(note: just click on an image to see a full-screen slide show of the whole collection)
We slept on the shore of Lago Villarrica and woke up early to go to the store and get basic provisions for our next few days. We were able to chat for a few minutes with family in Alaska and California before we turned off our cell phones and internet at the border.
The scenery around Villarrica and Pucón is incredible. Beautiful lakes and rivers and trees. Lush. We had a short stop to check out a nice bus stop building and got to check out a suspension footbridge over a river. It was shaky. The kids were thrilled, Mama not so much.
We arrived at the Chilean customs station at Paso Mamuil Malal and got in line to have our papers checked and pet the drug-dogs. Since we are temporary Chileans, we didn't use our passports to exit Chile, only our Cedula de Identificacion. All went smoothly, all we needed were our IDs, and car information. We headed into the 5km stretch of borderland between Chile and Argentina. The araucaria tree is protected in these parts. If one ends up in the path of a road, the road divides around it!
Arriving at the Argentinian border, we lucked out and got in before a massive and rowdy line formed. The border guards got a little confused with Cana's passport information because they thought the abbreviation Jan stood for June instead of January and my information couldn't be verified by computer with the wrong date. Finally they asked us about my birthdate after fiddling about for 1/2 hour and asking their supervisor. I told them Jan was enero, and things went smoothly after that.
Before we got to the border crossing we elected to hide our big jug of homemade honey that Ben got as a gift from our mechanic in Santiago, don Alberto Muñoz. We had to open our cooler for the guard, but with the honey hidden under the seat, we passed without any problem. Bad Crosbys.
Ben had heard that there was a custom on gravel roads to hold your fist against the windshield to prevent cracks and dings. Something having to do with harmonics. Though we tried this a few times, we noticed that none of the other drivers were doing it and decided to take our chances. This sounds like a good Mythbusters episode.
Pretty much immediately after the Argentinian border, which is on the other side of a ridge line,
the landscape changed from this lush forest to dry desert. It looked like parts of Idaho. We
stopped by Rio Maleo and the kids filtered water while I cooked lunch.
We continued on to San Martin de Los Andes and were shocked at the poshness of this resort
town. A lot like Jackson, Wyoming. We also couldn't figure out (by "we" I mean "me") the cash machine and we had no money besides Chilean pesos. Luckily we have Dr. Ben Crosby along and he was able to wrestle out a few hundred Argentinian pesos from the machine (6 pesos/$1 USD). We
celebrated our triumph by buying some chocolate for the children and gas for Jules.
Ben drove us deep into the woods/cliffs that make up Parque Nacional Lanin and we only stalled once or twice trying to get up the steep hill. We made camp and dinner and hit the sack...our first full day Westy style.
