Diapers, sulfur gas, and the summit that wasn´t.

A bicycle drawn horse?
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Pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianandkim/collections/72157602933051682/

don´t use the tour company named RONCO for god´s sake!!!

The discotequa was bumping until 5am, and barking along to the trance beat, every crazed perro within a quarter mile.  The alarm was set to go off in an hour, and the clear starry sky gave us sweet justification for postponing our journey further south to conquer Volcan Villarica.  Everyone who we talked to recommended summiting this volcano, apparently it is the thing to do in Pucon, and a little ice hike\climb had been on Brian´s radar for awhile.

My first floor's a hot tub.
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At five minutes to seven we hit the pavement, and were white-knuckle ride´n our Huffys all the way to Ronco Trek, our trip organizer. (Note to selves, don´t use the tour company named RONCO for god´s sake!!!)

Everyone in our group was already waiting out front, now we were as well.  Ten minutes later our man showed up and we began getting our gear together for some "mountaineering".  I had waited for five days, holding Kim against her will in Pucon for this misadventure... it surely wouldn´t disappoint!

Step away from the rod, rookie.
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Mountaineering, to me, means crampons, rope, and an ice ax.  In Pucon, at Ronco, it actually means fleece ski mask, matching purple and turquoise windbreaker outfits, a plastic diaper, a two-hour hike up under a ski lift, and a butt slide down a live volcano to the bottom.  I know, well worth 70 bucks (yeah that´s American dollars) and frozen backside.

After an hour drive to the base of the volcano we began our ascent of snowy, smoky Volcan Villarica.  Past the ski lodge, and up... up... to the ski lift??  Thankfully the lift wasn´t lifting and we were forced to walk for an hour and a half to the top of the chair lift.  Somewhere along the way, we were given a crash course in walking in a single file line, and ¨falling on an ice ax¨ (that tickled). As we climbed, the view became more and more spectacular, and at the

You wanta feel my biceps?
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same time, the wind picked up and nearly blew Kim off the side of the mountain a few times--thank goodness for that ice axe!!

About half way to the summit, we stopped for a few minutes to eat lunch--you guessed it, we provided our own, and then walked for about another 10 minutes.  The guide then stopped and said, ¨well, there´s too much toxic sulphur gas coming out of the volcano, we can´t summit,¨ as other groups marched up the mountain past us.  Â¨Â¨Look,¨ he said, ¨¨everyone else is coming down.¨  We weren´t buying it, but the other members of our group, four French folks, were all for heading down.  Outnumbered, we accepted our defeat to the Frenchies, strapped on our ´diapers,´ and started the entertaining butt-slide down the volcano.  At least it was a nice day, and the butt-sledding was fun.

If you cant climb it... put on a diaper and slide down it.
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We´ll count this one as our south of the equator screwing for the month!

Aside from Volcan Villarica being a bust, Pucon is a pretty little resort town with prices to match.  This was to be our jumping off point for trekking in the Lakes District of Chile and Argentina, but due to a record snow year, most parks are still closed and trails buried under 3 meters of snow.  Just our luck. . . Between the rain showers, however, we did manage to go Zip-lining through the canopy

Head-butting at the pseudo-summit.
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with our new South African friend Alastair, soak in some amazing natural hot springs, ride 20k on some sketchy bikes (wobbling wheels, half-flat tires, barely-there brakes,  thank you Ronco) through the countryside fishing for trout, and seeing waterfalls.  We even met 2 girls from Davis on our bike ride!

One of the silver linings of our time in Pucon was our stay at the Monkey Puzzle hostel.  Vivi the owner is as nice as can be, and she always greets us with a smile and a fire in the fireplace when we get home!  As easy as it was to get comfortable here, we´ll head south tomorrow, maybe even to Argentina.