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We got up at the crack of dawn to put our gear on and go hike up the volcano. Usually people start hiking the volcano at 5000ft where the ski lifts can take you, but being winter, the lifts were frozen. We had to start at about 300ft at 8am. Twenty minutes into our hike my heart was racing and my feet were hurting. Breaks were never long enough for me but I had to keep on trekking. Every ten minutes the slope got steeper and the snow got deeper. After hiking 3 hours and almost reaching the 6000 ft mark most of us gave up. The view from there was amazing! You could see three volcanoes, the Andes Mountains and Lake Villarica. The hike was worth it just to see that view. We had lunch there and started to hike down. That was the best part! Our backpacks included something that allowed us to slide down the mountain. We slid almost all the way down. Took a couple of bad bumps on the way. By one in the afternoon we had already reached the bottom again and were ready to go back to the hostel.

To relax our muscles after a whole day of continuous movement (which my muscles haven't seen in a long time) we decided to go to the hot springs. They were amazing! Just what we needed after a long day of hiking.

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