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Published: September 15th 2009
Circuito Chico1
Me and Ali on the Route de Siete LagosBy the last week of August we found ourselves in a mini snow drought in Las Lenas. Worse still the temperatures had risen dramatically and the winds were up. Days were being spent getting up early and getting in some fun slush runs and then heading home before the mountain turned into cascading water with terrible dust storms that raged up the valleys.
Still it was pleasant enough to sit out in the sun of an afternoon, sheltered by our house from the worst of the wind and down a few cold cervezas sitting in shorts and t-shirts.
Mijic was starting to get a little antsy though.. it was his second last week and the resort had failed to deliver on the promises made during his first week of powder here.
Meanwhile I had planned a romantic anniversary for me and Ali which would involve climbing a couple of mountains together, getting in some nice turns and knocking off a bottle of Chandon at the summits...
These plans were dashed unfortunately by the wind storms escalating to the point where we couldn't really walk outside without getting blown over. The wind was becoming like an annoying guest
Circuito Chico2
Ali relaxing with a chori-pan half way through our ride that had outstayed its welcome and its physical presense was irritating the hell out of me. Unable to take it any more I grabbed Ali and told her we were skipping town. We threw a change of clothes in our bag and caught the next bus out of town.
Once in San Rafael we checked bus time tables and found that for a paltry150pesos we could be on the 11pm bus direct to Bariloche and wake up the next day in the Patagonian lakes district. We spent the afternoon in San Rafael sampling vinos and champagnes until the time came for the bus... unfortunately the temperature on the bus was set to inferno... getting on dressed for the outdoor temperatures (which were still in the single digits) we were assaulted by the heaters blaring and 30 degree heat combined with a bus full of sweating bodies.... combined with particularly dry mouths from the afternoon of wine made for a very unpleasant journey. Added to the mix was the fact that we had separated seats due to a capacity bus and we both seemed to be sitting next to the largest people in Argentina. The guy I was sitting next
Circuito Chico3
Ali rounding another picturesque bend to looked like he would have played front row and as soon as he heard my Australian accent he confirmed that yes - he had played for the junior Pumas - which was scant compensation for the fact that his shoulders were about 1.5 times the width of the seat.
Eventually, parched and sweating Alison finally convinced the driver that people were showing symptoms of dehydration and he turned the heater off!
Finally we nodded off and when we woke up we were greeted by a dramatic change in scenery. The rugged Andean high country had given way first to the flat featureless pampa which in turn morphed into rolling, wooded hills with snow capped peaks and extensive lakes of aquamarine in every direction. With our necks straining in every direction from the bus windows we arrived in the outskirts of Bariloche, perched on the side of a hill overlooking lago Nahuel Huapi. After ringing almost every hostel listed at the tourist information centre we stumbled onto a little bed and breakfast up in the hills and jumped a taxi. Stowing our gear we headed straight into town and it was quickly apparent that Ali was going to
Circuito Chico4
Not a bad place to stop for a picnic be a kid in a toy shop for the remainder of our stay... or perhaps I should say a kid in a chocolate shop. Bariloche is the South American chocolate capital - and as the birthplace of cocoa that is quite a claim to fame. Pretty much every corner in town consisted of Bavarian style architecture containing boutique chocolatiers. They also claimed to have the best ice cream in Argentina (which some would suggest would be best in the world).
A couple of chocolate and ice cream stops later we passed by a store promising freshly baked empanadas in 10 minutes. Grabbing a Malbec and a dozen empanadas we retired for the day, exhausted from the travels but excited for the next days adventures.
Rising late we caught a bus to the outskirts of town and hired some mountain bikes to ride around the 60km Circuito Chico. The route wound through unbelievably green country side (unbelievable after the moonscapes of the high country anyway) with towering Beech forests, shear cliffs and snow capped peaks - and seemingly on all sides a different lake, each more picturesque than the last. I think we spent more time getting on and
Circuito Chico6
The panorama from the main viewpoint on the Circuito Chico looking out over Lao Lao and the Bariloche Lakes District off the bikes to take photos and gaze enraptured at the surrounds than we did on the actual bikes. Its one of those parts of the world where pictures tell a thousand words so I won't waste any more time on it here other than to say that if you are ever in the region make sure you do it!
That night we indulged in a suite of local delicacies... trout, wild boar and Patagonian lamb... certainly the meal of the trip thus far!
Next day we had planned to go skiing up at Cerro Catedral but the summer-like temperatures had extended even as far south as Bariloche, and when it quickly became clear that hiring size 15 ski boots was going to be a frustrating, and perhaps impossible task we decided to head to a new town and caught the bus to San Martin de Los Andes.
San Martin is another extremely picturesque village nestled around a horse shoe bay in Lago Lacar. Its a little posh for my liking.. whereas Bariloche is like an Argentine version of Queenstown with less neon and a laid back feel, San Martin is more like a fancy pants Swiss
gnomin
Alison out shopping in San Martin or Austrian village - think Flims or Lech.
We quickly picked up a hire car and decided to push out of town straight away onto the famous Ruta de Siete Lagos (7 lakes route). Before leaving town in our 2 door hatch we checked in with the tourist information centre to see whether the roads were open yet (usually the road closes in Winter due to snow blockage and road erosion from subsequent melt). The lady asked whether we had 4 wheel drive and I assured her that our car had 4 wheels but that I would not exactly classify a Chevy Corsa as an offroad machine (an error of judgement on my behalf.. we quickly had that baby bonnet-deep in river crossings!). She still seemed to think that the road should be passable - maybe a little slow though...
The drive is only about 100kms long, winding in a big slow anti-clockwise direction, from San Martin towards the Chilean border before cutting south again back towards Bariloche. We had hoped to punch our way through the whole thing in an afternoon but it quickly became clear that the road was not one to be rushed. A combination
7 Lakes Drive
1 of the many lakes we drove around of breathtaking scenery and a goat track for a road meant that it soon became obvious that we would need to break the journey. Flicking through the Lonely Planet we picked a small summer fishing village that we hoped would have something open where we could grab a bite to eat and a bed to sleep in.
Winding down the turnoff to Villa Traful it looked like there was a good chance we would be sleeping in the car. The village consists of a handful of camping spots and a little general store stretched along the shore of the achingly beautiful Lago Traful. Arriving on sunset the lake was surrounded on 3 sides by snow capped mountains backlit by a violet sky. We then lucked into finding a man who rented us a little A-frame cabin nestled up in the forest. It was fantastic - our own little slice of rustic country life... we couldn't have planned it better.
The next morning we went exploring around the shores of the lake... breathtaking vistas stretched in every direction and we slowly worked our way around the lake, sometimes winding off beside mountain streams and sometimes climbing up into the
Lago Hermosa
Lago Hermosa on the Route de Siete Lagos was certainly one of the highlights forested hills.
Soon the Beech forests gave way to steep sided canyons and fast flowing rivers which carved out impossible rock formations which we took every opportunity to climb up and around.
Eventually we emerged from the goat track that we had been driving down and emerged next to this big old hotel overlooking a confluence of 2 rivers with 2 lakes - named aptly Confluencia. Unsure whether it was open or not we smooshed our faces up against the window and were quickly ushered inside by the owner who had coffee brewing and fresh apple pie and cream for us before we had stopped gawking out the 270degree glass windows. A fire was burning in the hearth.. the coffee was nearly as good as the pie and we decided to chill out for a little while.
But all this sitting around was working against my own schedule.. I had a picnic date planned for the afternoon and we had to drive another couple of hunderd K's to get to the spot that I had picked out.
Finally, after a short detour to the supermarket for ham, cheese and champagne we arrived by the shores of
7 Lakes Drive
Looking towards Chile over Lago Lacar - just out of San Martin Lago Villarino. Nestled into the edge of the forest, sitting on some fallen logs and looking out into the afternoon light on the lake and mountains facing us I couldn't imagine a more romantic location. So making sure that Ali had plenty of champagne I popped the big question.
I'll be honest - she left me hanging for a while.. long enough for the knee that I was propped on to get cold and wet anyway, and then, when she finally said yes and let me up we were encircled by a flock of hawkes, swooping and cawing around us in tight arcs before settling in the trees above to watch the rest of the proceedings... now I'm not a suspicious man but I would have thought that birds of prey circling the couple pretty much before the proposal had finished was not an auspicious sign but thankfully Ali seems to think otherwise.
So we returned to San Martin and treated ourselves to a nice hotel and a fancy night out on the town, but before we went out we quickly checked the weather and saw that a big storm was heading to Las Lenas in a day's
Lago Traful
The view from the front of our cabin time, threatening to dump a meter of snow in a 2 day period... now that was surely the only news that could have made the day better!
Next morning we jumped the first bus out of town heading North and 18 hours later we were winding our way back up the Valle de Las Lenas and the storm clouds were already gathering. Carsty and Yossi greated us with balloons and cheese cake to celebrate our engagement - which surprised the hell out of us since the only people we had told was Ali's Mum and Dad in Maryborough - and somehow the news managed to go through the grapevine from Queensland to Argentina in the time it took us to drive up the valley!
So then it was time to wait, watch the snow fall, wax up our boards and plan our lines for when the storm finally cleared!
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Lowri
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Yay! xx
My favourite blog post so far. x