tonight i had a really good chicken dinner at entre lagos, a small town just 50km from argentina. but let’s start with this morning, or maybe last night. i was having issues with the spot messenger device, and really wanted to get a reading from the end of the panamerican road. by the time i got a confirmation, it was dark and raining. so, i thought i might just sleep in the car at the end of the road….it could also be a good bonding experience. unfortunately, i was woken up three separate times by the cops (3am, 4:30am and 5am) — although they were just looking out for my safety and well-being. so, as soon as the sun rose, i hit the road towards national park chiloe, which was nice, although i prefer some of the other chilean parks i’ve seen (granted i only saw a small fraction of the park). from there, i quickly stopped by the darwin park (yes, he visited chiloe island too) which was very nice, and made me wish i had been there during the week and scheduled a guided tour. i also swung by some of the european inspired churches and houses (swiss/german).

then, a short ride on the ferry, a drop-in at puerto montt (hoping to find paul and his boat, but to no avail) and off to entre lagos. in puerto montt they had a strange (dangerous) three lane road, with cars going in both directions, but identical dotted lines separating the lanes. they also had a funny exhibit showing cartoons discussing male/female inequality. finally, just short of entre lagos, i swung by a car museum with tons of studebakers. i’m not much of a car person (…i know, i know), but one cool thing about all the studebakers is you could see how the same model car evolved over the years. as i neared entre lagos (and the argentinian border), i was greeted with mixed messages: a huge rainbow (like the kind in the lucky charms commercials) and a pretty serious car accident with an overturned oil tanker.

being a sunday and the holiday weekend (independence day), most places were closed for dinner — but i found one place, where i was offered meat, chicken or fish. she then proceeded to make the meal from scratch (it took 30min or so), but it was worth the wait…and a bargain at just $5. tomorrow: a good steak dinner?