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Published: January 21st 2009
(Written by Mark)
We met up with my cousin Adam and his friend Jay, and after a fun night in Bariloche, headed out in our rented Chevy Corsa sedan for a trip on the Ruta 7 Lakes, a mountain road connecting San Martin de los Andes and San Carlos de Bariloche through 2 connected Parques Nacionales - Lanin and Nahuel Huapi.
This was our first rented car trip in the area, and it was only the second time the two city slickers from NYC had been camping. Adventure was in the cards as we selected a remote lake and hot spring for our first night's destination, Lago Queñi and the associated Termas de Queñi. The road to the lake was hard to find. After driving the long way around to avoid a 4 wheel drive
ripio road, we followed a dirt road that took us all the way to the Chilean border. At that point we headed south, on a road that we were advised was passable but quickly gave us doubts. This four-wheel road took us into creeks and among potholes and logs - all of which my Pathfinder would have found mildly amusing, but the Chevy Corsa
Crossing the Rio Queni
Colder than in the car!(Carrie), took to much less elegantly. None of which affected Kati, who cackled madly as the car scraped and saddled its way 12 km to the lake.
At the lake, the final passage to the campsite required fording a river that had only recently gobbled up a Volkswagon Gol. As the light faded with our options, we pulled into the unmanned
Guardaparque station and camped out on the shore of the lake under a sky filled with stars in-between stars. We admired the view of the Southern Cross and camped out.
The signs on the road all read
mal estado- bad state - to describe the road, the passage, and finally the trail itself. A sign advised that a bridge was out - which we assumed was across the river to the start of the hike. We were wrong. 40 minutes into our hike we came across a local
campesino, or
gaucho - with two oxen and a bridge that had been collapsed by several downed trees. We carefully crossed the dilapidated structure and made our way to the
Aguas Termales - a hot spring with several small pools and a waterfall deep in the bush near the
south end of the lake.
On our way back, we found the gaucho had made short work of the fallen foliage and was using the oxen to haul dead logs across the gap and create a new bridge!
We headed through the quaint town of San Martin and started the Ruta 7 Lakes - camping alongside picturesque Lago Falkner - at which point Carrie finally blew a tire (probably out of exhaustion). We decided to postpone the tire and take a boat ride around the lake with the campsite owner. The tire changed, the cosmetic front plate in two pieces - we finished the route with other lakes, swims, pictures and another small town Villa La Angostura, before taking the significantly more experienced Adam and Jay back to Bariloche for a night of
bife de lomo at our favorite local parilla - El Boliche de Alberto!
But as Adam is a great writer - check out his work for MSNBC - I'll let his words summarize:
"Every so often, something pleasantly surprises you. You never imagined it was capable of accomplishing such things-- you never dreamed it could survive such difficult travails. And once it does,
Waterfall
hot shower you never
look at it the same way again.
I'm talking about the Chevy Corsa."
After saying goodbye to Adam and Jay, we rendez-voued for New Years with none other than Neal and Laura, who shared our lovely lake side cabaña before we parted ways - buen viaje!
The new year brought us to our new apartment in Bariloche, but also some bad news - my dad is sick. He's doing ok, but we are headed to NYC at the end of January and suspending the trip to attend to our family. Don't worry, we have much left to blog over!
Salud a mi padre y todos!
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Katie
non-member comment
Salud!
Salud to Mark's dad!