Crossing the Andes via a chain of lakes was one of those items on my must do list. When I was in college, a friend had passed from Chile into Argentina using this passage -- although she was smart enough to do it in the summer.
While there are a series of ferries to cross the lakes, there are times when one must hop on a bus and cross a section of land. I crossed over in September 2011 with 15 fresh inches of snow covering the Andes. It was beautiful! And cold.
Having grown up in the midwest, I was accustomed to snow for 4 - 5 months every year. But I didn't realize that the majority of the people on my bus had never been in snow before. (!!!) So imagine my surprise when the bus stopped to put chains on the tires and the bus emptied in seconds and a huge snowball fight erupted.
See the woman in the tan jacket in the upper right corner of the photo? She must have been in her 70s. But she was a ferocious snowball fighter. That large chunk of snow did not stay in her hands for long. After 10-15 minutes, everyone was back on the bus filling the air with the scent of wet wool and we carried on to the next lake in the chain.
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