Day 16 - 101 KMs, Lago Mascardi (Argentine Lakes District) (08:00) to Lago Nahuel Huapi (Argentine Lakes District), Argentina (16:15)

One Last Wilderness Moonlit Bivy Camping in Argentina

The Exact GPS location of this
campsite

I woke up around 8am today .   This was beginning to be another typical day, but that’s not a bad thing though as I am in the Patagonia Lakes District.   After all it’s quite beautiful here 8-).  Anywhooo, I made another simple breakfast of porrage and coffee (bad instant coffee).   I took my time waiting for run to reach me from the nearby mountain which was blocking it.  I packed up the van, re-organised it.  

After I was on the road,  I realised that I was only actually just 15 KMs away from Bariloche.  I had heard lots of good things about this place, but let’s see if its as “good” as everyone says. After I arrived to what was obviously the centre of this large busy town (near the land size of Wellington, NZ), I took me damm near 45 minutes to find a parking spot in the mayhem bad traffic which was everywhere.  There was not visible nor easy to find tourist information place.  Minus 1 point for the city.  And the traffic was a mess. It reminded me of slightly better version of Penang, Malaysia with regards to traffic.

The view from my van when I woke up.. Niiiiice!

After parking, I walked down a few roads and a few blocks here and there.  A few interesting stores were around, but nothing too eye catching.    I got bored quite fast and decides to go back the van and “get out of Dodge” as the saying goes.  On the 10 minute walk back the van, I saw a place called “Patagonia Mall”.  I thought, well I will look around in there for a while.  It was a nice looking mall inside, but just a ‘mall’ none-the-less.  I thought to myself, I am sort of hungry so I’d order a junk food wanna-be McDonald’s Quarter Pounder.  It was 11am and the place doesn’t open until 12 noon. WTF I am thinking?  I forgot I am not in anywhere else except Argentina where everything opens late and closes for the middle afternoon. LOL!  Its all good though, I will just use the free mall WIFI.  The WIFI barely works.

Bariloche, Argentina: Young doctors or just kids wearing
long lab coats for no reason

So I sat there for an hour and pondered if I should stay or go. Such an idiot is me!   By the time I decided to leave, it was 12 noon and the burger place opened up.  The place was called “La Mamadern”.     The bread was as dry as the Southern Patagonia winds and the meat (chicken??) was more bread than meat.  The fries were so-so and Pepsi,was sadly the best part of the meal!  I am no food critic, but this was truly shit food. Anyway after I ate the barely edible food, I went back the van.

Pretty cool looking tourist vehicle here in Bariloche

On the way out of the city, I filled up the tank again.   About 25 minutes of driving, I saw an “AeroClub” sign on the right side of the road.  I said to myself, “hey, let’s go check out some aeroplanes!”.  I did a turn around when I could.  During my turn around on a gravel side-street, I saw a vehicle for which I thought I’d never see again. The girls that hired the other van from Wicked Vans in Punta Arenas had a 3 seater van called “Sex is better in a Wicked Van”.  I just had saw them pass me going in the direction I was going for the day. They waved, and I gave them a “peace sign” with my fingers.   I went onward to the aeroclub, but it was deserted and long since not used.  I went back up the highway and took the turn off for Rt 231 towards the Chilean/Argentinian border.  (VA La Angustura).

Departing the San Carlos de Bariloche area...nice view!

This was a very very scenic drive. I mean very nice indeed. Lakes, mountains, and wee bit of “ash” on the side of the roads.  I see the kind of area I am going to now.  This is going to exciting!    I saw a campsite on the left side of the road rather quickly into this part of the drive.  I went in to check it out. It looks like it was obandoned or closed permanently.  It was nice thought. Nice lakefront spots, and all.   However I at this point I wanted to drive more than 55KMs in one day.  So I departed the free campsite.  I stopped at one more place about 25Kms down the road.  This was occupied by those long term campers aka- hippies.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but it was too crowded for my taste.  I stopped at yet another one just down the road from that last one.  It was just quick, but steep gravel road.  Nice views, but it was way too steep. I barely got my rear wheel drive van outta there. When I tried to run my way up the hill the first try, I had enough speed, but there were 2 big rigs there going by!  I had to stop near the road/top. Close call, but then I had to back up and try another way.  I had the drive beside the road and then to back on it.  That worked and I managed to not get killed in the process!

A closed/abandoned campsite near the Chilean border..
Free camping ...Nice lake!

I kept meandering down highway 231 West.  I came across the campsite called “ Camping Ragintuco”.  I went in a friendly guy met me at the front. He let me in so I could look around.   Nice place and was dead empty, but it said “No Swimming” on the lake beach.  I went back up to the guy  and said “no thanks, it has a NO SWIMMING sign”.  He explained in very basic English it means “Do not swim across the lake”.  Oh righto!  So I said, “Quanto solo camping?”. He said 90 pesos. Sold!  It was not cheap, BUT hI had the place to myself!  Wicked!

Lago Nahuel Huapi Camping.. empty except for me. Love it!

First thing I did after I got there, yes you guessed it I went in the lake!  I can really get used to this!  As I looked underwater, the shelf dropped off to a black colour very fast after just 10m from the lake shore. Wow!  Deep and cold..   So after I took a bath and quick cold lake dip, I went back to the van and hung up my swim shorts and towel to dry in the sun.  I then pulled out my laptop to write by blog entry for 4/3.  Done! 

Cold lake bath - last one in Argentia for my trip. It's very
"breathtaking" sure due to the cold water! ;-)

 While writing, I cooked my dinner:  a nice pasta and 4 cheese sauce dinner.  Yummy. Just what the doctor ordered!   While washing my pot and spoon (I ate out of the pot = less to clean!), I saw to lizards staring at me from a nearby log on the beach.  Hummmm..  interesting.  What were they I am thinking??

I walked over to them slowly with my point and shoot camera on video mode.  I filmed them playing with eachother.  It turns out that the log is their home.  Nice place to live. 8-)  So after getting my dinner sorted out (cleaned up) , I wanted to try to film with them with my GoPro and tripod.    I set it up and got the remote ready. They never re-appeared or the tripod and camera scared them into the log.  I failed at that one as I waited for 45 mins to pass. Oh well, I tried.

Bivvy camping at at empty lakeside in the Argentine Lakes
District..  Memorable beyond words!  :)

The weather today was utterly perfect for camping under the moon and stars, so I opted to pull out my bivvy sack and camp on sand of the lake shore.  Once it was all setup I went to bed.  As the cheese like moon rised up, the beach turned into  visual moonscape or like a Mars scene. Amazing!  I could see the Southern Cross and the moon.    I went to sleep in my reliable 4 season bivvy sack and never even needed the bug netting zipped up nor the rain cover. Usually I need one of them at least for camping.  This was a rare occasion and I was very appreciative it was happening for my in the Patagonia Lakes Region.  Think about it, I had the lake campground to myself, perfect weather and scenery to match Alaska’s scenery all in front of me.  Wow!  I was a happy 14 year old kid indeed!

Last light from the Lakes District, Argentina..
Good night everyone!

This is how I imagined my sleep filled nights in Patagonia beginning…. Very peaceful and rejuvinating.   Happy…  
Bed time was around 11pm or so… (I think?)   zzzz

Patagonia - such a magical place words cannot describe it
(Yes these are my boots sitting near my bivy sack)

Daily Summary:

Today was an magical day with a magical day. I am a bit sad that I know this is the last real remote camping chance I will get for this trip.  So this is why I used my bivy sacked on the empty lake tonight.  If only everyone could see and feel such places. The world would be a better place if this could be true... Looking forward to getting back into Chile tomorrow...