Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, Barilloche & San Martin and Junin de los Andes

---

I went to Bariloche without a lot of expectations: from all that i heard from fellow travellers and from the readings of my travel guide, i derived that it was probably the most touristy spot in Argentina. And upon arriving, i did indeed not find a lot outside of chocolate-, artesanal- and souvenir shops. As a town, Bariloche does not have a lot to offer. My first plan was to move straight on, to Parque Nacional Lanín, but i decided to go talk to the guardaparques of Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi -closer to Bariloche- anyway.
And of course, i got convinced into trekking the park, especially because autumn offers pretty much no tourists, and more spectacular views. From Bariloche, there are two main multiple day treks. One leads you up from Lago Guttierez into the surrounding mountains, the other one goes from Colonia Suiza to Laguna Negra, from where you can continue to Cerro Lopez and get down again. As the second one was according to the park guard a lot more scenic, i figured i wanted to do that circuit in reverse (more difficult), cross to the second circuit via a trail only accessible by guide (according to the guardaparque not 'impossible impossible, but not really a good idea either), and get down after that, taking in the best of the two circuits.
In Bariloche, i was very happy to encounter Emi and Nicolas again. We had beers at the lake, and arranged to meet at night, which didn't work out. I ended up having a tasty pizza and going back to my shabby hostel Mantra, which sported an unnecessary high price - because of easter (the place was empty)-, unclear communication, and a fellow dorm companion who worked into town and didn't have an alarm clock and therefor woke up every half hour.
After taking a bus to the base of Cerro Lopez next day, i took the easy trail up to the first refugio, from where my real stop was alledgedly 'well marked and easy'. I ended up climbing a rock wall, getting lost beacuse none of the signs went the way i wanted to go. Following that, i climbed another wall without a lot of hope, eventually finding a sign at 2000 meters of altitude, saying 'Laguna Negra'. After sliding down avalanche-debris on a +60% slope, climbing up another one, nearly breaking my legs on a boulder field and surfing down more avalanche dirt again, i ended up at Laguna Negra. A good talk with the guide that lived there got me out of the plan of tackling the officially closed road: apparently there was a 15 meter vertical descent involved, something i wouldn't want to do without a rope and with a backpack.
The next day, i walked the 15kms down the valley in less than 3 hours to be able to take the bus back into town, so i could get to San Martin de los Andes the same day. After a nice avocado with cheese on bread lunch, i got on a collectivo (Albus company) taking the nicest road to the aforementioned town - the Ruta de los 7 lagos, i slept through most of it. In San Martin, it took a long time to get to a camping, but in the end i found myself in front of a campfire, enjoying a mozzarella salad and talking with a fellow camper annex construction worker, who enjoyed that the prostitutes in the south were cheaper then in Buenos Aires.
The next day, i went to the guardaparque office to get some information on trekking Parque Nacional Lanin. Alas, all of the multiple day treks were closed because of recent fires, so the only thing i could do was to go to Junin, from where two connections a week existed to the park, where only day hikes where possible. I did go to Junin, but upon getting there, i figured it would be nicer and more efficient to start making my way to Buenos Aires again. So, after exploring the cheesy Christian theme park (linking the story of Jesus with the genocide of the indigenous people and funnily forgetting the role religion played there) and the pretty river banks, and enjoying the nicer autumn look of this town, i took a bus to Bahia Blanca on the Atlantic coast.

---