We wanted to back up a little and give you some idea of our route.
From Mendoza we headed south on the famous Ruta 40. Ruta 40 runs the length of the country along it’s western border following the toes of the Andes and some pretty remote areas. They are only now getting around to paving these last stretches. Currently most of it is paved, but there are several 100 mile plus stretches that are still bumpy, washboarded gravel road.
Similar to Mendoza, initially the countryside was a patchwork of green lush irrigated fields of fruits and tan, dry scrublands. As we continued to head south the irrigated fields gradually all but disappeared. All the rivers continued to be dry, until we eventually reached the occasional full mountain fed stream. The towering Andes ever present on our right side.
Our guide book had little information about this area of the country so we depended mostly on our maps and the app we used to find campsites, iOverlander. We decided to take a side trip up to the Parque Provincial Copahue. A geothermal area tucked up in the Andes and shadowed by an actively erupting volcano. The area has beautiful lakes and some good hikes through entire forests of the classic Patagonian Monkey Puzzle tree. The drive up was pretty incredible. You start out in the normal scrubland and head west into the mountains. The land gradually became greener and greener and steeper and steeper. Part of the drive is up through a classic U shaped glacial valley with small shepherds huts scattering the green rocky hill sides. This side trip was an awesome escape from the dry scrubland.
As you approach the Lakes District there is a pretty incredible change. The area is known for it’s green forested slopes, tall snow capped mountains, and absurdly clean, blue lakes and streams. The water is so fresh that when you wash the soap doesn’t seem to ever rinse off. We spoiled ourselves and got an Airbnb cabana near San Martin de Los Andes to celebrate Thanksgiving. We stayed 3 nights and, after moving so much over the previous month, we didn’t leave the property the entire time. The owners must have though that we were a little strange.
From there we spent the next week or so exploring the lakes district. We started out by heading out to a hot springs called “Termas de Queni”. A great place at the end of a 4 km hike; then took our time wandering back to civilization. We did another hike, only this one was a bit crazy. We climbed to near the top of Cerro Falkner (Cerro = Mount). This was a climb of about 4000 feet over about 4 miles. The sign said it was a medium difficulty hike, but we decided that when the trail goes straight up instead doing switchbacks, for a far distance it should be called difficult. This hike was hard on us, but helped to get us in to the pretty good hiking shape that we are in today.
Bariloche is near the end of what most folks would call the Lakes District. I had agreed to do some work for a few days. So, we found a Hostel with decent internet and stayed for 4 days. We “camped” in the back yard and used all the “luxuries” of the hostel (wifi, toilets and hot showers). Staying in one place for a while allowed us to get to know the hostel staff and a few of the other folks at the hostel. Particularly, these two Argentinian guys that were in town working. They welcomed us in and made it their mission to show us how good the food could be in Argentina (and practice our Spanish as they didn’t speak any English). The last night we were there they prepared cordero (lamb). We literally bought an entire side of lamb (along with several bottles of wine) at the local supermarket. They promptly hacked it in two and cooked it up in the hostel oven. Nelson is a pretty hilarious guy he reminds me of an Argentinian Ricky Gervais, and was constantly cracking jokes. Making friends like this was a wonderful experience. In the end it’s not the mountains that remember best, it is the people we meet and the experience we have.
From Bariloche we headed south through several more beautiful park areas. They seemed under appreciated in the shadow of the Lakes District proper, but were full of beautiful lakes and mountains.
Up next we crossed over to Chile and the Carratera Austral.
We left Mendoza on November 18, 2017 and crossed into Argentina on December 11, 2016.
Gorgeous pictures!!!
Wonderful pictures, and narrative, too. (And isn’t the digital era wonderful? No worry about film.) 🙂
Todd and Alex,
It is so nice to read all your adventures and looking at the pics here, thanks for sharing and showing us the good part of the world. Enjoy every second of it 🙂 We miss you guys a lot.
xoxo
Gulcin