Villa La Angostura

We stayed 3 days in Villa La Angostura. Arriving on New Years Eve probably was not the best day to travel. We had to walk around a bit to find a hostel that had room for us. January is the start of the really busy travel time and we will need to start making reservations if we want to be guaranteed a place to stay. This is difficult though since we really don't know how long we want to stay in each place or if there will be buses available on the days we want to travel. The place we really wanted to stay, Hostel La Angostura was full, most likely because there are signs leading you from the bus stop to their location! We ended up staying at Italian Hostel, which worked out great because the guy running the place, an Argentinian names Sebastian, was amazingly helpful. As soon as we got there the sat us down with a map and showed us all the outdoor activities in town, most of which we didn't know about. He also gave us information about another town we will visit in a few days, El Bolsón, our last stop in the Lakes District.

I would say we didn't like the town of Villa La Angostura as much as we did the town of San Martín. The town was spread out along one long main road and all the stores were connected in long single block structures. The architecture was pretty though, lots of polished tree branches and trunks used as support beams and for framing of windows. San Martín was centered around a nice park and the rest of the town radiated out from it, and there were many more trees and flowers to look at. But the outdoor activities and location of Villa La Angostura are unbeatable.

The day we got there we took a walk through town to a nearby lake, Lago Chorrentoso. The lake was all shades of blue and turquoise and surrounded by sandy topped mountains. The area is also home to the worlds shortest river! Río Chorrentoso is only 50 meters long and connects Lago Chorrentoso with the larger Lago Nahuel Huapi. It was pretty neat to see. We also visited a beach on each of the lakes, where many Argentines were recreating. But no one was swimming, cause the water is ice cold!

Day 2 was New Years Day and we decided we would visit the nearby National Park (Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes). The park consists of a 13 km long trail to the end of a narrow peninsula. The main attraction of the park is at the end of the trail, an Arrayán forest. These are cool looking trees that only grow in Patagonia. This peninsula has an unusually large concentration of them. They have reddish orange trunks with no real bark, they are mostly smooth like eucalyptus trees, but the look of them reminds me of the Manzanita trees that grow wild in San Diego. A lot of people visiting the park take a boat out to the end and either take the boat back, or walk back. Not many people walk both ways, cause it it a pretty long distance. We wanted to boat one way, but not many boats were running on the 1st, so we rented mountain bikes instead. It was a tough trail for the first km, because it was narrow and sandy and uphill with steps, so we had to carry the bikes. From there is was a nice wide trail with no hills that were too horrible. We were happy we biked, because we were able to move faster and wear out different muscles in our body and give our feet a break. We didn't have to share the park with many people cause most everyone in town was recovering from the night before. (: The Arrayán forest was really beautiful as were the views of the lake from the end of the peninsula. There are rumors that float around Argentina that the Arrayán forest is where Walt Disney got the inspiration for the movie Bambi. Everyone believes it because it is so often told, but it's really not true!

That night we were forced to go out to dinner since the grocery store never opened. Argentines take their holidays seriously! We actually had a good dining experience! It was much like going to a restaurant in the US where we were greeted right away, given bread and a menu and received food relatively quick. This was not the case when we went out to eat in Mendoza, we sat for a good 15 minutes before anyone acknowledged us and we worried this was normal here! We both had good chicken dishes, with of course a side of potatoes.

Day 3 we did a hike into the mountains. We have been doing so much activity on this trip we are going to be like super people by the end of it! This hike to Cajón Negro Valley was recommended to us by the guy at our hostel, and it did not disappoint! We took a taxi to the trail head, which was a few km outside of town. From there is was a steady up hill climb on a wide dirt road to a viewpoint over the lakes. We saw many fuchsia plants and strange bushy bamboo stalks along the way. From the lookout, we could see the surrounding mountains, Lago Nahuel Huapi, Lago Chorrentoso and the shortest River in the world! It was gorgeous, and I actually remembered to take cell phone pictures so I could put them on the blog! Most people would stop at this point, but we continued on to Inacayal Falls, where we stopped for a snack break by the river. There was no real good view point for the falls, but the water cascades down a 50 m vertical cliff that is covered in ferns, pretty cool! We continued uphill from there to a wide valley surrounded by a horse shoe of mountains. The hike through the forest was really pretty, the vegetation was constantly changing. The higher were got the shorter the trees were and the less ground cover plants there were, until eventually we arrived at top and it was just sand dunes and patches of dwarf trees here and there! It was windy with occasional sand storms. I say sand, but it was more like chalk, quite strange. The view out of the valley from there was of the lake and a snow covered mountain that we believe to be Mt Tronador. Also from the top we got to see the source of the river. There were many drainage channels coming down the cliffs all leading into one river. There was still a good bit of snow up there too, but it was a little hard to spot since every thing was covered in dust. There was an amazing network of trails, leading all over the mountains, so we decided to take a different route down.

We were tired and hungry when we got back to town and decided to go out to eat again. This time to a cheaper diner like place that is a favorite of locals (Gran Nevada). We had more choices now it was no longer a holiday and everything was open. We both ordered Milanesa a la Napolitana with mixed vegetables! The restaurant actually had a side option other that potatoes! We probably could have shared one order, we were amazed when it was brought out to us. It was a piece of beef as large as a dinner platter, pounded thin and breaded and fried, then topped with tons of mozzarella cheese and tomatoe sauce. It was amazingly delicious!! My faith in Argentine food has been restored! (: We have also found that bakeries have nice cheap sandwiches for us to take on our hikes, they are still mads of the thin weird bread though! All of the places we have stayed at include breakfast, which is usually some time of bread with dulce de leche (spreadable caramel) to put on top. We are finally giving in and getting used to it.

We are now on the bus to Bariloche. It is just over and hour ride from Villa La Angostura. The town sits on the same lake, Nahuel Huapi, which is the largest in the Lakes District. We will be staying at Hostel Pudu, which is run by an Irish couple. And we should have a view of the lake from our room! (: Some buses here are so fancy they have wifi aboard, but not this one! I will post the blog when we arrive to our hostel.