#14 San Martin de los Andes and the perfect spot

Due to the bad weather we had made the decision to simply ride into the next town of San Martin de Los Andes, 40 kilometres away, and stay over night in the hope that we would get a clear day in which to enjoy rather than suffer through the next part of our journey: the seven lakes route on Ruta 234 into Bariloche.

We borrowed some bicyles from the hostel in which we stayed to explore what is a very pretty ski resort town - you can tell that we are starting to hit the touristy spots now. The shops are in the shape of chalets, pine trees surround the town, at its end it overlooks the opening of Lake Lago and if it wasn't for the ash we have hit coming out of.the Chilean volcano I believe the snowy mountains would be visible too.

I wrote this post sitting on the shores of Lake Lago rugged up with a beanie and thermals on, attempting to type with some difficulty while wearing gloveliners. Our second night in San Martin was spent camping in a beautiful but exposed spot recommended to us by a couple from Montana whom we had met the previous night. They themselves had been hiking/hitching in the National Park the previous day and had stumbled across it. In awe of their commitment to camp 10 days straight we trusted they knew a good spot when they found one. It was located in the Lanin National Park, which has a bit of a Sherwood Forest feel about it; there are no amenities and as far as we could tell no cost either. With nowhere to be and no commitments (except a skpe session - sorry Mum and Dad!) we put off our trip to Bariloche for another day.

To get there we traveled approximately 15kms down a gravel road, then a few more on a dirt track which we located thanks to some help from the supply truck heading in the same direction to service the indigenous Mapuche community located on the way. This was much more than the 7kms 'more or less' we were told it would take at the tourist information centre. It wouldn't have been an issue except we had banked on refueling only on return to San Martin in order to keep the weight of the bike down - it was a close call but we made it, though it was a little disconcerting rolling up to the first station only to be told they were dry.

We couldn't get the bike down the last little bit so had to lug our gear down (and back up) a steep hill. It's crazy to think that only two days prior we were in shorts and a singlet top enjoying the desert heat. As is his style Reece took a swim in the freezing lake and later in the evening we were joined by a couple of guys from Spain and a rather upset local who had it in his head we were stealing wood from his fence for our respective fires. We let his Spanish hombres explain, then to bed for an early night hoping for a nice day to ride the seven lakes route into Bariloche.