Tronador

What a day. It featured the most compelling nature of the trip. It was more like a Sierra Club trip than a tourist excursion. Unfortunately, Diana didn't join me; she felt it would be too much for her. Most of the people on the trip were from South America, there was an Italian couple as well.

The trip began with the guide describing all the sites we were going to see. Her name is Maria Inez, a very friendly and informative Tai-Chi practicing, nature loving artist who just happens to be a tour guide! We drove by Lago Gutierez just to the south of Bariloche. It's near the Cathedrals where they ski in the winter. Then we drove by Lago Mascardi. This is a large lake with beautiful colors including blue-green which Maria explained is caused by glacier sediments.

We entered Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi where we paid our 12 pesos entrance fee. We saw more of Lake Mascardi, which Maria explained was named after the Mapuches, the Indians in the region. She mentioned they were related to the Incas and were killed off by the settlers (someone we recently met pointed out that the famous Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges claimed the whites killed all the Indians in the area).

Next, we stopped at Los Rapidos at around 10:45. This is a calm creek at one point, then once it passes under the bridge, it becomes the rapids. There wasn't too much of a slope, so I guess it just takes off due to a significant narrowing of the passageway (it didn't appear to narrow that much).

There were plenty of yellow retamas and purple lupinos along the drive (Maria said they were brought over by the Europeans). Parenthetically, we talked about other sites to see in Patagonia. She mentioned Fitz Roy, a place near Chalton which has mountains like the glacier carved Perros, mas o menos, in Chile's Torres del Paine national park.

After this, we saw the Rio Manso which looks very dirty (I'll explain in a minute). There is a nice Swiss style restaurant and some great views of Mt. Tronador, rising over 11,000 ft. above sea level. We were going to stop for lunch there, but they decided to go straight to the base of the mountain, eat there, and give us an extra hour to hike around.

We finally did stop at the mountain's base and had something to eat. Boy are the views incredible (you can see the white glacier overhanging a ledge of the mountain). Most people hiked up to get closer to the waterfalls. I'd say it was about 1 mile hike over trails and rocks from an avalanche.

The waterfalls are gorgeous. I counted about 15 not including those of the trickle down variety. I felt the mist of the far left waterfall even though I was a good 100 feet away from it.

Finally, we saw Ventisquero Negro, the Black Glacier. It actually extended out farther about 30 years ago, but that part broke off, during that time, to become ice bergs of sort. One can see the white glaciers above the black one. To the far left lies the moreno where the glacier passed by.

The ride back was nice. Enjoyed the views of the lake. Had a nice chat with Maria who talked about life in Argentina. She described some of the horrors during the military dictatorship. Thousands of people were killed, many of whom simply "disappeared". She also talked about how difficult it is being an artist.

I returned to the hotel around 6:30, and as soon as I walked off the bus, Diana was arriving at the hotel! Perfect timing -- another sign of simpatico. At night, we ate at the Family Weiss restaurant which is one of the more popular in the city.

This is our last night in Bariloche. Tomorrow we return to Buenos Aires. We bid farewell to a lovely, beautiful region of the country.