Where's Grayleen?

We spent about two weeks hiking our way through the Lake District of Chile and Argentina. The Lake District encompasses much of northern and central Patagonia, and is often compared to Switzerland due to both its similar terrain and its wealth of delicious chocolate– what’s not to love? It is easy to see why this is such a popular region for vacationers from Santiago and Buenos Aires. We spent about five days each in Pucón (Chile), Bariloche (Argentina), and El Bolsón (Argentina), doing a three day hike in each area.

Gray takes in a view of Lago Naheul Huapi

We were also introduced to “refugio hiking”, which enables you to do multi-day hikes without carrying a whole lot. Refugios are cabins linking long trails up in the mountains that offer meals, snacks, water, and, if you like, a mattress and a roof over your head. While all you really need to bring is a sleeping bag, we opted to bring some food and our camping gear to save a bit of money and have some privacy. Love it! I so wish we had more of that sort of thing in the U.S.A.

Here’s a bit about each area and hike:

Pucón and Parque Nacional Huerqueque

I was super-excited to go to Pucón, primarily because I had read about the awesome trip to Volcán Villarrica in which you trek up with crampons and ice axes, check out the active crater, and then slide on your rear back down in luge-like chutes in the snow. How fun is that?! Unfortunately, the volcano was closed indefinitely due to an avalanche so we hightailed it to Parque Nacional Huerqueque for a three-day hike. In those three days, I had both my favorite day of hiking ever and my worst day of hiking ever. The difference? Sunny blue skies vs. pouring cold rain. The route took us past beautiful mountain lakes, through secluded monkey-puzzle forests (cool!), and to a final reward of hot springs and a wild boar dinner. My advice: check the weather report and heed rangers’ warnings of bad weather! P.S. Thanks to the kind ranger who loaned me his clothes while he dried mine and brought me back to life with many cups of hot coffee and tea.

Lunch spot on the shore of Laguna Pehuen

Bariloche and Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi

Bariloche felt like a ski town through and through, with fancy lodging, spas, numerous restaurants, and a plethora of stores selling outdoor clothing, both technical garments and fashion-over-function ski-bunny attire. Its picturesque location on the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi cannot be beat, and you could spend months working through the many artisan chocolate and ice cream shops. Yum!!!

We tried our first Argentinian steak in Bariloche, and I must say, they have not been oversold. Humongous, high-quality, inexpensive, and served with a mountain of fries. Between that and the amazing chocolate and ice cream, it is very surprising that Argentinians we have seen have been more trim than the people of any other country we have visited. Anybody have a theory as to why?

Also of note was our lovely and unusual lodging. It had been looking grim as we wondered around at one in the morning being told by one place after another, “No hay lugar” (there’s no space). Finally, we found a hip hostel (also full, of course) that let us camp on their deck out back! High above town overlooking the lake and mountains, we couldn’t have asked for a lovelier spot. Total tab for two nights stay with full access to hostel amenities including in-tent wifi: zero!

We also did an absolutely stunning and really tough 3-day hike in Parque Nacional Naheul Huapi. The distances we covered weren’t very long but much of the trek was on loose rock and gravel going straight up or down very steep slopes. Boy were we beat by the end of those days! But the real highlight of the trek was the two refugios, Refugio Frey and Refugio Jakob. Both were perfectly situated by alpine lakes with snow-covered peaks all around and were run by the friendliest folks you can imagine. After arriving in the afternoon both days, we napped lakeside, played cards, chatted with other guests, and enjoyed the tasty food and beverages on offer.

Refugio Frey

Quick tip for our rock climber friends: Refugio Frey and its surrounds are an international climbing mecca, and you can visit for guided and unguided climbs at all levels. It seriously made me want to get into climbing!

El Bolsón and Comarca Andina

El Bolsón was probably our favorite town of the three with its chill, hippie vibe and gorgeous long days; I can definitely imagine spending several months there. Interestingly, this is the first place in South America where I have seen the terms “organic” and “local” bandied about; it reminded me a bit of both Seattle and especially Ithaca. Like in Bariloche, there are fantastic chocolate and ice cream shops all over. All this set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

A real highlight was staying at El Pueblito, an über-friendly and relaxing hostel outside of town. It really felt like a home away from home. Situated on a swath of countryside covered with hammocks and picnic tables, it gave us the chance to rest our tired legs and catch up on reading, emails, and our blog. The hostel staff and the other guests felt like extended family. Oh, and the showers were divine– after months in South America, we have definitely stopped taking that for granted! We actually compressed our planned three-day hike into two days so we could spend another day here.

The gorgeous Rio Azúl lives up to its name

We hiked for two long days around Cerro Hielo Azul in the Comarca Andina. It was certainly beautiful but we found we had been a bit spoiled by the scenery Pucón and Bariloche; relatively few parts of the hike had good views and/or sights while the rest went steeply through some fairly monotonous terrain. In addition, the refugios were a bit disappointing after the two in Nahuel Huapi– overcrowded and not as scenic (although there are many other refugios in the park which may be better). Or maybe we were just too eager to get back to El Pueblito!

The bottom line: Highly recommended area.

More photos here.