The bus journey to Puerto Varas from Ancud was uneventful as it rained all the time but we were kept amused by Joachim and Petra's rain and sunshine songs. Here we stayed for a few days where we said farewell to Joachim and Petra, who were moving northwards towards to Santiago, having already done the Chilean lake district. We hope to meet up with them later in the far north of Argentina The rain was relentless but we braved the weather to see Lagos Todos los Santos, in Petrohue, and the waterfalls nearby. Although cloudy, and eventually a downpour, it was a nice day. As the rain didn't look like subsiding we decided to move north towards Pucon and Villarrica. This is where the weather changed and we had a great time. We eventually settled in Villarrica as Pucon, although really nice, was very touristy with tour agencies all along the high street. Villarrica was a bit more locally and only half hour from Pucon by the local bus. We stayed in a hostel run by 2 Swiss Germans who had cycled round the world for 2 and half years and when they got to Villarrica decided to stay and set up a hostel, as you do. Beat (the Swiss guy) was one of these superfit people who made you feel inadequate but looked like he was stuck in the 70's, so didn't make me feel too inadequate. As we did so much here I have decided to break it down into bullet points, here are some of the highlights, Day 1: caught a bus to the Ojos de Caburga (translated to 'eyes of Caburga'), which was pretty, and then walked 6km to Lagos Caburga, which was beautiful. Day 2: Went horseriding in the morning, to El Claro waterfall, which was hidden from sight up in the hillside ( it took about 2 hours to ride there and then you had to climb down a very steep opening in the hill using the tree roots as a ladder). The weather was beautiful and the scenery fantastic as we climbed up the hillside on horseback, what a glorious way to spend a Sunday morning!!! Then we went cycling round Villarrica in the afternoon (round one of Beats marked cycle trails, he mentioned it was one of the easiest, yea right, since when has 25Km along a bumpy gravel track, and with a couple of climbs thrown in, been easy!! Well, I suppose if you've cycled halfway round the world it would be, smug git!!!) which didn't seem too ambitious at the time but turned out to make the muscles you didn't think you had, ache like hell. But as the weather was so glorious it didn't really matter. Day 3: went to a Mapuche town called Curarrehue, as there was a cultural centre containing the history, legends and handicraft of the Mapuche Indians, also we were suffering from the day before so decided on a quiet lazy day. The Mapuche Indians are the local indigenous people around this area of Chile and Argentina and fought the Spanish a lot when they came over, sometimes losing and sometimes winning. Anyway, when we got there we found out that it was closed for that particular day of the week, which seemed weird as it was a Monday. But being the nice people they are they let us in anyway to wander around on our own. Day 4:Went to Pucon as the weather was a bit cloudy and rainy. Pucon has a great big volcano that dominates the landscape (Volcano Villarrica) and which is still very active, on clear days you can see it smoking and the favourite excursion offered by tour agencies around here is to climb the thing and take a peek inside, which can reward you with lava bubbling down in the crater. We decided it would be nice to climb this the next day if the weather was good. As an aside, to prove how active the volcano is a few days earlier, about 1 in the morning, Donna and I were woken by a slight tremor rocking the hostel, which was alarming to say the least but Beat and Claudia explained in the morning that it was always doing that. It only lasted about 10 seconds and I was tempted to say to Donna the old classic, 'did the earth move for you, darling', but was worried she might have come back with 'Yes, but why always only 10 seconds'. Day 5: The weather forecast the night before didn't look too promising so decided to go to the Parque Nacional Huerquehue instead of climb the Volcano. The park was beautiful, although it was a steep 2 hour walk, at first, to get to the top. The walk takes in about 5 lakes and is about 18 km from start to finish. The trees were in their full autumn colours and the lakes were as still as mill ponds, absolutely stunning (see the photo's). Although a tiring trek (we walked a solid 6 hours) it was a fantastic day, one we will remember!! Day 6: The weather forecast again looked bleak, the night before, so we decided that we couldn't wait any longer for the weather to be perfect so decided to leave for Argentina. A bad mistake because when we awoke the sky was a beautiful clear blue without a cloud in sight. As you had to book up the night before, as they leave at 7 in the morning to ascend the volcano, we felt we couldn't wait any longer for a good day to be forecast so we left for Argentina. The drive to border was breathtaking, the trees were either vivid reds, beautiful yellows or deep greens. As we crossed the border we were sad to leave such a beautiful part of Chile but we were entering the Lake district of Argentina and if this was to be half as beautiful as Chile we knew we would still enjoy it.