November 2006
We almost didn't get started on our trip through Patagonia. We had to take a bus from Tandil a couple hours over to another town, Azul, to take an overnight bus to San Martin de los Andes. The layover was 4 hrs and we didn't realize we were at the wrong bus station until 15 min. before our bus came. Whew! At least we had dogs to keep us company.
This was a short hike (4hrs) up to an overlook near San Martin de los Andes. We met a guy at the top who took our picture and shared mate, the national drink, with us. The snow capped mountains in the background are across the border in Chile.
This is another short hike to an overlook on the other side of town. Town is to the right, the overlook in the previous picture is the hill in the center of this picture.
We took a boat tour out into the lakes and saw (among other things) this rainbow.
At the far end of the lake was a short hike to a waterfall.
We also did a half day kayak trip from San Martin de los Andes. We started out in wind, clouds, two foot waves, cold. Within an hour we had perfect weather and a lake like glass. This pretty much sums up our trip in general; extremely good luck with the weather. The mountains in the background are in Chile. Note how clear the water is.
We rented a car from here and drove 100 miles or so up to Volcan Lanin and the national park by the same name.
Here we took an all day hike up to the snow line.
This is from the same spot looking in the opposite direction.
A last look at Volcan Lanin and some weird pine trees. I forget the name but only indigenous people can harvest the pine nuts.
On another day we went 100 miles west from San Martin de los Andes into another part of Lanin national park on a very scary dirt road and hiked a few hours to an old lava flow. The road was one lane, full of mud, steep, parts gone from being washed out and we would have turned around if we had found a place. Finally we reached a place where the water was three feet deep so we parked and hiked a couple more hours out to the lava flow. We only saw two other cars the whole day. When we got back to the park entrance the park guard told us the road was suppose to be closed after the first 10 miles. When we turned the car in the car rental guy told us the same thing, he didn't believe we drove as far as we did.
