While the Corona virus keeps Germany in suspense, we leave Chile for the last time in the direction of Argentina to take a look at the 7-lake region there and the area around Bariloche – we start with the latter. Although Bariloche counts as Switzerland in South America and has many well-heeled summer residences here, the area is very criminal here. Burglaries in campers have been reported here several times, even during the night. That is why CondorCampers advised us to refrain from WIld camping here at the beginning of the trip and to better switch to paid campsites. We are looking for one in the nice suburb of Colonia Suiza, founded by Swiss and now we are confronted with Corona for the first time. In the general kitchen there is a bottle of disinfectant linked to the virus. We also meet our somewhat taciturn German rescuer, who last helped us with the empty car battery.
Bariloche got its nickname not only because of its founding fathers (and the unaffordable living costs for “normal” Argentines), but especially because of its location on the lake in the middle of an impressive mountain landscape. Of course we do not miss this and take two hikes – in the spirit of the Alpine feeling – mountain huts. The first leads us to Refugio Italia, it begins almost directly at the campsite and only leads us through a beautiful jungle only to then bring us up about 1000m within a few kilometers. It’s a good thing that we are now fully in training and so we can do the five-hour climb in about three and a half. We are rewarded with few tourists, a beautiful lake (Negra lagoon) in the Andes and a funny interpretation of a “hut” in a tin hut.
We stumble back in the middle of alpine folklore. It is Sunday, the small village is becoming a tourist magnet and serves the cliché with something that is reminiscent of a beer garden atmosphere. Absolutely weird and we find it so funny that after a regional beer with live guitar music we spontaneously decide to stay one night longer.
A day of rest is also good for us, because the next hike to the Refugio Otto Meiling in the 80 km south of the Nahuel Huapi National Park is again over 1000 meters in altitude. We spend the “day off” with an extensive breakfast, before we slowly make our way along the lake of the same name towards the national park and keep stopping for the picturesque backdrop.
In the national park we find a wonderfully quiet place to sleep on Lago Hess, enjoy the sunset over the “del Manso” glacier, to which we will leave very early the next morning. Because at the start of the hike to the refuge, about 50km have to be mastered in the semi-darkness over the gravel slopes of the park. They have it all, but the sunrise and the great scenery with morning mist during the journey make up for early waking up and the shaken bones. The hike also creates this canvas effect again, because as soon as you have covered the first 700 meters of altitude, you walk in the midst of an impressive scenery of mountains, volcanic rocks and glaciers until you reach the refuge, which is exactly between two glaciers – “del Manso” and “Castano Overo” – shelter for hikers. We don’t stay overnight, but since we leave so early and the buses from Bariloche arrive much later, we have the view almost to ourselves.
Our last stage in Argentina takes us north along the “Ruta de los Siete Lagos” and we are glad to have visited Bariloche next to the lakes. The lakes are in every guidebook, more than a “very nice” flies only once over our lips and that is due to a litter of small cat puppies and not at the lake.
Back to Chile it goes over the Paso Huahum and here Corona catches up with us again. Because we have to sign an affidavit about our stays outside of Chile for the past 30 days. Good thing we weren’t there in Germany, otherwise we would probably be in quarantine! In addition, our camper is examined here for the first time (almost 10 minutes) after Essen. We had never experienced that before. Then we take a ferry back to the volcanically active region of La Araucania, the penultimate stage of our trip …