Bariloche

South America » Argentina » Río Negro » San Carlos de Bariloche
March 21st 2007

Published: March 21st 2007

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Nick_Kerry

Kerry Chair Lift

Bariloche, Argentina

Bariloche is a great place. ItÂ´s a combination of a Swiss ski resort and typical South America. There were chocolate shops everywhere with the obligatory chocolate fountain. (Hard for Kerry to leave.)

We did the Nahuel Haupi Traverse above Bariloche. This is probably the hardest trek we have done due to the constant climbing and decending over rough rocky and scree terrain.

Osorno, Chile

Next on the agenda was a trek called BaÃ±oÂ´s del caulle. This is a three day trek to hot springs on the side of Volcan Puyehue. Our luck with the weather finally ran out and it rained on and off for three days. Looking on the bright side it washed the dust of the tent (who would have thought in Patagonia?) and this trek had other stuff of interest rather than just the views. At some stages it was so foggy we had to leave one of us at a marker and try and find the next marker on the pumice lunar terrain. We climbed Volcan Puyehue to look into the glacier filled crater.

Pucon, Chile

We went to Pucon next to climb Volcan Villarica, which is ChileÂ´s most

Condor

Condor over Bariloche

climbed volcano . We were forced to take a guided tour to climb to the summit. The first attempt was cancelled due to bad weather, but we climbed the next day. Unfortunately the clouds came in when we got close to the summit so visability was very limited. It was still good fun to look into an active volcano though.

Copahue, Argentina

After yet another border crossing back into Argentina, we got off the beaten track a bit and went to Copahue, a spa town with a resort built around the hot water pools. We hiked up to Laguna Termal, a steaming volcanic lake on Volcan Copahue. The Lake is about 38-40 degrees and melts a glacier to feed itself. We got to the lake edge but could only stay long enough to take photoÂ´s because of the sulfurous gases.

We decided to have a thermal bath after the trek to the Laguna. After entering the resort we found out we needed a medical and a prescription before getting into the baths! We managed to get away with just a blood pressure check by the nurse.

Mendoza, Argentina

We decided to go on a tour to the

Nahuel Haupi

Nahuel Haupi Traverse trek, Bariloche

mountains as this was the easiest way to see the surrounding area. Mendoza is AgentinaÂ´s biggest wine producing area so we did an obligatory wine tour.
We then headed towards Bolivia via Salta, Argentina.

Additional photos below

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