We got to Pucón about 9 in the morning and it was cloudy and pretty chilly. We had breakfast and afterwards I strolled to the lakes with Nipa and Rachel.

We also went up to the monastery for a nice view over the town. After that I just had a bit of peace and quiet at the hotel, caught up with my diary and read my book. Time flies on an organised tour and sometimes you really need to take time out, because there is so much to do you can be running from one thing to the next for 3 weeks.

There is also supposed to be a lovely, snow-capped volcano (Villarica) but at the moment, I have no clue as to where it is, the weather being horribly overcast and miserable.

In the afternoon, I decided without really thinking about it that I would go wild water rafting, and so did Nipa, Peter and Janet. When they came to get us, they had other people with them plus two rubber boats. Big ones, but still only rubber boats.

Our guide was Theo, who jokingly said it was his first time too, he was really the cook of Sol y Nueve, the organisation we went with. Not sure how often he made that joke, but it was kind of lost on the couple of Americans and the three Brits anyway, so I politely laughed...

Then we had to hoist ourselves into wetsuits, which were still damp from the group before us, and wear very flashy shoes (mine were bright pink). We pushed the boat into the river after learning the four gears of wild water rafting: adelante (forward), atras (back), izquierda (left) and derecha (right). Oh, he also told us what to do when someone fell out.

The rapids were quite calm but still exhilarating and absolutely freezing, so it was great fun. Theo had the easiest job, bossing the tourists around with his commands and steering. Nice job if you can get it. At one point, we hit a big rapid sideways and Peter fell out, so Theo had to pull him back in with his paddle. He remained very calm so either he's not had anyone hurt before or it happens all the time. Anyway, Peter was fine and happy to have a story to tell at dinnertime.

Afterwards we rushed back to go to the 'termales' or hot springs, managing to ruin a couple's romantic getaway (20 half-naked pale Brits in swimming costume is not exactly a turn on). They fled the hot springs ten minutes after we arrived.

The springs were indeed very hot, only the world around it was very cold and rainy, so you had to stay under with all your limbs. For the real masochists, there was the river nearby and 68 year old Polish Margaret went for a dip, so lots of others had to prove themselves as well.

We got back around 9.30 and Nipa, Rachel and I went to have dinner together, which we had to wait for quite a long time but when it came, it was very nice. I had steak, chips and avocado salad. Covered in two fried eggs was the biggest steak I've ever seen, it must have been about a kilo of meat. Cholesterol heaven!

Afterwards we went straight into bed as we were ZZZZZZZZZZZZZz