Nine hours south of Santiago is Pucon, a mecca for adventure sports. The town sits at the foot of the Villaricca volcano, an active volcano. At 4am on our first night, the town´s siren went off. We thought we were in a real life Dante´s Peak! But it turned out to be the summoning of the town´s volunteer firefighters. We can now say that we have climbed a volcano, an active one at that! Having had no previous climbing experience, we were a bit phased about what lay ahead. Crampons, what the .... are crampons?! Every time you look at the top you think "Ach, i´ll be there in a jiffy," but no, it´s another two hours! As we reached the summit finally, the putrid odour emanating from the massive crater choked us. However, the thick
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