Finally, it was already 11:30 am, we could leave Bariloche. First to Villa de La Angostura, about 85 kms (51 miles) away. We wanted to try and get there that day, but if we’d make it all depended on how the road would be. The only thing we knew was that it was paved.
The route turned out to be very beautiful. In the beginning pretty flat, but later it got more hilly. Again alongside lakes but also a part through a pretty dry world. A big difference from the other side of the lake where Llao Llao is. We made it nice in time to Villa de La Angostura so it was a very good day. The town is very nice, a bit of a ski atmosphere. A lot of stores, restaurants and terasses.
The next day we left the town again for a 2-day trip on the Seven lakes route. The beginning went very well; nice tarmac but many short and steep hills. After 27 kms (16 miles) the fun was over, from there on they were paving it which meant about 30 kms (18 miles) bad and unpaved road through a not so very interesting environment. Back on the Carretera Austral for a while. And it was very, very dusty! It didn’t take long for us to be dusted all over again.
At the last possible moment we met Gijs and Karen again. They had taken a different route from the Carretera Austral and were coming down from the north now to end their trip in Bariloche. But also on the seven lakes route, they were going to take a different route than we would. Right before they were taking a different road we ran into them, such a coincidence! We exchanged stories, but then it was time to go on and say goodbye. They went in the direction of Bariloche, from where they wanted to take a bus to Buenos Aires and we were heading toward San Martin de los Andes.
We camped alongside a lake a little bit further than halfway so we only had about 45 kms (28 miles) to go to San Martin de Los Andes, with the last 15 kms (10 miles) being downhill.
The last day to San Martin was great. First it went up again, but it was beautiful there with very nice viewpoints. And yes, the last 15 kms (10 miles) were downhill! At one point we had a beautiful view on the town. It’s nicely situated at the end of a lake, between mountains and hills.
Before we went looking for the house of Harry and Ivana, where we would stay, we had something to eat in a restaurant at the beach and sat in the sun. Then we went looking for their house which took us a while. Went into town in the evening. It’s a very nice town with a nice atmosphere. There are many stores, also many cyclingstores.
Tried to get the zippers (sliders) in the tent and it worked! Only we didn’t feel like trying to sow the end of the zipper back to the tent. The fabric was pretty thick and we didn’t want to mess around with needle and thread. So we took the tent to somebody who could do that for us. Went back into town in the afternoon, but most stores were closed due to siesta so we went to a restaurant and had a drink while sitting in the sun.
The next day we went on, to Junin de los Andes. Harry and Ivana were expecting other people and we had to go on anyway. And Junin was only 40 kms (24 miles) away so we took it easy and left around noon. From town it went up for a short while, but after that it was flat (apart from one other climb) and/or downhill. It was great, also because we had tailwind. Until the last 10 kms, from where we had stormy headwind. But we were almost there, so it wasn’t too bad. In Junin we went looking for the campground Harry had explained us about and we found it.
Hoi,
Fijn dat het na het gedoe bij de douane toch nog is gelukt met de ritsen, het is te hopen dat ze nu goed blijven werken. Het was zeker wel lekker in een hotel te zitten met al dat lekkere eten, hebben jullie daar ook nog een La Linda wijn gedronken? Leuke foto’s jullie zien er goed uit. Harry en Ivana hebben een mooi huis, het is ook wel leuk om even in de bewoonde wereld te zijn en dat er fietswinkels waren, misschien had je nog wat nodig. Hopelijk blijft het weer goed.
Fiets ze, Kiki, Henk en Femia