Before we retell today's story, it has occurred to me that I left out a scary story from yesterday morning. I also want to show you on a map our route so far. So, this first post will cover these 2 things.

The Scary Story. When we first rented our fabulous Hyundai Accent in Temuco and the agent asked me for my driver's license, he kindly pointed out that my license had expired on my birthday (2/22/2012). Ruh-oh. "No problema", the agent said. Well, ok. I just hope I don't get stopped by one of the Chilean Carabinieri. Well, yesterday, my worst fear materialized on the way from Villarica to Valdivia. Less than a km after I drove onto Ruta Cinco (the big superhighway that travels the length of Chile), we spotted a Carabinieri pointing his radar gun at us and then the dreaded wave of his hand. "Oh shit. I'm sure I was under the speed limit", I exclaimed as I pulled the car to a stop.

"Documentacion, por favor", I believe he said as sweat poured out of every pore. Barbara asked with her best smile," Hay un problema?" "No,senora. Solimente - documentacion."

I recalled I had put the First Rent A Car stuff in my bag in the back seat. I got out and found it and handed it to the guy. "No, he said," la otra blah blah blah". All my feeble Spanish drained completely from my brain. We finally figured out there might be something in the glove compartment and sure enough, there was the sought after id card.

Finally, the actually very polite and refined Polizei explained to Barbara that the problem was not speeding as I had feared, but that we were driving without our headlights on. Even though it was about 11 AM, the Chilean law requires headlights on highways like Ruta Cinco. He just gave us a warning and off we went, shaken a bit but undeterred. Sure beats Norway, where we got a whopping speeding ticket which we have not paid to this day (please keep this secret from Interpol!)