Day 2 - Driving South...

Here you see a photo of some of our group. There are 13 of us in total, including Sonia and Roberto, our guides. They are truly gracious, pleasant hosts.

This morning we departed the city of Osorno, and headed south. Actually, we mostly drove east and after an hour and a half driving in light rain, we crossed the Chilean border into Argentina. After going to several desks and processing our paperwork, we finally were able to cross. At least that is what I thought. It seems that was only the processing to get out of Chile. A few miles down the road, we had to go through a similar process in order to actually enter Argentina. It all went very well, and I had a pleasant chat with 2 American girls from New York City who are studying in Northern Argentina. They were waiting for a whole busload of travelers to go through the customs process, so they had quite a long wait.

After a stop at a wonderful Italian restaurant for a late lunch, we drove for nearly an hour around a huge lake, Lake Nahaul Huapi, which at points is up to 1500 feet deep. The picture at right gives you a small idea of the spectacular views along this lake.

The rain earlier this morning did not dampen our spirits, as we had an enjoyable day, and after lunch the sun came out, drying everyone out quite nicely.

Tonight we are staying in the town of San Carlos de Bariloche, overlooking Nahuel Huapi, which is a Mapuche name. This language is one of the languages mastered and studied extensively by one of our fellow travelers, Rob Croese, linguist extraordinaire.

Hasta mañana!