Chile

After Puerto Madryn we headed to Bariloche, a town resembling Switzerland (we even had a cheese fondue here) in the Argentinian lake district. There was no snow (or rather not the right snow for skiing) so the town was full of frustrated skiiers walking round town in their full ski suits - presumably it also meant they were ready to go straight away if it did start snowing, rather than waste time returning to the hotel to change.

We spent a full day walking round the surrounding areas in the lakes and up mountains/large hills. This was the reason we´d come here rather than the skiing, (although we did spend a lot of time riding ski lifts for non-skiiers in a town with no snow!)
The scenery around Bariloche was amazing.

We then went to Mendoza, where our main reason for visiting was wine tours. We hired bikes and spent the day cycling to wineries and sampling the wines, some of which were really nice. So that we could spend more on the wine we economised and hired the cheapest bikes going. This meant that my brakes worked, but only just, and Dan had a cheese grater for a saddle - after a few glasses of wine this didn´t seem too important though.

We were also in Mendoza for independence day, which they celebrated by erecting a huge stage in the park and eating a lot of meat - Dan obviously joined in this celebration with gusto.

From Mendoza we brought our bus tickets to Santiago and climed aboard expecting a 7 hour journey as described. The route was really interesting scenery and when we turned a corner from being in the desert, we were suddenly up in the Andes surrounded by snowy mountains. The bus climbed it´s way up to the boarder crossing which was at the top of a particuarly snowy mountain, and then the blizzard started. We sat outside the immgration house, which looked like an aircraft hanger with the snow getting harder and harder and after 2 hours were allowed to drive in.
Getting our passports stamped and bags searched was relatively straight forward and we jumped back onto the bus only to spend the next 6 hours sat on it as the snow was too heavy. We were being to think we´d be saving on a nights accommodation and would be spending the night on the bus when the driver announced we were off - the whole bus cheered as after so long sat without the engine running it was bloody freezing - they even brought us round a coffee and wagonwheel to celebrate our departure. The engine started and we drove out of the hanger into the snow, then stopped just outside... we stayed there for another 2 hours while the snow ploughs finished clearing the winding roads and daylight well and truely succumed to darkness.

By this time it was dark and although it had long since stopped snowing, there was about 2 foot of fresh snow everywhere. This didn´t put our driver off though and after fixing the snow chains to the tyres we set off following another bus, snow plough and patrol vehicles down 12km of winding, slippery, snow and ice covered roads. There were abandoned trucks all the way down and when the patrol car found a driver sleeping in one he insisted he get out and he boarded our bus. To the drivers credit he drove really well, and thankfully slowly (a rarity in South America).

We arrived into Santiago around 2am to find that the cash machines at the bus station didn´t work. Luckily we managed to find some other travellers, one of whom had some money to get us to the nearest hostel and we crawled into dorm around 3am - The most memorable and spectacular border crossing so far!

Santiago is another spectauclar city as the snowy Andes are visible surrounding the town - the downside is that these mountains also help to trap in the visible layer of smog over the city.

We fly to New Zealand tomorrow to begin our camper van adventures. Sad to be leaving South America, but excited to be heading somewhere new.