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Published: January 21st 2010
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In my last report, we were in Pucon Chile. The journey following from there, was one of the best journeys we have had until now!
We first drove shortly from Pucon to cross the border to Argentina. Though it was already the 3rd time we crossed the border between these 2 countries, we were excited yet afraid as it was the first time we were about to cross with the car we just rented, and we hoped there will be no problems with the paper work - this is not Europe, and so crossing borders with a car requires special permit, power of attorney etc. We indeed had a small problem, regarding the car insurance, but somehow, the clerk in the Argentinian border found what he was looking for in our papers, and we got the approval to drive into Argentina.
The border crossing, is actually happening inside a natural reserve, that stretches on both sides of the border. This is the positive side of the drive, as it is very beautiful and with woods along the road. However, the downside is that this is a gravel road and not well paved road - but this was just the first
of many gravel roads to come...
Luckily, the gravel, did not last for too long. After few hours we arrived at
San Martin De Los Andes. It is a beautiful Alpine looking town, with many wooden houses, nice streets with trees and flowers, and a lot of facilities for tourists - restaurants, bars, hotels and accommodation. We have spent the night in a pleasant camping, fairly alone (there was only 1 more tent with two bike riders) - and had a very good BBQ for dinner.
San Martin De Los Andes, is the starting point for a famous drive called
“The 7 lakes drive”, and indeed it is so - Along a fairly short stretch of road (about 200km), there are at least 7 lakes - half of which are in the size of the “Sea of Galilee” or bigger... but it is not only the lakes, the whole scenery around is amazingly gorgeous - the road (or gravel in major parts) passes along crystal blue lakes, mountains topped with snow, rivers and waterfalls. One could obviously drive this in 1 day (as most people do). We took the time and made our way slowly, stopping in many
places for taking pictures, having lunch, snack, trying to bath in the freezing cold water or just relaxing - and so we spent slightly more than 2 beautiful days along this road, stopping for camping along the way. The first night we spent in a free campsite right on the shore of
lake Traful, right on the corner of a stream entering the lake, so we were surrounded by water from 2 fronts... For the second night we spent in a basic but organized campground right on the shore of
lake Nahual Huapi, so again we enjoyed the pleasure of going to sleep with a beautiful lake and snowy mountains in the background and woke up with this beautiful scenery the next morning.
At the end of these 2 beautiful days we arrived in
Bariloche - a very popular touristic town set on the shore of lake Nahual Huapi. Nitzan has already prepared her entry about Bariloche - so you will not have to wait long to get it as well.
Adios y Hasta Pronto,
Lilach As always, I am including in this entry only a glimpse to the photos we took. If you want to
view the full gallery, you can hit the following links:
San Martin De Los Andes photos
7 lakes drive gallery
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