Friday 20th July

12 hour driving day today from Santiago on good "toll" roads with proper service areas. The scenery gradually changed to a more familiar (English?) landscape - cows, sheep, trees, grass, rolling hills - followed by miles of pine forest as we approached Pucon.

Saturday 21st July

Our planned trip to climb the local volcano was cancelled due to heavy snow making it inaccessible. We had heavy rain in Pucon but being "true Brits" we went walking. However, the instructions weren't very good and we spent 3 hours walking but never reached the waterfall we were aiming for! We made up for it by enjoying an excellent meal and wine. The steaks are good here.

Sunday 22nd July

We set off to cross the border into Argentina on our way to Bariloche. We stopped at the Police checkpoint and put on our snow chains as it was snowing and had been for days. We had a steep and winding ascent ahead of us but unfortunately slid into the ditch after half a kilometre! There the truck stayed for more than 6 hours whilst we froze in the snow. Eventually we were returned to Pucon in a mini-bus for the night and the truck was towed by the snow plough to the border. We had to spend another evening eating and drinking!

Monday 23rd July

Its snowing in Pucon this morning but hopefully improving this afternoon. We are not able to cross the border today but the plan is to set off at 6 am to reach the truck and the border and travel to Bariloche tomorrow. We're hoping to ski there. More wining and dining tonight!