After a false start trying to buy petrol - harder than you think, and checking a couple of things out with the car hire man at the airport we headed out on the celebrated Seven Lakes Drive, which the guidebook describes as 'magical'. First of all we had been assured that a quarter of a tank of petrol was more than enough to get us to the next town, and that the queues we had seen at petrol stations were normal. We had an anxious drive through stunning scenery while watching the petrol guage move onto red. When we pulled up at the station we were told there was no petrol, and had to crawl up the road to the next one, driving on fumes, and sit in the queue there. We filled up, grabbed coffee and hit the road again, but by this time the Wix effect had struck and the weather was looking less than great... The views ain't so great through buckets of rain and marble-sized hailstones. We ate our sandwiches in the car looking at the non- view through windscreen wipers! On the way back we decided to take the 'short' route as so much of the drive had been on ripio, literally gravel roads.This took us through the Valle Encantado and Parque Nacional Lanin. We didn't know what to expect here but it was stunning, a totally different landscape, really beautiful and much more arid. The ripio became more and more challenging, with hairpin bends, steep drops and pooled water of unknown depths, all adding to the adventure. Thanks Kerry's mum and dad for teaching her to auto-grass race as a kid, it paid off! A fantastic drive deserving of dos cervezas!