Well, this was my last week in Pucon. After three weeks, my spanish has vastly improved. While I still have a heck of a time understanding people when they speak fast and still have to take time to make sure that what I am saying is mostly correct, I feel much better with conversing with others and sometimes it is very natural. However, I know I´ve still got a long way to go and am off to Bariloche, Argentina to take more class.

So the whole time I have been in Pucon I have been delaying my ascent of the volcano. It has loomed over me like a silent challenge in the distance, and finally I decided to tackle the white giant. After four or five days of rain, the weather cleared up and I was able to attempt to climb the volcano the day before I left for Bariloche.

So Saturday morning I went to the company whom I was going with and suited up for the climb. There were 8 of us in the group, one guide, six others and myself. We drove to the base of the volcano, grabbed our packs, and started walking. It was pretty awesome because there was still snow on the volcano, though it made the hiking a little treacherous because it was easy to lose your footing. Luckily, we had decent gear and didn´t have anyone fall of the slope. However, the going wasn´t exactly a walk in the park; I had figured that since many people went up the volcano that it wouldn´t be that difficult. I was wrong. About half way up one of the people with us, a spaniard between 25-30 years old, just fell down and didn´t get up. He ended up not finishing the hike up the volcano and I didn´t see him again (I assume he was okay!).

Anyways, we took a couple breaks going up the volcano and eventually made it up to the top. Here it was much colder and very windy. We had hiked from the base at 1400 meters to the top of the volcano at 2800 meters. I was very glad that we had finally reached the top because I was getting very tired of walking precariously in the foot steps of the guide for the last 6 hours (it was a real long hike). However, the going down was going to be much easier supposedly. All we had to do was slide down on our butts! Now, I gotta admit, I was pretty excited about this part and can say this was the only time in my life I was excited for my butt to take a pounding! You have to look at the pics to get an idea of what it was like, but even those do not do it justice. It was a blast! What took us two hours to hike took about 4 minutes to slide down. Definitely the best part of the hike for me! The steeper the slope, the faster we went and the more snow that flew into our faces.

After the volcano, since it was my last supper with my family in Pucon, we were going to have a lamb roast for supper. Now, if you haven´t looked at the photos yet, I can explain. Earlier in the morning I had woken up at about 5:30 to the sound of a sheep in my dreams. Once awake, I realized that the noise was real and it was coming from somewhere very close. I threw on some clothes and went outside to see a lamb tied up to the tree looking at me with its dumb doe eyes. Later when I woke up again, I found out that the lamb was to be our diner later that day, so when the butcher came to clean the lamb, I took a great interest in how cleanly the lamb was slaughtered. I don´t know if it was exactly kosher, but it was quick and clean.

The meal was great and it was an awesome last day in Pucon. The next day I was to take a bus to San Martin, Argentina and the following day to Bariloche, Argentina to live with another family and take another 3 weeks of castellano. Little did I know how different it would be....