Drove back through
the town and up to the boarder. Cleared Chile very easily and
quickly. Once we had the right paperwork and they accepted the
registration paper we got into Argentina easily as well.
We think the clock
goes forward an hour now and we do need some cash.
By the posters at the
Chile office we cannot take back into Chile meats, milk, cheeses, yogurt,
and honey. There were other articles like wood and hide etc but we
don’t carry any of those.
Drove up to the hydro power station and
had a look and drive around. Had lunch next to the electro-hydro compensator tank; designed to damp variations in the turbine water pressure. It was
62 m high and 20 m in diameter.
We didn't find
anywhere above a 2** camp so we left. We found a reasonable
supermarket in Trevelin but no ATM inside. We finally tracked down
the only ATM’s and although they would give us a balance, they would
not hand out any cash.
We bravely decided
to go and buy a couple of bottles of red at the supermarket to see if
the visa would be accepted. Yes it was accepted so we did a shop of a
few items and then headed to the national reserve at Futalauquen. We
found a reasonable camp at 7 just on dusk.
Although there was
no apparent breeze, the lake lapped gently on the beach all night.
Argentina on first
impressions seems dryer than the Chilean side of the Andes. Also we
noticed the quality of the vehicles has dropped remarkably but we did
see a couple of people running, 20 out walking and on the long uphill
on leaving town another 10 cyclists all with the right clothing and
on mountain-bikes. John estimated the bikes were worth more than a
lot of the cars we saw.