Final days in the South of Argentina and Chile

Our final full day in San Martin de Los Andes, we started off playing ping-pong and then Rob, Renee, and Jonathan rented bikes to tour around the town a bit.

Our "cabin" - more like a townhouse.

There were two zip-lines in town and we chose Miramar because it had a place to hang out for those who did not want to risk their lives dangling from a cable.  They have a video showing what it is like.  Sure steered me away from it.  There were actually seven lines that sequentially traversed the hill.  We all went up to the place but just Rob and Renee had signed up to do it (combination of cost and fear kept the rest of us on the ground).  Jonathan and Elisa got to try the practice line and at least Jonathan was extremely disappointed that he didn't get to go on the whole thing.  It apparently had a great view of the lake but it was blocked because the volcanic ash predicted for Tuesday actually blanketed the town (and the hill) on Wednesday instead.

The layer of ash

Volcanic ash - apparently about once every two weeks the winds from Chile bring it to San Martin.

You can fill up your thermos with hot water for your mate fix at the same time you fill up your car with gas.

We then had a long haul going back to Santiago starting with the pass back into Argentina.  We drove about four hours on the Argentine side which was really different from the Chilean side.  Very dry and barren.

The "rest stop"

This time we went through Paseo Pino Hachado and it took only 15 minutes on the Argentine side and 30 minutes on the Chilean side - much more reasonable.  We headed towards the Reserva Nacional Malalcahuello-Nalcas and stayed at a cabin at Hotel Andenrose.  They not only had a dog there but also a Ginger-like cat and some other cats and kittens - Renee was finally in heaven.

Everybody was gearing to head back so instead of exploring the area, which reminded me of the Adirondacks of my youth, we decided to skip the park and just drive until we dropped on Friday (with some help from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and some Magic Tree House).  Home Sweet (and @$#%$# hot) Home.

We leave for Uruguay Tuesday morning for two weeks.  On to laundry.