After a nice hot shower and a good sleep we woke in the morning to snow on the tent and it still falling outside. Hmmmmmmmmm. We got up anyway and were rewarded by the snow stopping and the sun coming out. This lasted for a while in the morning but as we got closer to San Martin de los Andes the snow got worse and combined with the wind blowing it straight into our faces it was an interesting trip into town. We made an executive decision to stay in a hostel. So good to get out of the driving rain and snow and we proceeded to completely stink out our room.
The sun was out the next day and stayed this way for nearly two weeks!! Not too bad. We headed into the Lake District proper, which means ripio (gravel) roads, snow, beautiful scenery, friendly drivers and more beautiful scenery. On the 10km uphill out of San Martin we met another cyclist!!! A crazy Columbian dude who had been going for 8 months. We saw him on and off during the day and ended up staying with him in a building in one of the closed campgrounds. The guy who normally runs the campgrounds in summer said the free campsite (where we planned to stay) was flooded so this was the only alternative.
Another gorgeous day of cycling took us to Villa La Angostura. There is seriously endless mountians, lakes, rivers and rocks to take photos of but you just have ot keep pedalling. After lunch we hit the beautiful new paved road that would take us to Angostura and were so happy to hear our wheels singing along the pavement. In town we managed to find an open campground, which was right next to a supermarket - so happy!!! As usual we were the only people there and had the run of the place.
With no other choice we had to do the approximately 90km to Bariloche the next day. Luckily the road was flat overall and we had a tailwind for some of it. The sun was still shining, which makes it a lot easier. In general drivers on the road have been really good but as we got closer to Bariloche they got worse and worse. For some reason there was a bus about every 30 seconds and then endless trucks and cars. With no shoulder to ride in we were pretty much in the traffic. This was not very pleasant and it felt like it took us forever to get to town. Once there we found that the campsites that were open were 13km out of town......nooooooooo. After gaining an excassive dislike for Bariloche as we got closer and closer we were not too upset to have to get out of town. After a hot shower, with a belly full of food and lovely view of the lake life does not seem to bad. We were going to take a break in this town but decided to push on after we saw how busy it was. Hopefully we do not regret out decision..........
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| A brief moment of sunshine on the way out of Junin de los Andes |
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| This is what we came here to see!!! Bruce very stoked with the sunshine and scenery on the way out of San Martin |
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| View of the lake, San Martin de los Andes |
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| Pretty hard to find a spot free of snow to have some lunch |
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| Enjoying the view |
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| Pretty church on the road |
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| Staying in the hall away from the saturated campground, Lago Falkner |
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| Scenery south of Lago Falkner |
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| Scenery south of Lago Falkner |
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| Me and the lucky buggers on motorbikes! |
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| Enjoying lunch (donuts!!) in the sunshine |
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| Happy about the sunshine, scenery and lovely new paved road, Lago Correntoso. |
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| Lago Correntoso |
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| Lago Espejo |
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| Lunch by the lake south of Villa La Angostura |
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| Long flat road on the way to Bariloche |
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| Sunset in Bariloche. |
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| Map of this section. We came from Junin de los Andes, which is off the top of the map. |
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