16th to 21st January 2011
Touring the Lakes District of Argentina it’s not surprising that we have passed by so many lakes, rivers & creeks in another rental car. We have driven from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes along the 7-lakes route (we think that there’s actually more than 7 lakes along the way – can't remember all the names though). Route 64 took us via Villa Meliquina (on the shores of Lake Meliquina) where we briefly stopped for a short walk and snack before taking route 63 to the end (a dead-end) and back as a side trip to see Lago Filo-Hua-Hum. Later we drove over the Cordoba Pass that has an incredibly scenic landscape.
The roads were all gravel, sometimes very windy, corrugated and narrow (at times we were glad we didn’t meet too many cars travelling the opposite direction). A speed of less than 40km/hour was often all we could do. Parts of the landscape along route 64 and over the Cordoba Pass reminded Roy of Utah in the US.
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| Cordoba Pass |
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| A wooden tree trunk kids slide with nailed in planks! |
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| Interesting Small insects on Calefate berries (click to zoom) |
At the end of route 64 we turned onto route 40 for a very brief moment only, before turning onto route 65 that took us to our destination for the day - Villa Traful (on the shores of Lago Traful). Without any accommodation booked we really weren’t sure if we would be staying there for the night but the first place we asked fortunately had one room available for only one night (just what we needed).
A walk around the area and to the lake followed by dinner in a café was the extent of our stopover in Villa Traful – it is a very small village mainly set up for fly fishing and camping but great scenery worth seeing. We needed to leave early the next morning because our rental car had to be returned in Bariloche by 9.00am – and we had a 1½ to 2 hour drive ahead of us. We backtracked along route 65, travelled along route 40 and arrived in Bariloche at the car rental place at 8.55am – good timing.
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| Lago Traful |
Many would know that we had a “wishing well” at our wedding in place of physical gifts. Out of the many generous contributions, we decided to use some of it for a stay at Galileo Boutique Hotel just outside of the city of Bariloche in Cerro Catedral. What a find! Their website showed images of a little bit of luxury – we thought this would be rather nice leading up to the end of our travels. Although we didn’t truly know what to expect once we arrived but we were extremely pleased with our selection for the 3 nights we stayed. We arrived mid-morning and they allowed us to check-in immediately and we got an upgrade from a standard room to a 1-bedroom suite; fully equipped with a kitchen, lounge and large bathroom with a Jacuzzi. Did we want to leave? Not really, but we did stay here for the sightseeing, not just the room.
The hotel also has an observatory dome tower with a Celestron telescope - Roy was quite impressed and although we didn’t have the full opportunity to have chat with the resident astronomer we did get to go up to the dome to take a quick look at the telescope – a chance for Roy to spot a nebular cloud around a star.
The first time we stayed in Bariloche we booked on an afternoon boat tour to Isla Victoria & Bosque del Arraynes – it’s one that needs to be booked at least a week in advance… pity we can’t order the weather a week in advance too. The day we took this trip it was bucketing down rain and cold. At the start of the tour we discovered that the booking agent booked us on the Spanish only spoken trip, not the English guided tour that departs each morning. On this wet & miserable day we figured taking a boat across the lake to a forest & an island couldn’t possibly be too bad… information in Spanish (that we couldn’t understand); boat windows that were fogging up on the inside & out (that we couldn’t see anything); raining outside (getting drenched). Alas, we arrive at Bosque del Arraynes and the rain stops for the afternoon.
Now, Bosque del Arraynes is the place that we’d previously cycled, during our stay in Villa La Angostura – after all, it’s only 1½ or so drive from Bariloche, so across the lake it’s even closer. On this visit though we took the boardwalk circuit to see the trees that the name of the forest is named after… “Arraynes”. If you are interested you may like to look at this web page to tell you a little about this species of tree that is in the myrtaceae family... http://www.bosquelosarrayanes.com.ar/bosquelosarrayanes_eng.php
Isla Victoria was another chance to take a couple of walks around. During the 1½ hour stopover we took in the sights of the island – we didn't understand any of the spanish written signs but the island but we did see lots of plantation trees and later found out that there is a garden centre that supplies Patagonia with seedlings for afforestation programs to increase the number of threatened species in the regions forests. We also saw some rock art reminding us of Australian Aboriginal rock art – again not sure what it all represented but we’ll find out in good time.
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Cerro Catedral (where Galileo Hotel is located) is said to be the largest ski village in the southern hemisphere. Neither of us is an expert on ski villages but this one was rather large – we read somewhere that there is something like 40 chairlifts that operate during the winter… 3 are open in the summer taking sightseers (including us) and mad crazy mountain bikers up the mountain. Taking the chairlift down we watched some of the mountain bikers get their adrenalin rush down the dangerously steep and rough terrain (well above Coreena’s level of skill and more than what Roy prefers). The views were fantastic too but it was cold… a day for the winter weather gear again.
The next day, the sun was shining and the clouds cleared for a bright day out. Having another rental car for the day we were able to take a drive around the “Circuito Chico” or “Small Circuit” – a tourist drive.
Lots of stops along the way, a mountain cemetery, beaches (of lakes), rivers & cascades, dinosaurs (OK, it was fake) and another chairlift ride to the top of Cerro Campanario for 360 degree views around the Bariloche’s mountains & lakes. Lots of holidaymakers still around, fly-fishers everywhere (a common hobby for Argentineans, young & old).
Leaving Bariloche, we flew to Buenos Aires… back to the big city! Our 2nd time here – we’ve visited Buenos Aires back in November – seems like so long ago, but feels just like yesterday. Not a stop for all the sightseeing, we did that before… just one night stay before flying to Iguazu in the North of Argentina – that blog to follow soon.