With our second boarder crossing under our wing, we headed on into Chile to the small town of Pucon. As is customary on arriving at a new destination, Ocs and I decided to dump our stuff in ´Nature Hostel´ and brave the streets once more for an explore. We ended up lounging on a pier in the midday sun and fell asleep. Ocs decides she wants to take a walk and visit the monastery, I decide to be lazy and read my book.  Half an hour goes by and I´m enjoying the peace and general tranquility of the lake when suddenly out of nowhere a hand touches my shoulder and a distinct ¨where are you from?¨ is breathed into my ear. My heart sank. Some pretty rapid thoughts of how I was going to escape entered my mind. At one point, leaping off the pier was a necessity. I was thinking, where is Occy. Having to talk to the supposed ´mountain guide´cretin for about an hour was interesting considering he was on his 10th beer and kept on asking if I ¨would like a kiss¨ no thanks beer breath. I´ll take a pass. He apparently comes to the pier everyday to ´be at one with his soul.´ Total bollocks, he´d blatantly been in his van waiting to pounce.  Octavia finally rocks up, having been ´spiritually enlightened´ by the monastery and assumes I have found my one true Chilean love on the pier when I´m actually making desperate hand signals for a swift rescue. She just wasn´t getting it.
We eventually managed to make an escape, leap frogging off the pier and making our way for some relief icecream. Dulce de leche yum yum.
Day 2 in Pucon, the Tat and I decide its time to break the mould and ride some poniieeess. We were driven from our hostel to an amazing little farm just outside of the town. We were a little nervous, Ocs was absolutely bricking it and kept on having to dab her forehead with a wet flannel to stop the sweats. After mounting our noble steeds we were led on up into the mountains, taking it easy at first. Octavia was trailing at the back, saying she wanted to ´connect´with her horse so as abstain a bucking. Mr Guide was having none of it, wanting to pick up the pace of the trek he got a branch and sent Octavia and her horse flying off for a good old gallop, with Ocs almost having a nervous breakdown in the process. A good day, with delicious homemade empanadas at the end in true Chilean style.
An early rise in Hostel Nature, it was the day of the big climb. Yes to all you people out there, Octavia and I were to launch ourselves up an active Volcanoe, all 2850 metres of it. Last erupted in 1984. We literally looked like the biggest professionals, with our gaiters, walking boots and yes pickeaxes for the big ascent. I think its safe to say it was the most physically challenging thing we have ever done, only stopping twice on the way up. It took us five hours to reach the top, climbing against the wind with constant dust in our faces, we turned 3 shades darker than before. We felt soooo good when we made it up and had the most insane views of Pucon and the lakes.
Our last day in Pucon we could barely move, Ocs was bed-ridden and I couldn´t remove the dust from my eyebrows. We decided to hit the hot springs for some healing. The locals told us we shouldn´t wash afterwards so that we could be spiritually cleansed properly. Not sure if that was such a good idea in our cases. We rocked up to the pools and couldn´t quite figure out how they were naturally preserved so beautifully and how the water was SO warm. Ocs being ever the curious one decided to hunt around for hidden jacuzzi pipes or ´man-made´ holes to prove her point , disturbing the locals in the spiritual moment with her splashes and exclamations of ¨This is definitely a con.¨ Oh Octavia. To be continued....