The rain had passed and we again had a clear, sunny day. This was to be our trip to Volcán Villarrica and the volcanic caves formed by past eruptions. As with the visit to Volcán Lanin, the journey was beautiful, but much shorter; Villarrica sits on the outskirts of Pucón and not a few dozen kilometers away.

This day promised to be extra special. Not only were we going to partake of the beauty of Villarrica and the caves surrounding her, but the afternoon promised a thrill as we were going to "do" Canopy -- gliding across the tree tops (the forest canopy) on a strand of wire. The thrill of this will remain forever a memory -- we decided it was best to leave cameras at home base and do Canpoy "sin fotografías." Take my word for it, it is wonderful and completely safe.

I hope you enjoy these pictures of Volcán Villarrica. The rain of the previous day left a fresh blanket of snow on the volcano, just in time for our journey and our pictures. A few shots taken several days earlier from downtown Pucón shows the benefit of the new blanket of snow on the visual effect of Villarrica.

The pre-Canopy journey ended in a volcanic cave. It was a bit eerie walking into the entrance to the secret labyrinth of the volcano. Villarrica is still active and has errupted about every 14 years - the last in 1998. Hopefully she was keeping to her schedule and would not misbehave during our underground visit. The lava rock forming the cave is extremely porous. As such, it is constantly raining in the cave as the ground water from above seeps through the rock and drips from the ceiling. Not a very pleasant experience, but a small inconvenience to endure to be able to see what nature has wrought deep under ground.