Raine: Felt quite sad leaving Argentina yesterday. We had some fantastic trips and experiences on our journey and met some kind and interesting people. The road to the pass was slow and windy but the scenery was glorious. We passed through the area of 7 lakes each one with its own unique backdrop. We stopped at the final lake to have a picnic. We had to eat up all our fruit and salad as the customs in Chile are very strict on importing food. We spent hours queueing at different stations of bureaucracy and finally had to unload our belongings to have them searched for contraband! 

As we returned to Chile there was a remarkable change of scenery. As we descended the landscape became more a forested and eventually more agricultural. It reminds me a lot of home in the summer time…familiar flowers, crops and animals: it’s all just on a much larger scale. Interesting  to see a stockman tending his herd of cattle on horseback. We eventually arrived at our hotel in Osorno… I say hotel ..more of a motel, but it was clean and perfectly adequate for an over night stop. The breakfast this morning was delicious… where else do you get shortbread and cake for breakfast? We also had toast and eggs, coffee and juice.

We are now residing in another cabin just outside a town called Pucon in central Chile after a beautiful (but long and slow) drive. We stopped for a walk to an old church and got severely barked at by a viscous dog. I shouted vamoose and it stopped barking and just glared at us! How my Spanish is coming along 😂   I have just cooked a delicious risotto and am now enjoying a glass of local white wine and planning a hike for tomorrow …I need to walk having been car bound for two days and over 600 miles. 😱

Paul: also sad to leave Argentina. I really didn’t know what to expect but it went above and beyond my imaginings.  Crossing borders in this part of the world isn’t simple. Lots of paperwork and forms. Firstly the Argentinian border to leave required us to queue for ages for immigration and then the car paperwork was checked so it could leave Argentina. After this border control it was up over the Andes, crossed the border into Chile where we eventually arrived at their immigration and customs. Another hour queuing and having the contents of the car checked.  The rest of the journey was smooth but arrived in Osorno pretty tired. 

Next day though, after a decent breakfast, we headed into the countryside of central Chile. Quite a contrast to what we had seen previously. Loads of agricultural small holdings and large swaths of commercial forestry - mainly pine and eucalyptus.

On the road again 

Up into the Andes

This town is renowned for its alpine look 

Last lake in Argentina 

Hello Chile

Who are you calling a gringo?

Chilean cowboy 

As we drove into central Chile we found this church 

With a lovely avenue of poplars 

And some goats

Central Chile is much more wooded 

Beautiful roadside flowers 

Volcano Villarrica - one of many active volcanoes in this region. Last erupted in 2023

Our cabin for a few nights. The two dogs are included free of charge