Bienvenidos a Chile?!?

Yesterday, after a night that involved super yummy pizza, playing pool at a nearby bar and then - for dad and some of the others as I started to feel ill chill around 2 am - dancing at "The Irish Pub," the 14 of us and our 4 wonderful guides headed out of San Martin de los Andes west toward the Chilean border. No big deal. Just hop in the car and go. We went from paved road to gravel road and then came upon the Argentinian customs office. They stamped our passports and said "Adios." Again, NO big deal. Then we found ourselves in what I assume is essentially "no man´s land". We were on a rural gravel road in the middle of nowhere, had left Argentina, but had yet to enter Chile. Here we had lunch. Dad and I wandered around taking photos of ourselves hopping in and our of Argentina and continued to be amused by our location. This amusement quickly came to an end, however.

As we set out after lunch the some 500 meters to the Chilean border we were met by people who seemed less than excited to have us trying to enter their country. Here´s where everything started to become a big deal.... First off, they wanted all the men between the ages of 16-39 to get the rubella vaccination. It didnt matter that they had had the vaccination, as they didnt carry proof. No one carried any vaccination records as we were unaware of this "requirement." The customs agent was prepared to give three of the guys shots then and there. After much discussion, it was decided that only our guides who would be spending more than three days in Chile would have to get the vaccination, and the others could walk free. Problem one solved. THEN one of the girls in the group was taken into a back room and questioned regarding the fact that she was throwing away nuts before entering Chile. You cant take them into the country, but, evidentally, you also cant throw them away before entering....hmm... So what seemed like an hour later, she came out with a written warning regarding her "misdemeanor." Meanwhile, several other people who declared that they were carrying food - one person had enough food to feed a small country for a week - walked through customs scotch free. So once they let us all through about 3 hours later, we hopped in the car and booked it. Enough issues for one day!

And once we got ourselves into the actual country, we were greeted with such a stunning landscape. This part of Chile is much greener than the Argentinian side. And we had the opportunity to enjoy the pastoral scenery of the surrounding farms and the nearby mountains on bike as we made our way to our hotel in Pucon. We were biking on paved road for the first time since we got here, and after not having ridden my road bike in a couple of weeks, I was psyched to be back on the open road with just me and my bike. Plus, two of the people on our trip are professional cyclists - one has completed 10 ironman triathalons, so I was excited for a bit of a challenge in a sport where I actually have a bit of skill - as opposed to mountain biking! So we booked it the first part of the ride, and then spent the latter part admiring the passing farms and luscious river valley. Woohoo!

We then had to head to the supermercado to buy food for today´s climb and then head to a local outfitter to get fitted with boots, "a serious windbreaker outfit" (bright orange, might i add?!), crampons, gloves, and ice axes. Somehow, the fact that we were being suited up with such technical gear didnt tip me off to the intensity of the climb we would be facing... And then dinner involved more meat in this cute town that reminds me of Jackson Hole, mariachi dancers that looked an awful lot like Jack Black, and waffles con chocolate - YUM!

Im hungry, stinky, and tired, so I will write about today´s climb once Ive bathed, fed myself, and gotten some rest. But stay tuned because it was one heck of an experiencia!