Mirror, Mirror . . .

We’ve spent the better part of two weeks touring the Patagonia Lake District in rental cars, starting in San Carlos de Bariloche, then moving on to San Martin de los Andes, and completing the journey to the northern edge of the lake district in Villa Pehuenia some 380ish kilometers (6 hours) from our starting point. The majority of the area is known as the Camino de los Siete Lagos, and frankly, we’ve lost track of which lake is which. AND, there are way more than seven lakes if you count the non-official ones on the route signs.

We have literally hundreds of photos of hikes, waterfalls, and lunches and beers in small mountain restaurantes, on beaches, on boats, and with chickens and sheep. There was everything from lush, wet monkey puzzle forests to dry, desert mountainous landscapes reminiscent of the central Rockies. We have had fabulous 70+ degree sunny days and days of wind reaching 40-50 mph with white caps and waves breaking on lakes like the surf. We have seen two volcanoes and the lava fields that are left behind. We have eaten a ton of wild-caught trout, venison, and of course the ever present lamb and beef (many precursors of which we have had to wait for as they crossed the road). It has been an amazing two weeks for sure, especially as this is an area of the country that we hadn’t really planned on visiting. And now on to wine, wine, and more wine. It is harvest season after all! Our goal, is to reach the wine country of Mendoza by Monday, 4-April.

The lakes themselves are amazing, and we can’t count the number of times we’ve commented on how stupid beautiful and unreal the landscapes have been. The result is countless pictures of water, and more water, and then more water after that. Rather than bore you with a catalog of the lakes, our tours, and our lame attempt to match the correct photos to the correct names, we’ve chosen to share some pictures from our boat trip on Lago Lácar, where we stayed in the small town of San Martín de los Andes nestled against the lake shore. We were literally a 3-minute walk to the lake from our guest house. We chose to share Lago Lácar because it was an amazingly sunny day and the lake itself was uncommonly still and glassy. The only disturbances in the water the entire day were the ones made by our boat. Here are some of our favorite “mirror” photos from one of our days on a lake.