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in mendoza now waiting to get a night bus to cordoba, so this entry is about a week out of date i guess. turned up in pucon late at night having failed to book anywhere to stay, however as usual in these situations loads of ladies met as at the bus stop gibbering in spanish, so chose our favourite lady and went to stay with her in a nice hospedaje with a really small, hot room for us, ideal. was now travelling with jason, 40 year old drunk irishman franz and a nasty little english prat called josh who was tagging along for some reason. didnt like him much. anyway as luck would have it, it turned out we had arrived just in time for a carnaval celebrating the town's 70th birthday, so went and joined the crowds ogling loads of scantily clad women parading round the streets attatched to ridiculous feather covered constructions, and laughing at the occasional similarly attired men staggering around looking cranky. after that went out for a meal at about half past midnight, which seems to be the done thing here, ordered el cordero and was rewarded with my own personal bbq with a massive pile of sizzling lamb, yaaaaaaaay.
had a lie in the next day then went white water rafting in the afternoon, had loads of fun shooting rapids and got to jump in the calmer stretches to swim and jump of rocks. only did a grade 3 river cos it was cheap, so it was a bit on the tame side, really enjoyed it but will definately do grade 4 next time. pucon is a little alpine style town right by lago villarica, with full view of the nearby volcan villarica with smoke coming out of it, really cool. jason and i went down to the beach on the lake for a few well deserved beers after the rafting, then early night i think. got up really early the next day cos we had decided to climb up the volcano, cant get enough of the trekking and climbing up stuff. unfortunately you are only allowed to climb it as part of a tour, which meant the first part was really annoyingly slow as we had to keep to the pace of the token fat americans, however after a while it got so steep we couldn't have gone at our hardcore torres del paine pace anyway so didnt mind too much. then it got really good, arrived at the snowy bit so had to get the crampons and ice axe on the go, had an awesome time clambering up almost vertical snow held on by a few crampon spikes and digging out steps with the axe. our guide taught us the proper technique for using the axe to stop yourself sliding down the mountain if you fall, and to lift your crampons so you dont break your legs, luckily didnt need it though! felt like proper mountaineering, really cool.
eventually got to the summit after about 4 hours climbing, absolutely massive crater with awesome views and loads of smoke bellowing out of it, unfortunately mostly sulphur gas which doesnt smell or taste very nice to say the least. didnt see any lava though which was a shame, probably because the next volcano along had erupted about a week ago apparently. reassuring. spent 20 minutes or so staggering around coughing, just to make sure we got our recommended daily allowance of sulphur, then started the descent, which surprisingly was even better than the way up. the first part was deep gravel and ash so you had to dig your heels in really hard to stop yourself falling on your arse and sliding, and even then you slid about 2 feet after each step, whilst all the while dodging falling rocks that people above were dislodging. really fun, and much easier on the knees then the traditional method of walking down a hill. the best bit though was when we got to the snow and ice again, toboggan runs had been dug out through the snow and crevaces, so we strapped these nappy things on and slid down the mountain, using the ice axes to speed up/slow down/steer. ice axe - best tool ever.
eventually got to the bottom and the tour guide produced some well deserved beer, yaaaaaaaaay. went back to the hostel for shower/siesta/hot dog, then jason and i went to meet some american girls we had met on the hike. got the bus to some nearby hot springs, which were really good and ideal for the knackered legs. jason and i immediately found the hottest and therefore best spring, and sat in it drinking some pisco and wine we had smuggled in, then decided it was far too hot so sat on the rocks for ages, drinking our now really warm pisco and wine. mmmm. also on the bus i got talking to an american and an english girl, who turned out to be the production manager for deep purple and the wardrobe manager for journey respectively!! stormer. spent most of the evening with them listening to all their anecdotes about people they had worked with, like meatloaf, rod stuart, def leppard, really funny. sarah the american one claimed she could get me free tickets to deep purple in santiago, yessss.
eventually decided our pool was far too hot and went to join the american girls in a much more pleasant temperature pool for a bit, then went home on the bus through some dark scary woods with lots of axe murderers walking around. saw a shooting star as well, awesome. got back at like 2am to discover franz was still out clubbing somewhere, what an animal. thankfully josh had run out of money and gone away by this stage. went to some nice pools with waterfalls and stuff the next day, then had lots more beer by the lake then went to santiago overnight, nice bus emloyee gave us cushions and tucked in our blankets for us, lovely.
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