After breakfast we take a taxi to the airport and after a short flight we land at Temuco, rent a car and from here we visit Villarica. We decide to go grocery shopping and find that to enter a Supermarcado is like visiting Mars...everything is foreign and we cannot read the language. But we have a feast buying a few items.To open something and see what is inside is an adventure. Do the advertisers realize that their beautiful pictures are very misleading??? We also see our first Chilean teenagers in their "school uniforms", cigarette in hand, shirts hanging out, earrings...but you should never judge too soon....

Between Villarica and Pucon there are many cabanas. It looks as if they only have holidays in this part of Chilli. In the winter they ski and in summer they fish and swim. The beaches are covered in volcanic ash and are thus pitch black. Everywhere we see boats, canoes and more boats. We turn off at Valvidia, a volcano. A dirt road takes us to the top and through pine forest, it is beautiful up here. Somewhere on this road we find a cafeteria made out of volcanic rock. A Chilean convinces us to take a tour to a volcanic cave. I change my slops to running shoes and we are on our way. 
 
 
 


We enjoy the tour. They explain how volcanoes form and then we enter the cave. If you have followed the rest of my travels you would soon realise that I am totally MAD about caves!!! This cave is totally different from any I have seen before. No stalagmites or stalactites, because volcanic rock contains no salt - only metal oxides. If the magma cools down slowly then the rock looks like candle wax - if it cools down faster the rock forms fine granules. We see lithium (a silver, crisp colour), iron oxide bubbles (looks likecandle wax)...it you taste the rock (yes I did!!) you can taste the iron! (I am very interested in chemistry - and to see where all these metals come from makes me happy!!)

Suddenly the lights in the cave go out! It is pitch dark and the tour leader asks us to sing "In the Jungle..." in order to restore the light. It is a nice way to let the tour group bond. We also visit the canyon. In 1988 the lava came down this canyon and burnt the tree roots. Most trees are dead and those that have managed to stay alive now grow as "natural" bonsais...since they have only a thin layer of soil to grow in. We take a short walk through a pine and bamboo forest - a weird combination.The birds are also different, you can group them as crows or eagles...but the colouring and size differs from what we are used to - looks as if they come from a storybook.

We find a small hostel in Pucon - the bano (bathroom) is smaller than that of the hotel in Santiago, but the room is cosy. We put our things down and off to town we go. Some towns are very neat (like Pucon) and other more informal (like Vilarica). Puconhas a bigger German population. While shopping, we find beautifully carved wooden figures, toothpicks carved with artistic care and there are lots of puzzles to solve - a huge variety of intelligent curios.

We are hungry and find a restaurant. We see that three of their dishes are on special - but remember we do not speak or remotely understand Spanish. We order Bisca as it sounds easy to pronounce – a fortunate choice as it turns out to be steak and chips...now at least I know one more word!!! The shops are open till 10pmand we enjoy the late night shopping.