Argentina!

I woke up more sick, and Laura less sick, on Thursday. It rained all Wednesday but Thursday dawned totally clear, and the summit of Villarica was totally exposed.

We caught our bus to San Martin de los Andes at 10.30 a.m. The bus was almost empty. We left Pucon and dawdled up this pastoral valley with mountains on one side and the volcano on the other and a big silty river in between. As we climbed higher the mountains became more jagged and the valley narrower. There were small pastures and men on horseback and dogs herding sheep. at 2,000 feet we hit new snow, and then we stopped for a short break beneath a jagged spire of peaks.

The road turned to dirt and we made two switchbacks and crawled along a high lake, the mountains now towering overhead. The bus slowed to enter the Chilean border post, which was in what looked like a ski lodge. No problem. It then idled about a mile over a mellow hill and stopped again to enter Argentina, where the post was also in what looked like a very nice ski lodge replete with a dog sleeping in front of a fire. Again, no problem.

Now in Argentina, the bus steward passed out cookies and coffee and put tango music in on the CD. We descended through huge mountains that gradually opened to reveal wide canyons, flooding rivers, and a totally open landscape, not unlike the east Oregon deserts or southern Idaho, always with huge mountains in the distance.

We pulled into San Martin de los Andes at what we thought was 3.30 ... turns out we lost an hour. The search for a hotel room was complicated by the fact that the cheapest rooms were $60US a night ... though you get a lot for your money, it´s not in our budget. We had little choice, however.

We drank wine and ate cheese and ham for dinner in our room. Today it´s been raining all day and rather warm. Not sure if it´s snowing up at Chapelco or not, but if the skies clear we´ll go look tomorrow.