The Seven Lakes and San Martín de Los Andes

Friday morning the alarm goes off before the sun has risen.  Today we have booked a full day tour called 7 Lagos y San Martín de los Andes and we want time for coffee and tea in the apartment to get us started.

The 20 person bus picks us up outside the apartment at 8:15am.  Tour guide Gabi explains that she has reserved the seat behind the driver for us because we are the only English speaking people on the tour and that way she can just lean over and talk with us.

After picking up other passengers on our way out of town we are on the famous Ruta 40 heading north. We are joined by 13 other people all from Argentina - Salta, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Mendoza and Buenos Aires.

Gabi explains that this tour is of the seven lakes and that Lago Nahuel Haupi(the one Bariloche abubts) does not count.  We drive along the lake and it is much larger than I thought - it has extra "fingers" not visible from Bariloche.  Gabi uses the time to provide information about the area.  Tourism is clearly their primary industry and Gabi explains that in 2011 one of the volcano's in Chile erupted and caused the airports to be closed for eight months.  We can still see some of the ash in the landscape.  85 kilometers from Bariloche we pull into the city of Villa La Angostura for a bio-break at a cafe.  It is a cute town also on Lago Nahuel Haupi filled with sweet shops and restaurants.

Leaving Villa La Angostura we begin our tour of the lakes.  Lago Correntoso (Rapid Water Lake) is the first one.  We pile out of the bus for photos.  The ride continues with a stop at Lago Espejo Chico (Little Mirror Lake). The initial landscape is familiar Patagonian steppe, but further into the drive it becomes Patagonian forest.  The parking lot at Lago Espejo (Mirror Lake) is full - we see it on the return.  Lago Falkner is a nice stop along it's sandy beach.  The landscape surrounding these lakes in the National Park is beautiful with green trees and mountains.

Back on the bus we quickly come to Lago Villarino then enter Parque Nacional Lanín.  Lago Hermoso (Beautiful Lake) is the sixth of the lakes on the route.  We only 45km from the border pass to Chile.  The landscape changes to a combination of steppe and trees as we round the mountains and approach Lago Lácar.  The city of San Martín de los Andes sits on it's eastern shore.

We have a nice lunch at a restaurant by the lake then have some free time to explore the small town.  It is easy to find the San Martín central square, we just have to follow Avenida San Martín!  There is a good share of sweet shops, restaurants, clothing and souvenir stores interspersed with trekking, boating and kayaking tourism businesses.

The return trip to Bariloche is faster, with only two stops, one at Lago Espejo and the other in Villa La Angostura.  We don't have a chance to get to know our fellow travelers very much, but there is one gentleman that always seems to be late.  In San Martín de los Andes Gabi and the driver waited 10 minutes for him at our meeting point then started driving through the town to find him.  In Villa La Angostura again he was not on the bus at the appointed time.  Gabi, a 4'8" dynamo, walked around the major streets to spot him and bring him to the bus.  We all clapped when he got onboard.  He seemed only mildly embarrassed.

We are back in our apartment by 7:30pm.  We had considered renting a car and William would drive the route or to pay for a tour. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.   We conclude that the tour was a good option - William did not have to contend with the traffic, had a chance to enjoy the scenery as we drove along, and could nap a bit on the way back.  Also we enjoyed what we learned from Gabi.