1-Feb-2010

The first pic is of the road not taken. We were trying to get a ferry to somewhere south so we could join the Carretera Austral in Chile. The ferries were full until Saturday. So we backtracked about 60 miles, something we haven't done all trip, to Osorno and headed East to Argentina. It was a beautiful trip up and over the spine of the Andes through the lake country between Chile and Argentina.

As we were crossing the border Nick says, "this is it, last country". And although technically correct, I didn't have the heart to tell him we needed to cross back into Chile 2 more times to get in and out of Ushaia. And I know he isn't reading this blog, so he'll just have to figure it out on his own.

The roads got interesting enough that the daydreaming ended. But the area did have a Yellowstone kind of feel. A lot of tourist traffic and when we rolled into the first town in Argentina I told Nick we needed to get something to eat while we were in Jackson Hole. But after that the comparisons ended. It's great to find yourself in an area that bears no resemblance to anything you have been exposed to before and such is the case for this part of Agentina. We are still in the mountains but winding down into the plains. We will stay pretty far west as we continue south.

We met a guy from California this evening that just came up from El Mundo Final and he gave us some great advice. At least it sounded good. Hopefully he's not crazy. Guess we'll find out.

Oh yea, for Megan, you can put tonight's pin in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.