Push On Mole It Hurts

15 February 2011

We are again in Bariloche. To get here we took yesterday the famous Seven Lakes Road. There are more then seven lakes but some require Addition driving or hiking. The weather was beautiful, so the driving was like a dream: blue and green lakes and mountains Among hilltops. The Road has only 110 km but with so many views on the way it is hard not to stop at every Possibility, every viewpoint. We also took two detours to smaller lakes and our favorite was Lago Espejo Chico, Which Agnieszka tells me, means Small Mirror Lake (there is also Espejo Grande). We took a dirt road to a small camping place just by that lake. It was completely quiet (just a few people bathing) and peaceful, reflecting nearby mountains and forests. Only a few fish broke the surface. We spend a long while there enjoying the tranquillity of the place.

We returned the car and the next day, as the weather was still perfect, we decided to claim a nearby mountain, not very high, called Cerro Viejo. Someone told us we could climb it and ride down on a chair lift. But we when we reached the lift bottom station there seemed to be no path up. We walked frustrated along the busy road until I spotted one unpaved road leading up. We assumed, correctly, that it would lead to some houses on the slope, but we hoped also we could at least have some views from above. So we walked, and walked, and walked until we reached another unpaved road, still going up. We continued up until Agnieszka realised that this road probably leads to Cerro Otto, a much higher mountain with a cable car station on top (at some 1405 m). We had not planned to climb Cerro Otto, we knew the road is some 8 km long, always up. But once on it we could not go back. The views were just fantastic! We kept saying we would at least go down in the cable car. Tired but happy we reached the top, only to find out that… the cable car does not go down due to heavy wind. And so another 8 km on foot (plus some extra to get to town and our hostel).

Now there will be no walking for a while as we take a buss tomorrow to Buenos Aires and the journey lasts some 20 hours. We have seats that can be almost entirely reclined into a lying position but still being locked in a buss for that long is tough.

We will spend two days in BA and then we fly back home. I guess this will be the last I write in English about our trip. It was a marvellous journey, we were blessed with weather, the sights were just amazing and the people most kind. That is another thing to be remembered about Argentina, (and Chile for that matter): the kindness and friendliness of its inhabitants. A few spots left a particularly strong memories and a wish to come back: Ushuaia (perhaps to continue into Antarctica and Torres del Paine we were forced to miss), El Chalten, Lanin and Villarica NPs, Patagonia as a whole. The beauty of this country is overwhelming and we will miss it with all our hearts.