The hardest climb of my life!

Two days ago we arrived here in Pucon. It was about a six hour bus ride from Talca. The first day here we went white water rafting. Class four and five rapids and we had to portage around a class six. That was one crazy looking rapid. It was pretty much a crazy waterfall. Great time. We got to float in the water through some of it and I loved that the most. I realized I didn´t spend much time on a river last summer and I missed that.

Yesterday was pretty amazing. One of the reasons people come here to Pucon is to climb its active volcano. We decided that since we were here we might as well do it too. We left at 0700 and met with our guides. They gave us gators, boots, snow gear, crampons and an ice axe. We got to the trail head at about eight and we were told it would take five hours to get up and two to get down. That´s exactly what it took. We were in a group of ten. It was hard. Really hard. A bunch of us really struggled but it still took the five hours like they said. Pretty steep in parts and tons of switchbacks up the volcano. I reached the top at about one. One of the guides gave me trekking poles which I think saved me. That reall made a huge difference. The view from the top was incredible. We spent about an hour up there and the longer we were there the more the clouds burned off so we could see the lake and surrounding area. The crater was huge. The sulfur made us cough a lot but it was amazing to be standing on top of a volcano. Coming down was an exciting time. We slid the whole way down on our butts. For a good part of it, it was like being in a louge. It was carved out from so many people. It was awesome to slide down it!!! The sunburn I have right now is probably worse than the pain in my muscles. I wore tons of sunscreen but the sun was crazy yesterday. I have to say it was a pretty amazing experience.

After the volcano we went to some hot springs to relax. Great way to end a painful, painful, exciting day!