Day 10, back to Chile.

He said: today we return to Chile. We have a private transfer (drive) across the Andes, from Villa La Angostura to the Puerto Montt airport.

We began the day with re-packing our luggage to accommodate 3 bottles of wine such that they could survive tonight's flight. Once that was accomplished - very well, I might add (more on that later), we went down for one last Argentinian café cortado, and then waited outside with our bags just as ash started to fall.

We started getting worried when our transfer was 15 minutes late. I went inside to call the agency. I muddled through poor Spanish and got the front desk guy to call. 20 minutes and 4 phone calls later, we found out that they were almost there. Sure enough, they arrived shortly thereafter, and we went on our way.

They were late because the customs office had closed the border due to poor visibility (blowing & falling ash). They had finally let them through, but now there was some question whether they'd keep the border open long enough for us to get back. We all had crossed fingers - and a back-up plan of a northerly crossing (at least an extra 4 hours).

However, we just made it. The weather held out long enough for us to cross. They were planning to close about 3 hours after we passed though. Close call.

The border customs experience was interesting. They searched every bag. This is apparently quite normal for Chile. Unfortunately, Rachel had wrapped the wine up so well that it took us quite some time to get things visible to the official's satisfaction. Though he asserted that Chilean wine was better. We assured him we will be getting some of that too.

We crossed the border in what looked like the early stages of a blizzard, but all ash. And on curvy mountain roads. With large trucks. I understand why they'd have to close the road on bad days. We also found out that in the winter, snow chains are REQUIRED if you want to take that particular road.

The guide took us to a nice German-style farm, and we had an amazing buffet including the best wild boar I've had. Today's photo was another anti-molestation sign we found at the farm. This time, we weren't allowed to molest the animals.

After that, it was smooth sailing to the airport and onto Santiago. The flight was uneventful, which is probably a good thing.

Our guide in Santiago was great, he got us to the hotel, and Rachel's friend Sebastian was there waiting for us with his girlfriend Juana. We went upstairs, dumped our stuff, freshened up, and went out for dinner, wine and conversation. It was all perfect, though not enough time was available. They're a great couple, and we made honest and sincere promises/plans to visit again, and for them to visit us.

We got back to our room around 3:45am. We have a wine tour tomorrow - pickup at 10:15. Oops. Oh well, we can sleep when we're dead.