We were told by a bike shop guy that the bike tour between Bariloche
and San Martin de Los Andes was one of the most popular in Argentina. Well it
was good alright but we did not see any other touring cyclists which is
probably due to it being more of the fall shoulder season. Most of the ride is off of route 40 so not as
much traffic especially once you leave route 231 and head north on 234. We had
good weather on the ride up 231 around Lago Nahuelhuai including no wind which
we heard could be a big problem. Lago Nahuelhuai is yet another huge natural
lake at almost a hundred kilometres long. At the east end of the lake which is
more arid and treeless we were surprised to find a number of health food stores
at the small town of Dina Huapi. After
picking up some fruit and vegetables we stopped in a fast food place of sorts
for quick lunch. They were busy packaging up an order of about thirty lunches
to go for maybe some construction workers. This lunch included a scoop of vegetables
like potatoes and beets and a slab of steak that was about four by six inches
and about an inch and a half thick. That
was a bit more “protein” than we had in mind plus a meal like that takes energy
to digest so not so good for a long ride. We opted for a couple of small
empanadas.
At the west end of the lake you come to the town of Villa La
Angostura. It would seem high end even
by American standards plus it does not seem to have the low end of Bariloche
with all the noisy smokey cars and trucks. The big places on the lake here have
big boats only like pretty much all of Patagonia you hardly ever see anyone out
in a boat of any size on a lake. Sea kayaking these big lakes would be a great
way to do an extended vacation as many of these lakes have mountains all around
and hardly get used. Treking in
Patagonia is not so great as the trails are often very poorly made and often
the few there are get lots of use. In a sea kayak you could get to some remote
places with only the wind being an issue you would have to work around. Another
good option would be a small sailboat or possibly a sea kayak with a sail.
Back to bike touring…..We free camped up stream from a pay
campground on Lago Nahuelhuai a bit before Villa La Angostura. It was a decent camp except for there was
about two inches of ash all over just about everything. We had heard from other cyclists about the
ash from nearby Volcan Puyehue that even though it had erupted the previous
June the ash was still a problem. Villa La Angostura had put a great deal of
effort into cleaning up after it you could tell.
The bike shop guy in Bariloche had recommended a couple of
places to camp the following day on Lago Correntoso and Lago Traful but they
were too short of a ride plus they were heavily impacted by the ash which had
destroyed the first one. We keept going
but it got late and we were just trying to find any old place that did not have
a lot of ash which was very difficult as the volcano was just a short distance
west of here. We ended up basically
camping beside the road under a beach tree which at least had dropped enough
leaves to cover the ash a bit.
The next day there were a couple of excellent free camping
spots on Lago Villarino and sister lake Lago Falkner. The ash was starting to
thin out this far north of the volcano and these were pretty lakes. There is
about 35 kilometers of ripio on 234 but they are in the process of paving it so
that will be a heck of a bike tour when they finish that. The pavement started
back up at Lago Falkner and it was an easy scenic cruse into San Martin de Los
Andes for the most part. This area and the area around Bariloche would probably
be prettier in the spring with more snow still in the mountains but if it is
anything like the Pacific Northwest that same evaporating snow would make it
more consistently cloudy as well.
We stopped to take a break just shy of San Martin de los
Andes on a little stream but the place was so nice and private we decided to
free camp there even though it was only about three in the afternoon. We sleep the best when primitive camping out
of often noisy organized campgrounds or often noisy hostels. We have been to
San Martin de los Andes before and even though it is a charming little tourist
town we are mostly looking forward to the tour back into Chile on route 48 that
we have heard so many good things about.
Shortly before pulling off to take a break and then deciding
to camp we came upon some cars parked on either side of the highway. At first I
assumed maybe it was some people looking at wildlife. It turned out to be
wildlife of a different sort. It was young guys drag racing. Just as we pulled
up they lined up two cars and had a guy in the middle wave his arms to start
them off. They went off in the straightaway in the direction of a blind wooded
corner for about a quarter mile and appeared to be hitting speeds of about a
hundred miles an hour. What was a little more disturbing is we rode up the road
after they took off and when we were about halfway up their drag strip they
turned around and came back at us. Needless to say we pulled off the road. Not
long after that when we were taking our break they quit and we did not think
anything more of it. That is until about nine thirty when what sounded like
quite a few more joined the fun and drag raced up and down the valley until
about three thirty in the morning. Laurie slept through most of it and I slept
some. The whole valley is in the national park with cows and horses that are not fenced in and can cross the road! Sounds like a great place to race cars in the middle of the night to me. Boys will be boys some probably not for long though. Laurie mentioned that the Lonely
Planet guide book said something about San Martin as being a “rowdy” town.
In the whole time Laurie and I have been in Argentina and
Chile we have never seen anyone pulled over for what appeared to be a traffic
violation. It is also obvious that many
people do not drive anywhere near the posted speed limits. The scene here was
like out of some James Dean movie in the fifties. At the military check point
at the east end of the lake near Bariloche there were about a dozen totalled
cars in a lot presumably waiting to be towed off. In case you haven’t gathered
I am not too shy about making generalizations and I would have to say that
Argentina definitely fits the car culture description. Many towns including touristy ones like El
Calafate have race tracks. At one point near there we saw a car carrying
semi-truck that had a load of what looked like mini coopers that were used in
some sort of racing show. Many of the
towns like Trevilin had motocross venues just out of town. In El Bolson the
owner of the fruit and vegetable market had a wall full of large motocross
trophies. Trevilin is known for its
Welch tea houses and El Bolson for its magic naturalness. Well I think the
locals capitalize on the rustic mountain lodge look for the tourists but they
are not really into the quiet mountain experience themselves. In many of the towns like the above
mentioned and including Bariloche there are dirt bikes running around town that
I believe in the US would not be street legal but I could not tell you
why. In the US most places where they
went to the trouble of building a rustic looking lodge it would probably be in
a quiet setting. I am going to have to re work some of my mental
associations. Hopefully my
generalization about Chileans not being such motor heads will hold up and we
will be there soon. That said Bend has
its fair share of motorheads but it would be unfair to jump to the conclusion
that everyone in Bend is a motorhead because you had been assaulted by them somewhere. Probably the deal here is that like everything else it is so much less regulated so it is more noticeable. San Martin is much quieter than most
other towns like El Bolson or Bariloche. It is also a pretty active town with a ski area and mountain
biking. They even have a multi sport race like the Pole Peddle Paddle in Bend only
they have a real lake to do the paddle portion.
The big thing to do here for tourists and locals alike is to walk, jog
or ride your bike out the highway we came in on which has a view of the lake. We noticed that when we were here before. It
is a little sad that the big outdoor thing to do is walk on a highway
though. In most towns the people doing the
activities are the international tourists or south American tourists from the
big cities. Here the locals are pretty active. I have checked on the mountain
biking before and it pales in comparison to Bend. We are going to buy a
few supplies and hit the road to the Chilean border. It is ripio but it should be a low traffic road and i would think that there wouldn't be drag racing on dirt roads.
