What a Drive!

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Wow, having our own vehicle definetly had its advantages. Driving into the mountians from San Martin, we entered a road called the seven lakes road, connecting San Martin to Villa la Angostura. The first half was paved, while the second half was a one track dirt road that sliced through the dense mountain forest. Soaring snow capped peaks rose, while aquamarine rivers and tributaries cascaded there way towards the lakes surrounding La Angostura. The mountain lupins were in full bloom and flowers could be seen in the alpine meadows above. Quite simply a spectacular drive that would have been missed had it not been for our trusty truck.

Villa La Angostura turned out to be a lovely mountain village situate on a giant lake. We soon found a great Hosteria with a firm bed and bathroom, nice break from the camping and settled in for the night with a great pizza delivered straight to our door, now that´s travelling.

Awoke the next morning and made our way to the lake where a boat awaited us to taker us to the tip of a peninsula that formed the National Park Arraynes (sp). This park is home to a vast grove of Arraynes trees, similar to our own Arbutus trees. Supposedly this forest was the inspiration for the forest in Disney´s BAMBI movie, definetly a trend in the past couple days... I will have to eat more deer tonight. The boat ride allowed for magnificent views of the surrounding peaks an provided to transportation to a trailhead that would meander back through the forest to the town, some 13 km in length. Great to finally stretch our legs and get the blood pumping again, as the previous couple of weeks had been filled with Christmas binging on food and drink. The air was cool and the sky clear, making for a wonderful day of waling through this forest. We were even lucky enough to see a Magallenic Woodpecker, the real Woordy woodpecker with his brilliant red head. I watched this special bird work for nearly 15 minutes, drumming his head against the rough bark of the trees. Great to see such a hard working bird, in a land where work is characterized with, tranquillo and slow down.
Finshed the day with some col beers and warm empanadas and plans of heading even further south into Patagonia.

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Comments

[mormor]

I just finished reading your last entries Jason sound like you all have a great holiday Happy Birthsday Annette nice pictures of you and Scott. and the seneries are out of this world. thanks for letting us read about all this. love Mom and Mormor.

[Todd]

awesome
The weather looks great down there lidster! Wish I could say the same for us. Miss you buddy and wish I was there with you. Wilson.