Adventure,Family Friendly,South America

Argentina’s Lake District Patagonia

24 October theworldisawonder 0 Comment

While living in Argentina, we traveled to San Carlos de Bariloche located in the Lake District. Known as the Switzerland of South America for its sweeping mountain vistas and sparkling glacial lakes, it has some of the most dramatic scenery in Argentina.  

Llao Llao

San Carlos de Bariloche was founded by Swiss immigrants in 1905. They built several chalet-style buildings similar to ones in Switzerland. In the spring of 2012, we rented a casita in Llao Llao for a week overlooking the shore of beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapi.

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Sunset over Lago Nahuel Huapi.

The famous Llao Llao resort was located near to our casita. It is a beautiful drive around the circuit. Throughout Patagonia are beautiful yellow flowering bushes that smell absolutely divine! Their smell permeates the air. Wish I could have brought some home with me.

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Hiking in Patagonia

While vacationing in Bariloche we enjoyed some great day hikes with our toddler.

Cerro Llao Llao

This hike took us to the highest point in Bariloche’s Llao Llao park. We hiked through beautiful coihue and cypress trees, up the steep, rocky hillside. Our two year old was a great hiker! On top of the hill, we enjoyed impressive views of distant mountain vistas and sparkling lakes while over a picnic lunch. And the best part was we practically had the view to ourselves!

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Cerro Catedral

This popular ski resort in the winter makes for a great day hike. We rode the chairlift to the top of Cerro Catedral and enjoyed a delicious picnic. Following lunch we hiked along a trail, sometimes through snow, with expansive views of the valley and lakes below. Some hikers were sliding on the glacier.

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Boat Cruise to Puerto Blest

In Puerto Pañuelo, on the Llao Llao Peninsula, we boarded a boat to Puerto Blest (located on the border of Chile). Although is was cloudy and threatening to rain, it was beautiful cruising along Nahuel Huapi Lake while watching birds flying overhead. We passed by steep hillsides of cypress and coihue trees, unique to this area of Argentina as part of the Valdivian Rainforest.  I was not surprised that it was raining when we arrived into Puerto Blest since it is one of the rainiest places in the country. Fortunately, the weather cleared for a brief period as we hiked through tall coihue trees to Los Cantaros Waterfall and Los Cantaros Lake.

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Then 20 minutes later we were in a downpour! Everyone in our group left except our family.  We took cover and ate our picnic lunch with a view of the lake. But we still needed to make the one hour hike back to Puerto Blest. It was a beautiful hike around the lake! Despite being soaked, we had such a blast! We found a nearly deserted museum and went inside to get dry.

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The Seven Lakes Drive

Located on the opposite end of the lake from Bariloche is Villa la Angostura, a quaint town that is a popular vacation spot for Argentines in the summer. It is the starting point for the popular Seven Lakes Drive, the most famous tourist route in the Lake District. The road was only partially paved when we traveled it in 2012. Traveling along Route 231, the road climbed up a hill as we passed by Lago Espejo “Mirror Lake”, one of the seven scenic lakes.

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We stopped at Lago Falkner and ate our picnic lunch. Leaving the picturesque lake area we drove through desert country – passing only horses and cattle –  until connecting onto Route 40 and arriving at San Martin de Los Andes. Route 40 route runs approximately 3,000 miles from the border of Bolivia to the tip of Argentina.

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