Day 4 - She said: Oh, nothing. Just drove through the ash from a volcanic eruption. What'd you do today?

Today marked our journey from Chile to Argentina. We had an amazing drive from Puerto Montt to Villa La Angostura, during which we got to see numerous volcanoes and stopped to take lots of pictures. Our guide, Patricio, and our driver, Vicente, we're awesome.

The border crossing was relatively painless, though I did learn some things about customs regarding crossing into Argentina with a group. On our crossing, we saw how the ash from the
volcanic eruption had devastated the forest that I can only imagine must have been quite lush.

A bit of a drive from the border got us to lunch, where we had a meal that could have fed four of us...and finished every bite. Argentinian beef, my friends, is all it's cracked up to be, and it was served with perfectly cooked potatoes in a peppercorn cream sauce.

When we arrived at our beautiful resort and got to our room, we were surprised with a lovely bottle of champagne and some local chocolates. We enjoyed our gift, and soon after, I found myself having a BIT of a siesta. With the sliding door open. Note to self...there is still ash falling. It gets messy.

I don't think I had fully grasped what "falling volcanic ash" meant before we arrived here. It's like a light dusting of snow every day. For those who live here, I don't think we know the long term effects. I do know that tourism has been massively affected, and that this is really the adventure of a lifetime for us. I mean, really, who else gets to honeymoon while a volcanic eruption is still directly affecting their location?! Probably few people. And I love volcanoes.

So...back to our day. After my siesta, we wandered around to find some water as the tap water is temporarily not drinkable. Then we came back and tried to decipher some Spanish on our activities calendar to learn that there is a hike tomorrow morning and a brewery outing later this week. It's the important stuff.

Once that was done, we ventured down to La Trattoria for a bite, despite not being hungry, and I'm so glad we did! We were greeted by an English Speaking man (hallelujah - hard to come by here, which made us feel really bad about not having enough time to learn the language). He knew we were on our honeymoon and made us feel very special and welcome. I almost cried. It was really that sweet.

Our host told us about the trout special in buerre blanc, and we decided to split it. Man was it worth it. I know I said the Argentinian beef was good, but trout in the lake district is a very solid rival.

To go with dinner, we had some Malbec (duh!). It was a 2011 Newen Malbec from Neuquén, which is about 5 hrs from here. Tasty, but I can tell my headache tolerance is low with this one.

To finish dinner, we had some AMAZING ice cream. Argentina apparently has awesome ice cream (helado), and the Italian influence means it is gelato quality stuff, people. So...sorry pants. We won't be getting along.

That, as they say, is that. My sweetie and I are having a fabulous time together and look forward to sharing more stories throughout our trip and when we make it home.

Xo