We followed up all that madness with two days in the beautiful town of Pucon, situated in the Lakes District of Chile almost exactly between a huge lake and the Volcan Villarica, an imposing volcano. We quickly lined up activities, and decided to go river rafting on Saturday and climb Villarica on Sunday. I was pretty aprehensive about both activities, because my idea of river rafting is floating the American River in Sacramento with Alicia, and the last time I did any sort of hiking was several years ago. Scaling a volcano was not something I was sure I could handle in my sad state of physical fitness. But I was feeling brave and willing to give it all a try.
We started the rafting day with a few quiet hours on the shores of the lake, then bussed to the river for our rafting experience. We donned wetsuits, brightly colored jackets and shorts, and then life vests. From the minute we got in the rafts, I knew I was in trouble, as the guide gave us a series of commands like, "Everybody left!" and "Down!" and warned us we had two seconds to follow his instructions or the raft would flip. I will admit, I am a bit of a puss, but I don't trust rivers especially and I was horrified by the entire rafting experience, especially since on the very first rapid I twisted on ankle and on the second rapid I face planted in the back of one of the other passengers and got a bloody nose. We went through several class 4 and at least one class 5 rapids, the scariest being a small waterfall. I remember watching the raft in front of us disappear over the side of the waterfall and turning to Ashley and just shaking my head. There was a photographer that followed us around and took pictures. Ashley has the copies, but apparently I am making a dramatic and terrified face in just about every picture! And of course, I was the only one to fall out of the raft, at the very end when we were like ten feet from our stopping point. Oh well, I guess there is something to be said for facing your fears.
Me on the shores of the Lake, innocently unaware that I would be confronting death on the river later that day!
Volcan Villarica, our day-two adventure. 
Before we committed to climbing the volcano, we talked to a girl at our hostel who had done it. She breezily told us it was a very slow five hour walk up, that the guides were very good and patient, and that she was surprised it hadn't been more difficult. This comforted me in my lack of abilities, especially after I read in my guidebook that many people scale Villarica who have no prior experience in climbing. HA! Let's just say about an hour into our hike, I wanted to kill that effing girl from the hostel and throw my guidebook in the toilet! Climbing that volcano was the most difficult thing I have ever done, and I didn't even make it to the top! About 40 minutes into our hike, I turned around to Ashley and said, "I don't think I can do this!" After I made a similar statement to our guide, Jason, he let me hang back with Michael, the assistant guide and go at my own pace. Everyone had failed to mention that yes, the pace was slow, but it was like climbing a staircase for hours! Most people do the volcano in 5 hours, but it probably would have taken me more like 6 or 7 hours. Michael was great, though, and super encouraging. He also nicknamed me his "Chocolita" because in Chile Tifany is the name of a chocolate-covered peanut. Most Latinos struggle with my name and end up calling me Estefani, but sharing a name with candy helps. Anyway, it ended up being a pretty great day because I got to speak Spanish with Michael all day and we ended up having some pretty interesting conversations, one in particular about education in Chile. He also took numerous pictures of me climbing that damn volcano, which at the time annoyed me since I was focused on trying not to have a heart attack and knew I looked like crap, but in hindsight I love him for. I made it a little over half way in nearly 4 hours, but once we crested the lip I had been aiming for and I saw the whole other crater to climb, I knew I couldn't do it. My butt muscles had been burning for prettymuch the entire day and my legs felt like jello, so I decided to go back down with some other people who (like me, thankfully!) couldn't do it. The descent was nearly the best part of the day, because we strapped these butt covers to our asses and slid down these little tracks the whole way! It was suuuuper fun! Also, Michael was being really cute, helping me into my snow suit, strapping my gear on, zipping me up, so I started calling him "Papi" because he reminded me of a father with his little kid. Once we got to the bottom, we took a nap and waited for the others to get back down. I was a little disappointed I didn't make it all the way up, but I had to be realistic about my abilities. I was especially jealous when I saw Ashley's pictures from the crater, which was steaming when they were up there! But, I had a good day and I was proud of myself for doing what I could do. Maybe one day I will go back to Pucon and try again!
Our base camp, with low-lying clouds blanketing the city of Pucon.
A view back down the mountain. The "rock" in the left is actually the remnants of a ski lift that was damaged in an eruption.
Me at the halfway point. Once I reached the top pictured behind me, I was devastated to see a whole other crater that I would have to climb!
I look like a real explorer!
The final ascent. I never made it higher than this point, but look at that crater! At this point, I was 2,300 meters up. 
Our very steep descent started at the ledge behind me, where we began sliding down on our asses!
Michael, my best pal for the day and an eager photographer. He was always snatching my camera to take pictures of me, so we can thank him for all these shots.
Obviously, after this adventure Smash and I were nearly dead, but we had to get to Puerto Montt by 9 am the next morning to board the ferry to Patagonia, so we ended up taking a series of buses that left us stranded for three hours in the middle of the night in Temuco. Not exactly what our sore bodies needed after our volcano adventure. I have never been so happy to see a tiny sleeping compartment aboard a crowded ferry in my life! We had some time in Puerto Montt after checking in before the ferry disembarked at 2:30, so we wandered around the city and for lunch ate pastel de choclo, a typical Chilean dish of chicken and ground beef cooked inside a cornbread-like casserole. It is soooooo delicious! I was happy to have one last authentic Chilean meal before heading out to Patagonia. My apologies for the lack of pictures of this leg of our trip. For some reason, I was in a picture-taking funk, but the ferry ride cured me of that!
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