Argentina: San Martin de los Andes (Patagonia)

North some 3 or 4 hours from Bariloche is a smaller, equally pleasant town called San Martin de los Andes. Situated just miles from the Chilean border and on the shores of Lago (lake) Lacar, San Martin de los Andes is nestled in a valley between two forested mountains. A postcard-worthy kind of place, most of the town’s buildings look like ski lodges, and the mountains reflect off the lake. A popular ski town in the winter, San Martin de los Andes becomes a much sleepier destination in the summer, offering a great place to hike and canoe on the lake. With Springtime in full swing, we enjoyed a few sunny days exploring the town and the surrounding area.

On the doorstep of Parque Nacional Lanin, Argentina’s third largest national park and home to 35 lakes and an extinct volcano, the region around San Martin de los Andes offers some exceptional hiking. We enjoyed walking to some nearby lookouts over the lakes and town, but eventually asked around about a more substantial hike. With a hand-drawn (not-at-all-to-scale) map in tow, we set out enthusiastically to scale the mighty Cerro Colorado, some 13kms out of town. An intimidating 1,778 meters high, which translates to over a mile up into the clouds, the mountain’s trail is beautiful but extremely STEEP, providing a natural Stairmaster for our several hour hike. We passed only a handful of people all day long as we climbed through shaded forest, navigated around thick shrubs and eventually scrambled over dusty rocks; it felt like we had the mountain to ourselves. Alas, willed by fresh air and the stunning scenery surrounding us, we made it to the summit after a nearly 3-hour climb. With no one anywhere in the vicinity to snap our “we made it” photo, we were compelled to engage in a goofy self-timed photo shoot. Some snapshots of this session can be found below, for better or worse.

Once our shaking legs reached the bottom of mighty Cerro Colorado, our epic day of hiking continued for another 3 hours (no cabs way out there…!). We walked all the way back to town through a thickly-forested lakeside trail, which included encounters with a random assortment of animals and ran alongside a friendly, indigenous Mapuche community. Back in quaint San Martin de los Andes, we closed down an unforgettable day by stocking up on wine and groceries, knowing full well we wouldn’t be able to move our weary legs that following day.