Today we want to pass the Mamuil Malal pass, 40km from here, to reach Chile. Once on the other side, we hope to quickly find a place to camp. We are both tired, we'll have a resting day tomorrow in Curarrehue, where we'll celebrate the new year.
The weather this morning is beautiful as expected: a beautiful sun and a good headwind as we like. The road to the pass is paved until the last 10 kilometers, where the road becomes dirt road at the entrance of Lanin National Park, named by the nearby volcano. The road is not very steep and we progress slowly but surely. Despite the wind, we have much the mood is much higher than yesterday, 40km in a day is not too ambitious, even with this wind. The national park entrance is made of a forest of Araucancias, these funny conifers are very specific. We move very slowly during the last kilometers because of the dirt road, the steep hills and the wind. The landscape is more desert than it was lower.
We're surprised that many cars are queuing to pass the Argentine border post. The guard of the door begins by asking us to stand in line, before changing her mind and telling us to pass. We just won a lot of time.
The border crossing Chilean side is very long: they ask us a lot of unusual questions, do a lot of paperwork and search our bags with more zeal than previous times. But we become good at hiding food that is forbidden to take to Chile like cheese or fruits and vegetables; they find nothing of what we hided.
In short, here we are in Chile in the middle of a landscape, as usual, much greener than the other side of the Andes in Argentina. The road is well paved and we descend quickly. In the middle of our descent we reach 3000km from the beginning with the famous selfie. We search in vain for a sleeping area: barbed wire borders the road on both sides and campsites on the road are priceless. We must reach Curarrehue tonight and not tomorrow morning as we intended. We arrive late at Curarrehue and take a bed and breakfast at an old couple's house.
The next day we spend the morning in the public square from where we catch a correct wifi. We settle in a hostel in the early afternoon. Tonight we'll be in 2018.
