Volcan Llaima from Volcan Villarica

We made it to the summit of Volcan Villarica! 2847m, A good steady climb in fantastic sunshine. The views were amazing and none of my photos have done it justice!

This is Volcan Llaima, which erupted last week. The dark patch on the left side is ash from the eruption. Our guide is a bit of a local hero, he was up here and got the only photos at night of the molten lava spewing from the top... all the other guides were asking to see the pictures.

Volcan Villarica is also active, and the sulphur fumes at the summit were evil, they burned right into our lungs and made our eyes stream. Apparently you could see lava in the crater but I couldn't stay close for long enough to see any!

The way down was fantastic, due to the heavy snow in the winter, there is still a lot of snow on the mountain, that meant we could Glissade {slide on your arse, using the ice axe as a brake} pretty much all the way down. Big grins all round and a fantastically fast way down the mountain.

Great penultimate day for our holiday!