I finished my 3.5 day stay in Pucon, Chile with a whitewater rafting trip on a class 4 river about 45 minutes from town and in the mountains. While food and drink are not, some things in Chile are fairly cheap, such as bus trips and many tours.  The rafting trip was less than $40 and included  wet suit and the transport.

Anyway no pics from the trip as I could not take the camera on the boat.  But it was a lot of fun.  I was the only one on any of the 3 boats who did not speak Spanish, though even I picked up the spanish commands of paddle forward or back or stop paddling after about 50 or so commands.  I was also the oldest person in the boats by about 25 years.  You could go for a swim at the beginning and end in the swift river, which was quite cold even with the wet suit (which did not cover your shoulders).   But maybe the best part was when you jumped off this 10 ft high rock into the river below.  That was just way cool- I have not done anything like that since I was a teenager.   As you might guess, the chileans are an exhuberant bunch, hooting and hollaring a lot, though strictly in Spanish.

It turned out that I went swimming all 3 days in Pucon, which was unexpected.  I had never gone swimming in fresh water in March in my life and it seemed odd, but very refreshing in the beautiful lakes and rivers of southern Chile.

So just a last couple of pics of the Villarica volcano, one with it smouldering again (if you look closely).

Now a 14 hour bus ride to Valporaiso to the north and on the Pacific coast.