A new country awaits

We have officially crossed a country border in South America for the first time.
Isn't that crazy?

At least, it feels crazy to me.

But let me explain a little more...

We spent a lot of time in El Bolsón, saw many things, and met many people.
The reason why we stayed for so long?

Quite simple.

We liked it here very much! We felt comfortable and why would you leave that behind so quickly?

Saying goodbye to this special place was not easy. I can only speak for myself, but I believe the others felt similarly.

Not least because Savik, a nomad from Buenos Aires who we had grown fond of, accompanied us to the bus and bid us a heartfelt farewell.

The bus ride to Bariloche flew by and soon we were on our way to a new country...

A very impressive bus ride, maybe even the most impressive so far.
The bus climbed higher and higher until it reached a plateau.

Green and vibrant forests constantly competed with dead, lifeless trees for dominance in this place.

The weather had changed for some time.
From beautiful sunshine to a thick fog and dense clouds.

This is how it should look more often in the south of Chile at this time of year...

Well, hopefully not 🙏

We didn't search for long in Puerto Montt for a hostel, let alone the cheapest one.
The first one nearby was once our daily budget, but none of us really felt like searching further.

Puerto Montt itself felt like a huge city with small colorful wooden houses here and there, but the first impression wasn't like:

Wow! Yes! How cool! I want to live here forever and... I don't know, open a sunglasses store.

We ended the rather exhausting day, due to the bus ride, with a great dinner, including dessert.

Mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, and sautéed carrots. Cooked by me 👏

It even tasted good 🙌

At least the faces of the other two didn't look pained.

For dessert, after 3 seemingly endless months, we finally had yogurt again, and it tasted so good it felt like 5 months had passed.

But so far, yogurt was the only thing that was cheaper compared to Argentina.

The food prices were shockingly high.

As if we hadn't been warned enough 😥

Not too bad for others, but for us poor backpackers, it was almost driving us to starvation...