Driving the famous Ruote 40 to Argentina's lake district

 gravel road on ruta 40

dawn on ruta 40

Leaving wine country for one of the most beautiful nature places we have ever seen, Argentina's lake district. We drove over a 1000km's from San Rafael to San Martin de los Andes down the famed ruta 40, most of it paved with some graveled parts. Ruta 40 runs parallel with the stunning snow caped Andes to the west. We made pit stops in Malargue and Chos Malal, camping at the municipal campgrounds. Malargue, has an interesting observatory with astronomy and dinosaur displays (free on the day we visited what luck!). Our way to Chos Malal we saw 2 motorbike travelers that we had met earlier in Malargue, stuck on the side of the road with a flat. We stopped to see if they need help and chatted while they repaired the tire. Later that evening we would meet up with them again in Chos Malal, in the campground and enjoyed a late night of slow cooked asado with these 2 interesting Brits on their second tour of the Americas.

catching up on laundry

Yes! we are in the lake district

yeah, a warm place to sleep and watch television

all that biking and hiking gone to waste 

We reached the beginning of the the lake district at the town of San Martin de los Andes, and the weather changed for the worst. It began to rain and later turn to light snow but lucky with help of local tourist office we found a cozy cabin located in town for only $25 a night. Cabins are popular with Argentinians because they're equipped with a kitchen, bathroom and big enough for a small family and cost between $25 to $100 much cheaper than an hotel and more private. We ended up staying for 4 days and during the sunny afternoons we enjoyed hiking and biking, afterwards we would indulge ourselves in the local chocolates. Nights were spent inside the warm cabin cooking dinner and blogging. Now have never been to the Swiss German alps but San Martin de los Andes has a very European feel to it, from what travelers of those regions tell us it very similar. This small town is cute, clean and surrounded by lakes and mountains a place we can see ourselves retired in, yes it that nice.

After 4 days in a warm cabin, we hit the road explore the magical lakes of the area. The lake district of Argentina is comprised of 2 national parks Lanin and Nahuel Huapi in 2 provinces Neuquen and Rio Negro. Our first lake was Lago Hermosa, meaning beautiful lake and it was. Its spring time now so we had it pretty much to ourselves with the odd visitors here and there. After, we made a quick stop at Lago Falkner and decided to camp for the night at Lago Villarino, just across the road, its free with no service. Here we started to see signs of the ash from the volcano that erupted a few months ago in the Chile side. All the lakes here seem to be untouched with wallpaper backdrops of snow caped mountains, makes we want to explore the Rockies in my own country. 

Next morning we had breakfast on the lake and off to Lago Espejo (mirror lake) afterwards we visited the trendy town of Valle La Angostura, but this town was just covered in ash plus was windy as hell so visibility was minimal. We checked out the National park Los Arrayanes unfortunately did get to see the Arrayan tree forest (famous for its cinnamon color trees) because its at the end of the peninsula and the path was under maintenance lucky we didn't have to pay to enter. I guess its off season plus the ash was everywhere covering trees, buildings and also collecting at the shore lines. Next was the ski town of San Carlos De Bariloche, we planned to spend some time here but when we arrived we notice more ash, making it a uncomfortable place to be, plus the city was holding a woman's rights party so the whole town was booked for the weekend. We decided not to stay but checked out the centre and the surrounding area, had a late lunch in town and left the lake district for El Bolson.

Camped at a bus station in the desert and back to Mendoza

shower at the bus terminal what a site after going 3 days without

modern museum work

children museum work

young people filled the green space on Sunday for mate

sunset on the river

After our expensive 4 day detour of Chile, were back in Argentina and trying to spend less to make up what we spent in Chile. Neuquen, was our first stop on our return. Neuquen city is not a place on the gringo trail but that doesn't mean it not worth seeing. We found it a nice city with a small town fell, very well laid out. Everything can be found on the main road the runs east to west. North is the down town centre with loads of green area, shops, bars and restaurants. South end has a clean cool river that has a municipal camping but they where closed so drove further down the river and found a police association camp site. They weren't fully open yet (showers not working yet) but they let us stay and charged us $8 for a safe nights sleep. Next day we really needed a shower so we searched all the gas stations in town without luck, but than we saw a modern bus station, and thought they might have showers so we asked and Yes! indeed they did. When we entered the station we had to find the security guard to unlock the showers, he charged us $1.50 each. The bus station also charged for parking $3 for 24hr stay so we decided to just park there, and slept for 2 nights in the parking lot. During the days we checked out the city on our bikes which had 4 museums in the centre all free to visit. (modern art, childrens art, ethnography and a town history) For the evenings we would head over to the river side and cooked BBQ and when it got late, return to the bus terminal to sleep, plus they had free WIFI in the station and clean baths what else could you ask for.

starting a fire to have a warm water for a shower

yes I know, I need a hair cut

$6 hair cut, thats what it cost in Canada 25 years ago

free to visit and I think some of the birds here were on a protected list somewhere

condor, largest flying bird in the world

After 3 days we decided to head north to wait out the cold that awaited us in the south. We drove 8 hours through La Pampa province. Its pretty much nothing, flat and straight road. Lucky we filled in Neuquen, because no gas stations for about 500km's but the good news it was paved all the way. We stayed in the city of San Rafael, about 250km's south of Mendoza city. Camped just outside of the city at El Parador. It cost us $10 a night but it was still low season so the pool wasn't ready and we had to heat up the water tank ourselves when we wanted a shower. (wood burning) We spent 3 days in and around city, tried our luck at the casino and visited Embalse Los Reyunos a private lake town that charged us $16 to just enter. It was nice to have a picnic in beautiful place because the camp site in San Rafael was kinda of basic and not much to look at. 

Los Reyunos private lake get away

Next we went to Valle Grande about 45 mins south of San Rafael. We found a amazing place on the river called Rio Azul (blue river) to camp. Cost us about $13 a night they had good facilities, wifi but thats not the reasons why we stayed 5 nights. It was the peaceful setting along the river with steep rock valley backdrops that kept us here. Rafters would pass by through out the day, while rock climbers tested their nerves. We didn't do any of that just spent the days biking around, soaking our feet in freezing river, cooking and working on our blog.  

soaking up the rays

slaving over a wood stove

Jieun, made Korean noddle soup

dinning table with a view

looks fun? but she's screaming (freakin cold)