Bariloche and environs

The freedom of the car! wow...what we have seen around here over the last few days through the dusty windows of a little Fiat..little but powerful. It zoomed up the mountains in 5th gear - wonder if GM knows what these little European type cars can do. And we sure had the chance to zoom. First we headed up north toward San Martin de los Andes via the seven lakes road. We followed the shores of blue green lakes with green hills reaching up to 600 metres dipping down to the water and views of snow capped mountains. There was a dusty gravel section..under construction as well..but it was still magnificent. The yellow gorse is in bloom, probably an invasive curse but still beautiful. As well, Jorge in his typical fashion, spoke to some young women who turned out to be from both Argentina and Israel. We ended up with a bunch of pictures with all of us apeing for the camera. Lots of laughs!
San Martin de los Andes is a small, delightful ski town where we stayed at a hosteria on one of the main streets. The guy in reception we affectionately called the Spanish nazi..(think Seinfeld). Everytime I uttered an English word he said "Ëspagnol solo" and forced me to search through my now 50 word vocabulary to say what I wanted. He certainly would patiently wait as I struggled...but would not back down. added to the experience.
In this area there are 2 National Parks...Nahuel Huapi and Lanin....so there are thousands of protected hectars. The area is filled with lakes and rivers and right now it is fly fishing season, a big occupation here. We haven´t seen much wildlife but the scenery is spectacular with the mountains reflected in the lakes. On the way back from San Martin to Bariloche, we took another gravel road that is sometimes closed. It went through a marvellous valley following a rushing river with rock hillsides topped with the most intriguing of hoodoo type formations. We did discover why it is sometimes closed...had to ford a couple of streams and go around a few washed out sections..made for interesting driving. The dust was overpowering when someone came the other way..which was seldom. Saw a few fishermen in the river but other than that we were mostly allone for the 60 km.
Back in Bariloche, we decided we would try to go up one of the lookout peaks in the area. Of course, being off season one, Cerro Otto, was closed so we headed for Cerro Catedral...the famous ski area. Disappointment there as the wait behind all the people on tour buses to get on the cable car would be 2 hrs. So we climbed back into our dusty car to do the Circuito Chico..a loop around part of Lake Nahuel Huapi with views and a look at the famous Llau Llau hotel. We tried to get in there for tea...guard told us we needed a reservation. Snotty crowd!
There is a small area called Colonia Suiza that is an historic town started by Swiss imigrants in the 1800´s. Jorge, now once again Jurg, had visions of Rahmschnitzil with Spaetzli dancing in his head. Disappointment again...there was no way there could be schnitzil at the end of the gravel road...there was barely coffee and a poor excuse for a torte. Seems they only have activities on Sundays and Wednesdays...hardly deserves to have Swiss in the name.
We stayed in a lovely place Tuesday night and were the only folks there on the outskirts of Bariloche. In consultation with out host and much mathematics as to whether we could squeeze the kms out of our maximum allowance we decided to head back to Catedral and then go on to El Bolson. Turned out to be a great decision. The view from the summit of the mountain after a ride on a cable car and chair lift, was spectacular! Miles of lakes and mountains reaching to the distance. And then one more gravel road around Lake Guiterrez. This was the most challenging my Swiss Chauffer had faced with this car. Really should have been a 4X4 drive...deep gullies, big rocks and lots of holes. But a wonderful reward of a view.
El Bolson at about 130 kms from Bariloche was a terrific little hippy town. It is a nuclear free zone ( not sure if that made a difference to us) and grows a lot of organic vegetables and has lots of artist coops. The drive down on the fully paved hwy was wonderful...certainly worth the effort. And gas is much cheaper down there...this is the northernmost town where the Argentinian Patagonian gas subsidy is in effect.
So here it is Thursday morning and we await our next bus ride...off to Firmat once again with gifts of chocolate in hand. Hope the bus isn´t too hot for the 20 hr journey. We do have the 2 seats up front again.
Haste luego
Sue