I am sore, all over!!!!! but we have done what we came here to do, climb the volcano Villarrica.

Everyone in the hostel we have been staying at had been cramped up inside for several days due to the rain, so when the news started to spread that the next day was going to clear, we all rushed off to book a tour. So at 6:30 on a wet and foggy Tuesday morning there were 10 intrepid trekkers from el Refugio Hostal wondering down the street to the agents to get all kitted up (jackets, pants, boots cramp-ons, ice-picks, you know the usual stuf, note the sarcasm).

Oh it´s a fraction over 2800m not much higher than Kosciuszko I thought...... it´ll be a piece of cake! Then the clouds cleared and I saw it.

Luckily for us there was a chairlift that went about a fifth of the way to the top, and luckily for all our egos the guides who accompanied us up the mountain strongly encouraged us to take said chairlift (we were also lucky that day, as it turned out, that the chairlift was working!!).

Without reliving all the painful details, IT WAS HARD!!!!!!!!!!!! The first hour or so was ´walking´ over scree and loose rocks. The we all put on our cramp-ons, got out our ice picks and the torture really began.

Three, long, pain-filled hours later we reached the top and all was forgotten. The crater was pumping sulfur, the clouds in the valleys had cleared and in the distance Llaima was still smoking from it´s eruptions earlier in the week.

We spent the best part of an hour, lying on the rocks and ice recovering, wondering over the top of the crater (unfortunatly there was no visable magma in the chamber), and throwing things into it.

The walk down was harder than expected but not that exciting.

We have spent today recovering quietly and enjoying the rare sunshine with a lovely English couple Laura and Gary who toutured themselves yesterday also. We took the hostel dog for a walk along the beaches in town. Her name is Negra and she is an exact copy of Molly, it´s unbelievable!

Check out the photos, you know what they say about a photos and a thousand words.