Gateway To Patagonia and More Snow Capped Mountains

I finally broke down and bought a map of Chile/Argentina.  On the map was a picture of a huge waterfall with a line pointing to Laguna del Laja National Park, that was on our way to PUCON, so we headed south through the central valley of Chile. Central Chile is a beautiful fertile valley with all things agricultural, from fruits and vegetables to meat, dairy and even trees as a crop.  We toured the park then made our way to Pucon, Chile...Gateway to Patagonia.  From there we crossed back into Argentina and headed south on Ruta 40 also known in this area as the 7 Lakes Drive,past scenic vistas of lakes and snow capped mountains, into Argentinas Patagonia region. Eventually we turned west and crossed back into Chile and jumped on the Carretera Austral or otherwise known as The Pinochet Highway through the Patagonia region of Chile.  This story ends on Thanksgiving day at a nice hotel/restaurant in front of the fireplace with a glass of wine in hand.  No turkey to be found but Judy had a giant slab of fresh salmon with grilled vegetables and I had roast beef and sautéed potatoes with salad.  Hope you all had fun watching the Cowboys win, I did, in spanish.

A little lakeside pit stop, found another tire in Santiago although they only had a wide white wall.  That ought to look special on there.

      Spring time in the southern hemisphere, another dirt road. 

Finally after twenty miles of rocky road we made it to the park.  Turns out, the map was wrong, the falls are at a different park.  

      So they loaded up the bike and moved to Beverly. Hills that is...  There's a bike under there somewhere.

What turned out to be a good thing about the map being wrong was this section of the park known as the Valley of the moon.  A road cut through the lava field that was very cool to ride through.

After we left the park heading toward Pucon, we came across this bus stop.

     The volcano that dominates the scene from the streets of Pucon.  One of the ten most active volcanos on the planet.

We got settled in, then took a walk around town and met this man, Jaime, who offered us a boat ride on the lake.  Why not?

                                           Yeah, we're cheezin'!

                      Chrissi, here's Woody

Above, inside our hostel in Valle de Anfogasta, below view outside the window.

                                         Any guesses?

     

     We arrived in Bariloche, Argentina but were not impressed with the place so we topped for lunch then moved on.  On the way out of town we saw this place and stopped for a quick ride.

 

        Chrissi, where are you?

         Scenes from the top, on the other side of the mountain.

         Turned over 20,000 miles on this ride since April 1

                   How about that left turn lane!

Travelin, Argentina is a Welsh community.  Apparently, this mill was built using the same architectural style as over in Wales.

   The house that the current owners live in.

the milling machines below are all belt driven by the waterwheel

I saw a tv show about grinding stones once that said the stone manufacturer puts their own design in the stone so you can identify who made it

Above, view from inside the mill, below from behind the mill

Down the road was a small park with these three waterfalls

       This water was at least ten feet deep.  Yes that is the actual color.

         Same with this water.   The blue and green is almost breathtaking in real life.

      The famous Carreterra Austral, or Pinochet Highway.  Several hundred miles of dirt.

That whitewall doesnt look too bad, better than a bald tire.

                          Well, how about that?! In Chile.

                          Happy Thanksgiving everyone.