Villa la Angostura

Is a town about 60-70 kilometers north of San Carlos de Bariloche. It’s quite touristy, like most of the towns along route 40, often known as the 7 lakes route. It is a gorgeous area with beautiful lakes and mountain backdrops where many people throughout the world travel to take in the sights, fly fish, hike and bike.

We visited Los Arrayanes National Park, which is known for their trees with cinnamon colored bark, which is gets because of its tannins, similar to how a grape gets its color. The area is a peninsula within Lake Nahuel Huapi. It has an 11km hike (each way) you can do as an out and back, or, you can take a ferry for $35-$55 per person one way and hike back. The park entrance fee is $20/person unless you want to just go to the overlooks, then it is free. Naturally this is what Stacy and I did 😉

As an aside, it is a tough balance between being a true traveler at heart and wanting to do all the things, while simultaneously being a complete and utter cheap ass by nature. Stacy usually helps me to overcome my frugal ways but I know the struggle will continue.

The hike starts with a steep incline of about 500 steps. Amazingly, you are allowed to bike this area, but only after you walk/carry your bike up the steps and can then begin riding at the 2km mark. We did see a few people doing this and looked tough as hell as they struggled to carry their bikes up those initial steps.

The hike was quite beautiful, we had water on both sides of us and felt good to do a little vigorous walking. There were two overlooks, one overlooking each side of the peninsula. Not doing the full hike gave us time to also spend a little time kayaking the lake. We rented a double kayak and to be polite about it, Stacy and I most certainly have some work to do on our team kayaking. Don’t think we will be winning any races anytime soon:). We ended the day by finding some of the best ice cream we have had yet. Chef’s kiss.Read more