black ice

Anyway, to go back a bit: we arrived at the Argentinean border the day we left LahuenCo at 2pm. The journey was spectacular. The lava flow ripped through the valley at Escorial like a black glacier, and the lakes we saw shone brighter than any we would see later. When we got to the border the guards came down to take a look at us; they genuinely couldn’t believe that we had crossed the sierra in a Chevrolet and there was some confusion as to why our Chilean exit stamps were from the day previous, but we were through with minimal fuss under the circumstances. The road continued shiteously for about 20km and then we were onto silken asphalt all the way to San Martin de Los Andes. A beautiful town, we walked around and took it easy. The whole place seems to be made of timber and the carpentry is incredible. There is nothing like their tables, signs, doorframes. We ate in a little cafe that was showing the Boca v River match that was cancelled a week ago. We camped in a Mapuche settlement, which sounded groovier than it was, they are quiet but respectful, and out to make a peso like everyone else. We walked down to the lake by the campsite and drank sambuca on a huge treetrunk until the sun dropped and the bats started to drop low. When we got back to the tent we lit a fire and talked about our parents. These chats usually result in the conclusion that we both have great parents. We did all of these kind of things, it was a good day.

The next morning I washed the car and we headed off to do the route of the 7 lakes, and along the way we picked up two nice French people hitching to Bariloche. They were pretty cool but a bit French. They talked to each other a lot, patently about things we were talking about. We stopped in Villa la Angostura to see an old forest of trees that only grow here, but we missed the last entrance so we took a look at the harbour, ate in a pizza place and arrived late that evening in Bariloche.

We checked back into the nice place that we stayed in before, but there was a mouse in our room, the only one available, so we switched. The next day we had to leave the car back; ewa pulled a crafty one and parked the car right up to the rear bumper of another car, we went in, made nice, paid, and got out. The main problem was a totally shredded bumper but there were fresh scratches all over the car, some pretty heavy ones. The right headlight was effectively an indicator now, the amount it went on and off I’m sure bits fell off underneath, but we managed to swindle it. Later we did get to see the Arrayanes Park, where a species of tree survive that elsewhere has perished. (There was a forest of arrayanes in Japan but it burnt down a few years ago; the Perito Moreno glacier destroyed the second last Argentinean example in 2001.) It is a long journey through an island to get it, we rented mountain bikes and ploughed through it, a great idea it was. The forest is beautiful. The trees are thin and tall, extremely tall; their wood is hard as teak and their colour is like a jaguar´s coat.