The lake Nahuel Huapi covers two of Argentina’s provinces: Río Negro and Neuquén. A very popular place for people to explore the lake and its surrounding mountains is Bariloche in Río Negro. Although I spent a lot of time there, I was disappointed by the extortionate prices for boats to the national parks. A ferry ticket to visit the Arrayanes forest on Victoria Island was more than 100 euro! So I made my way up route 40 to the much smaller town Villa la Angostura in Neuquén. The Nahuel Huapi lake has a surface area of about 530.9 km² and driving from Bariloche to Villa la Angostura takes about an hour and 20 minutes. Then you’re in a cute town with a pleasant shopping street with some restaurants. It gets overflown by day trippers at certain hours in the day, but generally seemed really quiet. The town has some kind of connection to the Netherlands, since the royal family often comes here due to queen Maxima’s roots. Apparently I missed Maxima and Willem-Alexander by a couple of weeks.
Exploring the trails around Villa la Angostura
I arrived after an excursion on the route of the seven lakes from San Martín de los Andes and checked into the hostel la Angostura, which is housed in a beautiful wooden building. The cosy living room was very inviting and got people together, especially around the free breakfast, and got me practising my Spanish with tourists from other parts of Argentina. The dorms were simple, nothing fancy, but it worked for the few nights I’d stay. From the hostel it’s easy to walk to the center of town, where all the buses stop. I wanted to go to Puerto Angostura to start my hike in the Arrayanes national park. Altough I knew there were buses, I had no clue where exactly they would depart from. After asking around and being sent to different corners, I found the right spot. It took a long time, but eventually a bus showed up and dropped me off right at the entrance of the park.
I started the 11km hike to the other side of the peninsula. You could pay for a ferry to pick you up at the other end, but like in Bariloche, prices were not cheap. So I set out for a long day of walking, with 22km to cover. The peninsula is basically a big, long hill. You start with a climb and then go up and down between 788 and 912 meters above sea level. I thought that would get me incredible views over the lakes, but, although there are views, the majority of the trail is really in the forest and you can’t see anything beyond the first rows of trees. Although it’s a national park now, this peninsula used to be private land. The owners really loved the arrayan trees and decided to get rid of any other kinds. That’s why there are still so many arrayanes in the park. Although it’s a nice sight, the growth of other species of trees is now encouraged to restore the original diversity of the local trees.
At the South end of the peninsula they made a wooden walkway through a part of the forest with a particularly high count of Arrayanes. When I started walking the little loop it was so quiet. I just listened to the birds and sat down at a bench to have some lunch. Then suddenly people started to arrive. They’d come by boat. Some only visit the little loop and leave again by boat, others hike the path back to Puerto Angostura. But even with those people it wasn’t very busy. I took a stroll over the rocky beach at the lakeside. On my way back I stopped at one of the two lagoons on the peninsula. It was breathtaking, but so was the way back. Well, I guess I just prefer not backtracking the same way.
A surprising, spontaneous hike
On my second full day in Villa la Angostura I wanted to do something a bit more relaxing, so I picked a small viewpoint and a waterfall to walk to. Little did I know that the path I started on would tempt me to keep going and climb up to bigger and better. I walked through the town and quite enjoyed seeing the suburbs, where people lived in wooden houses of all kinds. I passed the construction of the new main road, which should clear the town center of traffic and big Chilean trucks. As I got closer to the start of the hike I got a small scare by an active dog, but managed to safely get to the start. Locals were looking at me funnily as everybody else drove, parked their car and then hit the trails.
When I got to my intended stop at Mirador Belvedere it was still really early. I also saw that the trail continued and a couple that I saw at the mirador was continuing on. My curiosity won from the voice inside that told me to take it easy and mind my foot injury. It was the last hike in a while anyway. I would be heading to Buenos Aires the next day. I told myself I’d just walk a little bit more, to get a better view. I could always turn around. But what happened? Of course I never turned around. Not when the trail split and I just took my chances. Not when the last bit looked really gnarly and slippery. I kept going and was rewarded with the most incredible views over lake Correntoso. I saw clouds rising up from the water and moments later, showing a clear view. I came past some trees with a couple of woodpeckers that were hitting the tree trunks as if playing a song. And then I got to the gnarly part…
The last part was steep, challenging, slippery and I was very aware that I was alone and had nobody to help me if I would fall. But I took comfort of knowing the people in front of me would eventually return and find me, if anything were to happen. The last bit got very rocky, but I safely arrived at the 1550m high peak of the Filo Falso Belvedere. Wow! I could not have imagined my day to be this awesome! This place was unreal and, perhaps because of the element of surprise and my unexpected start to this route, became one of my favorite views of my trip. Below me I saw the color-changing leaves showing nature’s autumn best. On several sides I looked out over the many lakes. I saw parts of Villa la Angostura below and out in the distance I saw the mighty, snow-capped peak of Tronador mountain. It brought me back to memories of my track on the Paso de las nubes. This viewpoint was the perfect place to reflect on all the beauty I had seen in the past 2 weeks in Argentina’s lake district. When the couple left the peak, I was all alone up there. I watched the clouds, took photos and just breathed. I felt so at peace.
I carefully made my way down, said hi to the woodpeckers again and came across some ladies who were on their way up. The woman in the lead struck up a conversation with me. She loved that I was from the Netherlands, the country where they had a queen, and enthusiastically introduced me to her friends when they caught up to her. It seemed like she was introducing someone she had known for years, so I got a hug from the other two ladies. I think it was a surprise to them when they found out we had actually just met in the middle of the forest. When I was almost back down again, I could take a side trail to Cascada Inacayal. It brought me to a beautiful little waterfall, which seemed to be a playground for locals.
This hike wrapped up my stay in Patagonia. I had seen so much, challenged myself time after time on hikes. My body was tired. My mind was ready for some more civilization; a city. But after seeing all of this, it was still hard to say goodbye.
