb which takes 9 hours return and starts at 4 am.Unfortunately we forgot to change our watches and were up at 3 am for the 4 am start! Once we got going we realised it must be a pretty serious walk when they started giving us full on mountain climbing gear only leaving out the oxygen mask! We were on the mountain climbing by 5 am and there was the backdrop of another volcano eruptin in the distance.We had a group of about 8 and they were like greyhounds flying up the mountain leaving the 2 of us puffing in their wake.It takes about 5 hours to het to the top waliking over loose volcanic rock, glacier ice wearing crampons and then more loose lava rock. Basically it was torture! The views on the way up were absolutely amazing and taking in dawn on an active volcano was a first! We reached the top and the smell of sulphur was pungent but the views again were amazing as from the top u can see the tips of 7 other active volcanos. We had lunch at the summit then after about an hour started the desent as it was begining to get really hot and other groups were only startin their climb.
The desent was a good bit easier and we went for about 10 minutes in crampons in the ice before we discarded them and proceed to slide on our bums down the snow caps of the mountain at serious speed and amazing fun.It certainly was easier than the torture of the climb.the desent took about an hour and a half and was brilliant.From the volcano we indulged in a few beers and then went to the lakeside beach to recouperate and tend to some aching blisters from the mountaineering boots!! The line from the song climb a mountain jump in a lake comes to mind(who sang it phil)
Today there was more beach time in order and have the sunburn to prove it! Tonight we get an overnight bus to Valpareso whree then is wine to be drank and time to be spent on the beach so we wont bore ye with the details of that!! Next update is Santiago same bat time, same bat chanel so until then Hasta Luego.
