After a particularly good sleep, we were off in the morning for Volcán Lanin. The Lanin volcano straddles the Chilean and Argentine border. (I was a bit worried we'd "slip" into Argentina, as I didn't have my passport with me; we didn't.) I got a first-hand look at the old axiom, "be sure to enjoy the journey...." I was fascinated by the thought of seeing the highest volcano in the south of Chile (3,747 m. or 12,175 ft.), but I quickly learned that there was equal beauty on the "Road to Lanin." I got as many "Kodak" moments on the trip as I did at the destination. It was pretty hazy as we started the journey upward on a very rough gravel road. Being the intrepid photographers we are, Raul and I made the best of it with compensating aperture twisting and shutter-speed tweeking. Unfortunately, you can't change nature and haze is haze -- so we learned to live with it.

On this journey I was introduced to a new friend, a conifer indigenous to the south of Chile, the araucaria. This evergreen is plentiful in the area, but I am told attempts to transplant it to other areas of Chile have been fruitless. So, all you araucaria-philes will just have to travel to this wonderful region to "hang" with the araucarias, or you can find them in the pictures below and enjoy those I made friends with.

On the journey back from Lanin, we stopped at Lanin's volcanic lagoon. Teeming with wildlife, it was another spot of serenity at the base of an active volcano. Interesting how peace and danger co-exist so well in nature.