Dreamy Patagonia

I continued my journey to Junín de los Andes, Carole, and headed to the heart of Patagonia, San Martín de los Andes. I was immediately captivated by the beautiful landscape. The numerous lakes are perfect for swimming in the summer, and there are fantastic hiking trails in the mountains and forests nearby. I met a Canadian woman who was staying at the same hostel as me, and we decided to hike together to Cerro Colorado. The trail was steep and there were no flat sections in between, so it was quite a challenging hike. But it was worth it! The view of two lakes, three volcanoes, and the Andes mountain range in the background was unique. On the way back, instead of taking the bus, we walked all the way back to the village and passed by the lake where we took a well-deserved swim.

We then traveled together to Villa la Angostura. Here, we rented bikes to ride through Los Arrayanes National Park, which is located on a peninsula in the lake. However, this bike tour didn't go exactly as planned. The first 500m were pure bike-carrying up the stairs, the trail was dusty and narrow, and there were pedestrians everywhere. Since we didn't know how much longer it would continue like that, and biking was definitely not fun, we hid our bikes in the forest and continued on foot. The hike was very pleasant and the landscape was beautiful. But when we reached the end of the island, a storm was approaching, and we decided to run back as quickly as we could, as we still had to ride our bikes 3km back to the village. I don't think I've ever run 12km so fast in my life. But unfortunately, it didn't help. Just as we reached our bikes, it started raining and we were soaked and dirty from head to toe in no time. So the planned bike day ended just as it had started... suboptimal ;)