Volcano preparations
Junin de los Andes was a next stop as we wanted to have a go at climbing the Volcano Lanin and Junin is the closest town to it. We were greeted by a very warm sunny town and as Junin is very small and not really geared towards tourists, it was a nice change to be one of the very few gringos about.
We found a great place to stay, in the converted loft of a couple's house and very cheap at that. Here we stayed for a few days and met other travellers who were returning from climbing the nearby Volcan Lanin. On the second night we had a big asado (bbq) with the other travellers and all 12 of us sat around a huge table and ate and drank all night. Joel, our Ozzie friend, BBQ'ed a couple of chickens and half a cow and we devoured roasted pumpkins and sunk several bottles of plonk.
The following slightly hungover day was spent preparing for our volcano hike, and we rented the equipment we needed. We tried not to think why it was so necessary to hire a walkie-talkie type radio (I did feel like a member of the A-Team though) and tried to forget the stories of all the people that have died on the mountain in the last few years as we got our boots fitted up with crampons and were given ice picks. With bags packed (full of chocolate, nougat, cuppa-soups and every single item of thermal and fleecy clothing we possessed) and our equipment ready (checked the radio was working about 1000 times) we got an early night.
