So Dan says he´d watched this US TV show where the wife is asked by her husband for another word for ´selfish´ she comes back with ´independent´. HHhmmm well Huw and Bernice are both being well and truly independent today. Huw is off with Dan and Chris to climb the Villarica Volcano, while Bernice spends the day in Pucon chilling in cafés drinking coffee and blog writing/surfing the net. Oh and watching the rugby, the England game that is, forgot it was on till a Facebook reminder came up. Appalling effort guys!

The volcano trip involves taking a minibus to the out of season ski centre and catching a somewhat dated chair lift to the start of the trek. It is then a couple of hour of solid uphill work initially on lava rock and dust and then on snow and ice using ice axes (no need for crampons as there was a recent now fall). At the top it is a fairly brief look into the crater and take in the views until the sulphuric fumes drives us of again. The way down is great fun – tobogganing down on your bum – woo hoo!!

When Huw gets back they´ve had an awesome day and really rate the guide. We´ve heard some horror stories about attitude and poor equipment but the guy that the hostel uses (has all his gear at the hostel for you to try) Guido, was really good at keeping the group together, knew about the mountain, allowed for fun without it getting dangerous, and the equipment was good. A plus for the hostel (Entico) and let´s face it they need another one cause the dorms are pretty crummy, the 2 bathrooms both disgusting and inadequate, filthy carpet everywhere and the kitchen is in a real mess. The only positives it’s really got are the large garden with pool (closed for cleaning/winter while we were there) and the friendly staff. It needs closing for a week and gutting!

After the boys have showered and Dan´s sky diving mate Peter arrives we head off to a pizza restaurant Peter recommends (his friend runs it, looks like he knows everyone in town really). It didn´t disappoint so that was good.