February 26 - Puella to Bariloche, Argentina

Be prepared for landscape overload today!  Between photos and short landscape movies I took over 100 shots today.  However, the Internet will collapse if I show you all of them, so here is a short sample.

After breakfast we left Puella heading east.  We made it through Chilean exit customs, at which point we started climbing the pass.  We are in a 3/4 sized bus, 4 wheel drive.  Some of the switchbacks are so short the bus has to back up to get around them.  This is even tighter than the switchbacks on BC logging roads.

We've already seen a lot of spectacular scenery but the first shot I will show you is the Chilean side of Cerro Tronador, the highest peak in the area, at over 3400 meters.

Same mountain, close up.

Laura at the border crossing.  Remember, we went through Chilean exit customs 4 km back and it will be 4 km until we hit Argentinean entry customs.

(Don't tell anybody, but I jumped into the bush for a piddle and found the original metal boundary kiosk - neat.)

Down the hill, through Argentine customs to Lago Frias. 

 I must say, the Argentine Customs post was much more impressive here than when I went through between Pto Natales & El Calafate.  They even had electricity!  Our bus is on the left.

A black necked swan.  I had seen these in Puerto Natales, but this is the first good photo.

The Argentine side of Tronador.

A short boat ride down Lago Frias, a shorter bus ride (3 km) and here we are at 
Lago Nahuel Haupi.  This is a Mapucho name, as opposed to the Spanish or German names of many of the local landmarks.
We were early for the last lake trip, so we the cat took us across the bay you see to climb up the valley to a small lake behind.

Bruce & Ian, what do you think about these for trail boardwalks?  Maybe Parks Canada could learn something from these guys.  BTW, there were 581 steps, in case you were wondering.  Not a long walk.

At the end of the trail was Lago Cantaras and this Alerce tree.  This particular guy is over 1500 years old.  The Alerce is in the running for the oldest tree on earth, as there are some very old samples elswhere.  
Laura thinks they resemble Western Red Cedar in a number of ways.  Sorry, but there was no way my camera could do justice to this tree.

We're on the final leg of our trip today, an hour and a half voyage down Lago Nahuel Haupi.  

The spectacular scenery just keeps coming and coming.

Some jagged peaks above a hanging valley.

Laura could have booked us into this lakeside resort (apparently at $1000 / night), but I guess I'm not good enough for this.  She's booked us into a $40 a night hostel in downtown Bariloche.

That's OK - here's our room in Periko's hostel.  Pretty nice actually.  I'll forgive Laura if she buys dinner.

So, what went wrong - I bought dinner!  There just ain't no justice,  Good pizza and local beer, however.

I could have added a million more photos, but  it's late and I need my beauty sleep.  Tomorrow we signed up for a hike back to Tronador.  We won't get too near the top, but I'm interested in hiking around here.

So, enough for today.