After a good night’s rest, a quick shower and breakfast at the hotel. Then The Wandelgek left Bariloche.

Many of the buildings in San Carlos de Bariloche are cheerful and colorful…

The Wandelgek drove a bit north, out of Bariloche

towards the coast of Lake Nahuel Huapi and Puerto Pañuelo (Pañuelo Port) on the Llao Llao peninsula…

, from where he took a boat on the lake towards Puerto Blest.

I can recommend this boatrip to anyone who loves clear blue alpine like lakes surrounded by mountains which flanks are covered with temperate zone green forests and which summits are covered in bright glaciers and snow.

The boat at first turned south towards the widest area of Lake Nahuel Huapi…

Then it sharply turned west into a narrowing arm of the lake which ends at Puerto Blest, where it changes into a river…

Far away the Cascada Blanca) reached the lake which was as blue as the sky above. Again The Wandelgek was blessed by the weather gods…

From the mountains the glacial melt water of the Cascada Blanca was cascading down from great hights…

….and in Spring there still is a lot of snow and ice on the summits, producing melt water, feeding those waterfalls…

Beneath near the lakes surface, the fall became wider and did justice to its name…

After arriving and disembarking at Puerto Blest, The Wandelgek tried to get informed about the local walking trails as quickly as possible, but that proved to be somewhat of a pickle.

Puerto Blest

Hotel Puerto Blest

Puerto Blest has a hotel. Puerto Blest Hotel is located surrounded by the dense vegetation of the Selva Valdiviana, surrounded by the imposing Cordillera de los Andes, the Cerro Tronador, the Cerro Tres Hermanos (Mount Tres Hermanos) and Lago Frías, with its peculiar emerald green waters, product of the green mineral particles provided by the glacier.

It is not a village or a town and the hotel is 25 km away from Puerto Pañuelo, near the city of San Carlos de Bariloche. The only access ways are either sailing through Lago Nahuel Huapi (like The Wandelgek did) or coming from the Chilean border through the Paso Pérez Rosales (Pérez Rosales Pass).

This particular location and the surrounding jungle environment make Puerto Blest Hotel a unique place where nature, history and modernity melt together and complement each other to provide its visitors with an unforgettable experience during their stay.

The hotel is the only inhabitable location in tens of kilometers, making it an ideal spot for travelers like The Wandelgek, looking to relax, connecting with nature, breaking their routine and also for those looking for activities like trekking through trails in an ecosystem that exists only in this part of Argentina.

More information can be retrieved from the hotel’s website.

Walks

Park rangers were asking people to follow them for quick explanations of walking trail routes, but no one thought of explaining the language thing. The Wandelgek did have a multilingual guude in his travel group, but he did not know whether tge explanatiins by the travel guides would be in Spanish or in English so after some confusing moments of guides calling people mostly in Spanish, he found himself in a group of people in front of a large trail route map sign, but with a Spanish speaking guide and no translation to English.

After that it took some time to find an English language ranger that could help him towards the start of a walking trail, but luckily enough there was a lot of time before the last boat would return towards the Llaollao peninsula, form where he could take the bus back to Bariloche.

Because of the many hours of time, The Wandelgek decided to combine four walks (1 tiny and 3 larger) in the area. There was the Rio Frias walk to Lago Frias and the tiny detour of the La Turbera walk, then the Parque Nacionales walk through the forest along the edge of the Lago Nahuel Huapi to the other side and finally the more demanding Los Cantaros walk which was a steep, more or less continuous, ascend via wooden stairs and forest trails towards a bunch of  viewpoints over a steep waterfall. The trail ended at a gorgeous viewpoint or mirador over Lago Los Cantaros and towards Mountain summits that were already into neighboring Chile

But first things first

Rio Frias walk (3.3km) (easy):

After finding the starting point of the Rio Frias walk, The wandelgek quickly began to make some kilometers…

The 1st part of the walk was along a meadow in and around which, flowering trees and bushes were showing off.

Then the route (it was not a trail but more like a gravel/sand road on which cars and even busses drove on and off), dove into the gorgeous Valdivean forest, which is unique and can only be found ar this location…

Along the trail were several giant Alerce trees and the sun was ablaze between their leaves…

Valdivian temperate forests

The Valdivian temperate forests is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainforests are characterized by their dense understories of bamboos, ferns, and for being mostly dominated by evergreen angiosperm trees with some deciduous specimens, though conifer trees are also common.

Below is a picture of the huge Alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides).

The Valdivian temperate rain forests are temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. The Valdivian and Magellanic temperate rainforests are the only temperate rain forests in South America and one of a small number of temperate rain forests in the world. Together they are the second largest in the world, after the Pacific temperate rain forests of North America (which stretches from Alaska to northern California). The Valdivian forests are a refuge for the Antarctic flora, and share many plant families with the temperate rainforests of New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia. Fully half the species of woody plants are endemic to this ecoregion.

There are four main types of forest ecosystems in the Valdivian ecoregion:

1. Deciduous forests
2. Valdivian laurel-leaved forests
3. Patagonian Andean forests
4. Northern Patagonian forests

In this area we find the Patagonian Andean forests. The third forest type is the Patagonian Andean forests, which are distributed at higher elevations along the Andes mountain front, and are dominated by evergreen conifers, including pehuén (Araucaria araucana) and alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides). The alerce looks like a giant sequoia, and is a rival in longevity to the bristlecone pine, some with growth rings recording 3,625 years of local weather cycles. Closer to the treeline, the conifers give way to Andean scrublands of deciduous Nothofagus antarctica.

24.16% of the Valdivian temperate forests ecoregion is in protected areas, like e.g. Los Alerces National Park and Nahuel Huapi National Park.

After a few kilometers, Lago Frías suddenly appeared from between the trees. Where everything had been green and full of trees, suddenly an open space appeared. Under a still completely bright blue sky and surrounded by green trees, a shimmering green lake. A picture perfect place for a lunch break…

The peculiar green waters are the result of minuscule particles of pulverized rock, caused by the glacier grinding against the rock walls of Cerro Tronador, whose fierce white summit stands out over the Valdivian rainforest landscape. This however can only be seen from a boat.

A map of the area showed many trails and thus it was clear that this area was frequently visited by hikers, walkers and other nature lovers and fans.

On the return walk, The Wandelgek noticed a signpost indicating a tiny detour walk:

La Turbera walk (40 meters):

This was like a tiny intermezzo of the Rio Frias walk. If you’re walk in the Rio Frias walk, thinking to skip this tiny detour, then think again. It is very worthwhile to add this really short distance. It detours towards a large field of trees in front of  the Andes mountains. In those trees The Wandelgek saw and heard a lot of amazing birds. Do not skip this!

The view at the end of this small detour was gorgeous as well.

This was an absolute bird paradise, which you could hear from the many birdsongs coming from the trees.

After returning to the main Rio Frias walk, The Wandelgek continued towards Lago Nahuel Huapi.

After walking past some Alerce trees…

…following the gravel/dirtroad back to Hotel Puerto Blest…

…The Wandelgek started a 2nd larger walk to a boat pier at the other side of the narrow arm  of Lago Nahuel Huapi. It was possible to board the boat back to … overthere instead of from the hotel.

Parque Nacionales Trail (2.5km) (easy):

The 2nd walk followed the shoreline but did so from a little distance from the lake and a bit higher than the shoreline, underneath the trees. There was another trail (the Sendero La Bahia) going directly along the shoreline, but the rangers had closed that trail. In retrospect the trail seemed to be open and it was definitely not clear why the trail would have been closed. Rangers said because of high water level which flooded part of the trail but that was not the case at all. I’m sorry to say but this brings me to advise you to judge for yourself whether you think a trail is safe. Rangers do not always provide correct information. I think in this case the local rager that prohibited me from following that trail was not very knowledgeable to say the least.

However a bit further on the Sendero Nacionales, the Sendero La Bahia joined and it was possible to retrace the La Bahia trail to the lake and there were great views of the narrow part of the lake …

There were lots of blooming lupines on the beach. .

Playing with the light a bit in the previous and next pictures which were taken in the same location and direction.

The yellow blooming bushes were present too, but they didn’t fool me a bit. Of course I knw they were beautiful daughters of local tribal chieftains, who tried to make a run with secret lovers and were changes magically into thorny bushes by tribal shamans, to prevent that from happening ?

The Wandelgek returned to the Parque Nacionales trail and followed it util the lakes end, from where the trail went in opposite direction on the other side’s shore. Now the Hotel Puerto Blest could be seen from a distance.

During this walk The Wandelgek crossed the border from the Rio Negro province into the Neuquen province (the tiniest of the 5 patagonian provinces).

Weather was still amazing. Not as warm as in Buenos Aires, but better suitable for walks…

Then The Wandelgek reached the lake shore at a small jetty where the boat would pick him up, but there was still plenty of time for a last trail:

Los Cantaros Trail (2.4km/steep but with wooden stairs):

This walk was something quite different. It was a walk ascending steeply, for a large part via wooden stairs but also via beautiful forest trails. All of those ascending.

En route were miradors (viewing points) on several levels, to be able to see the waterfall.

The waterfall could be heard everywhere on the trail…

Lago Los Cántaros is located less than a kilometer north of the western end of the Blest arm of Lake Nahuel Huapi. It is 650 meters long and is located entirely within the Nahuel Huapi National Park. It is surrounded by an exuberant Valdivian jungle, characterized by a great variety of plant species. Located very close to the border with Chile, it is located in an area of ​​high rainfall. A reason for this high rainfall is tgat the Andes are not that high overhere. Clouds with rain coming from the Pacific Ocean can pass those mountains and still have plenty of rain to drop in this area of Argentina.

After such a wooden balcony, the stairs went up, up, up again to the next mirador…

Not far from the end of the trail was a huge, impressive larch tree which was 1,500 years old…

Then The Wandelgek reached the highest mirador…

The trail had been climbing a lot and was now high above the lake.

Still the falls kept falling down?

There was more blue sky visible now and less wooden stairs.

It seemed that the top of the trail and its finish was very near now…

Finally, after a walk through the lush vegetation of the Valdivian rainforest, The Wandelgek arrived at Lago Cántaros (Cántaros Lake,) the mouth of the waterfall.

The Wandelgek was now really near the Argentine-Chilean border. The white glaciar that shows itself from between two mountains is actually in Chile.

Its main tributary is the Ortiz Basualdo River, an emissary of the lake of the same name. On its southern coast, its outfall, the Los Cántaros river, flows into Lake Nahuel Huapi, near the western end of the Blest branch. In less than a kilometer, the Río de Los Cántaros drops more than 100 meters; a part of this important descent is done through the waterfall on the previous pictures.

This was The Wandelgek’s 1st view into Chile, a country which he hoped to visit later on his travels…

This was really a very beautiful and tranquil spot and The Wandelgek took some time to inhale the pure mountain air, listen to the water and because of the surrounding mountains, the always present patagonian wind was…for once…not that present?.

Oh yeah and some photo’s had to be made too, naturally…

Then it became time to start the descent, so the last boat for the return journey to Bariloche would not be missed…

 

The iron/steel fences at the jetty were a somewhat surprising, but nevertheless ideal spot for this bird of prey to settle for while and bask his feathers in the sun…

Sometimes you can walk through a wonderful forest, being so focussed on walking, climbing stairs, avoiding a bump into other walkers, photographing waterfalls, etcetera, that you completely miss out on the birds. Makes it extra funny to see one waiting for you at the the boat jetty then??.

Then the last boat arrived…

Another beautiful journey on Nahuel Huapi lake, first through the Blest arm towards the lakes wide center and then back to Puerto Pañuelo, where the bus was waiting for the last stretch to Bariloche.

During the return journey the boat again navigated for about one hour along the Blest arm on Nahuel Huapi Lake, passing by iconic places as the Centinela Island where the Perito Francisco Pascasio Moreno, father of National Parks in Argentina, rest in peace.

Soon I will tell you a lot more about Perito Francisco Pascasio Moreno and why he was so important for Argentina that his name is nowadays a household name found in street names, National Park names, Glaciar names, and more, like e.g. Garibaldi is in Italy, Michiel de Ruyter is in The Netherlands, George Washington is in the US and dragons are in Vietnam.

After the returning the hotel, it was time for a shower and then The Wandelgek went for dinner in a typical Swiss chalet like restaurant named La Marmite ..

They had cheese fondue on the menu but also sauerkraut  with sausage, ham, bacon and potato…???

They offered Patagonia Amber Lager as a beer choice which is really a good beer…

After this delicious dinner, The Wandelgek stayed for some drinks. The restaurant had this Swiss/Bavarian vibe which he liked and he wasn’t tired yet. In one of the corners was a small wood carved statuette of a Hunter…

Lat thing to mention was this toilet window which looked out upon a tiny courtyard. I don’t know why but sometimes I get these strange thoughts in my head. Somehow I loved the structure of the window and how it was lit by he light from outside. In the toilet itself the light was absent or broken, so I was happy with that little bit of indirect light.

Then The Wandelgek walked through the night…

…and returned to his hotelroom to watch some football games and to sleep….