Bariloche, Argentina !!

The 6 of us (Tío Claudio, Tía Lore, Seba, Cony, Cata, and I) set off eastward from Pucón, Chile at about 12h, and after a couple hours of windy dirt roads up and down mountains we reached the Chile-Argentina border. We got lucky that there weren't too many people there waiting to cross, so it went pretty quickly. 

I have dual citizenship, and when I entered Chile 2 months ago I decided to use my American passport (for no special reason other than the fact that I wanted to continue collecting my visa stamps in the one that already has many).

Before setting off on this trip I researched visa requirements, and found that US citizens have to pay $160USD to enter Argentina, and that Germany citizens don't have to pay. BUT that the person needs to be residing in that country as well for it to count. So I figured I'd at least attempt to enter with my German passport...

...and, after some complication and questioning, it worked!! Success!

We got back in the car for another 5+ hours of curves and some incredibleeeee, varied landscapes: majestic, towering, snow-capped  volcanos, sparkling mountain rivers, colorful cliffs, glacial lakes, and ancient "auracaria" trees.

At one point we had to stop for an hour and then turn around and take a different route through the Andes due to a dangerous protest on our route. It was the "Mapuches", the indigenous people of Chile protesting against the government because of some infrastructure laws that prevented them from being able to build on some land near the mountain pass road. By the time we reached the protest it had gotten violent, and they were smashing windows of cars nearby and had lit a truck on fire. It was an unexpected obstacle, but supposedly not uncommon. 

We finally reached the beautiful town of San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, on the edge of a huge glacial lake, Lago Nahuil Huapi, and surrounded by impressive mountains!

We stayed in an apartment close to the center for 4 full days, including Christmas Eve and Day. We went out for some tasty lunches and dinners of cheap and amazingggg Argentinian meats and wines. We ate sooo much chocolate (literally about half the stores in Bariloche are chocolate stores, filled with seemingly unlimited amount of different varieties of mouthwatering Chocolate bars, filled bonbons, and every other chocolate creation imaginable).

 We also spent a day driving through the amazing National Park close by:

Lovely!

On Christmas Eve our (good looking) hotel receptionist asked me if I wanted to party with him and his friends, and to invite Cony and Seba (who later decided to go to the disco instead). It was fun to experience a real night out in Argentina (quite different from Chile), and to spend time with the locals and hear their opinions and prejudices against Chileans and to get a little taste of Argentinian nightlife!