Lanin National Park

Our one week in San Martin de Los Andes was spent mostly on our five day camping trip near Lago Lacar in the Lanin National Park. Mark and I set out on a sunny Tuesday morning on a boat headed for Quila Quina, a small town 26km from San Martin. After a thirty minute boat ride, we arrived on the shores of Quila Quina. The tourist season had yet to begin and all the shops were closed, but we managed to find signs pointing to the campsite.

After walking for approximately an hour, we came across the Mapuche ran campground situated directly on the lake with amazing views. We were just about the only campers for the night so we got our first pick on a campsite; we chose the one on the peninsula closest to the water. We set up our tent quickly and immediately changed into our bathing suits ready to jump into the cold lake water. We found a nice rock to sunbathe on and spent the entire afternoon lying in the sun, swimming, and talking.

Mapuche Campsite, Lago Lacar

Dinner that night was one of Mark´s camping concoctions - instant mashed potatoes, hot dogs, corn, onion and cheese. We had to get pretty creative in order to cook for two people in our JetBoil, but after a bit of research and preparation, we feel like we ate pretty well for the entire trip!

One of the campsite managers, a younger guy raised near Quila Quina, asked us where we were headed to next. After telling him, ¨Vamos a Lago Escondido¨, he gave us a worried look and wished us good luck dealing with all of the recent ash from the Puyehue Volcano in Chile. We didn´t think much of it and set out the next morning to Lago Escondido, an approximately six hour hike from our location on Lago Lacar.


The hike to Lago Escondido turned out to be quite the ordeal - with no markers or signs pointing in the right direction, we got turned around a few too many times. The two maps that we had did not match up to the roads that we were on and we had to stop many times to ask the locals which way to go. After being led through people´s yards and to roads that we never knew existed, we finally felt like we were on the right trail. 


We came to a house, with a gate and a sign that everyone had told us to look for. We knew that from there it would take at least one more hour to reach the lake. We came across a deep river without a bridge or rocks to cross, and we thought, ¨There´s no way in hell this could be a part of a trail!¨. But, after checking out our other options, we decided to make the crossing wading knee-deep in water to get to the other side. Again, we came across a Y in the road, and after coming to a closed gate, we backtracked and went the other way only to find another river with no bridge or rocks to cross. 


At that point, we had been walking through the ash-covered roads for over six hours and weren´t really sure if we were headed in the right direction or not. We decided to go back to the house that we saw near the gate to see if we could either sleep there for a night or possibly get the right directions from them. On our walk back, we ran into (almost literally) a man with his two dogs and a horse.


He told us to sleep near the river and that he would come back the next morning to escort us to Lago Escondido. We were so thankful to have found him, but not so thankful to have to sleep in cow country! The entire trail to the lake is surrounded by land owned by individual cattle ranchers. These cows are not the everyday mom n pop dairy cows that you see nicely fenced in and minding their own business. These are big-assed, free roaming, balls and horns attached, bulls that stare you down as if they want to make your day miserable. Needless to say, we will be asking about wildlife on all upcoming trips!

Alberto Casanova is a local rancher who owns over three hundred cattle and fifty horses. As promised, he was at our campsite at 8:00am the following morning and led us, with his horse and two dogs, to Lago Escondido. Turns out, we had been going the right way but the trail was actually almost two hours instead of the one hour as expected.

Alberto Casanova

Lago Escondido is a beautiful mountain lake with crystal clear water and jumping fish. Mark crafted a makeshift fishing pole and spent most of the day trying to catch a mid-afternoon snack. But hikers beware, the most aggressive flies we have ever met live in this part of the woods. At one point, we had about twenty of them circling us. The locals say that the more you swat at them, the more they bug you, but it was so hard to resist!

Sunset at Lago Escondido

We spent one night at Lago Escondido before heading back to Quila Quina. We knew that we would have to face the cows for one more day - we practically ran down the mountain! We saw Alberto on our way out checking on his cows and said hello to him.


We made it down from the main trail and were making our final corner before reaching the campiste when all of a sudden, we saw it - a bull walking down the road! I practically jumped off the road into the bushes below, telling Mark to join me. The bull started to pick up speed and I thought ¨Oh, shit!¨. Around the corner came a little girl, who looked about twelve years old, chasing the bull in her bathing suit. They both ran passed us and the girl leapt in front of the bull bringing him to a halt before wacking it on the ass to direct him up the hill. After witnessing this little girl man-handle the bull, I felt slightly embarassed crawling out of the ditch where I was hiding. The next day we walked past the cows like we had been doing it all of our lives.

The highlight of our trip was meeting Alberto and getting a glimpse into his life as an Argentinian cattle rancher. We will always remember this trip as our first real encounter with bulls and meeting the most annoying bugs of our lives. But, we will also remember the friendliness of the locals, the amazing scenery,  and the celebration beers.


We are currently in Bariloche celebrating the holidays in our small studio overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi. We will be going out for a Christmas Eve dinner tonight at a Parilla restaurant called El Boliche de Alberto. Christmas day will be spent at the cabin cooking prime rib, mashed potatoes, plus all of the fixings and a nice Malbec. We wish all of our families and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!