Trip to Chile (Part 2)

Well, this second part is certainly overdue! The short version is that I had to start preparing for the arrival of a work team shortly after returning from Chile and then, of course, we were busy hosting the work team. (More about that in one of the next posts!) Wrapping up the trip:
Day #7: We were actually able to sleep in a little! We had a special missions program that night with the congregation in Dalcahue but in the afternoon we were able to make a little excursion to a nearby river. Those who still hadn't purchased souvenirs finally got around to it.
Day #8: We left early in the morning and drove most of the day to Villarica. My brother and his family have recently settled here to tackle the nearby ministry of Camp Lican-Ray. We arrived late in the afternoon but were still able to check out a zip line course and see a little bit of the camp they are renovating.
Day #9: After a wonderful sunrise service (and breakfast!) with the church in Villarica, we continued our journey to Santiago. We left my brother's house well fed and well supplied for the trip. It was a long day and, other than a short stop at a beautiful waterfall on the way, we drove constantly. What should have been the last hour entering Santiago took over three hours because of all the holiday traffic returning to the city. We arrived much later than expected, so after finding some food, we crashed!
Day #10: Again, we left early in the morning and starting crawling up the Andes mountains towards Argentina. The young people spent most of the ride out of the city admiring the cars--compared to Uruguay they seem large and luxurious. We stopped for too many pictures on the way up the mountains. The panorama was just too amazing! We were hungry by the time we stopped at a Super Walmart in Mendoza for a late, late lunch. We got back in the car and drove all night...
Day #11: Well it wasn't that easy to drive through the night! Because of some grievances with the government, the Argentine farmers were blocking all the main roads and we had to find our way through or around six or seven of these "blockades". They were mostly targeting trucks but in a couple of cases we had to take some major detours on terrible back roads...God got us through safely in the end! We were glad to be back in Uruguay by mid-morning. We split up in Paysandu and a few continued on with me to Colonia.
Well...that's the short version!