In our own Amazing Race

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We did our first self-drive road trip in Bariloche!

There are many lakes and mountains in this region and one of the must-do thing is the Seven Lake route. We could either join a tour or rent a car to drive around the lakes on our own. After hearing from other travellers, the second choice seem more attractive. It cost around the same and we could stop wherever we want to take photos, just that it´s left hand drive and all the cars are manual here. Anyways, we (or shld I say CJ) has decided the take the challenge to drive and prepared sandwiches, cookies and tibtits to picnic along the way.

The beginning of the route were mostly paved roads. However, after 1 hr or so, it started to drizzle and the clouds were covering the mountains. Hoping that the weather will be better, we stopped by a nice little town, Villa de Agostura to have lunch and before continuing our way to San Martins de Los Andes, which was our destination. However, to our little disappointment, the weather wasn´t very kind to us and started to rain even heavier especially when we hit the dirt road. It was really beautiful outside but we didn´t have any chance to stop to take pictures cos the rain and wind were quite daunting. Even when we reached San Martin de Los Andes, the only time we got out of the car was to go toilet. We also needed to U-turn back soon cos it was already 4pm and hope to get back before it turns dark.

On the way back, we couldn´t resist the temptation to stop by a beautiful lake to take picture in the strong wind and rain. It was really comical when we took turns to pose for the camera, one to be the photographer and one to hold on to the umbrella to shelter the photographer (plus preventing the umbrella to flip the other way), everything happening as fast as possible cos it´s freezing cold. Though we couldn´t stop much to take photos, I still tried to capture as many scenes as I can from the windows until we came to the part when we started going up and down and making turns on some hair-pin thin sharp bends on the rocky mountain roads. Was nerve-wrecking at parts where the edge drops down to the cliff and when we couldn´t see oncoming vehicles. After holding our breath for the last 20km on the dirt road, we finally came to the smooth paved road again.

The last part was rather smooth sailing, other than the heavy rain and constantly being blinded by high beam of other cars. We reached Bariloche at 9pm, finally completing our first road trip. It reminded me of one of the episode in The Amazing Race where they drove in the Andes mountain. Never could I imagine that I will do something like that 😊

After all the excitement, we celebrated our first anniversary of our Team SA adventure with a sumptuous spread of cheese fondue and chocolate cake. May the rest of our adventure be a smooth one.

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Photos

Ping An Fu
Wee2, esp for u :)