My first stop was at Cerro Catedral, which is probably the place to be during the ski season but is pretty sparsely populated during the summer. They do have a funicular, but they have to work on their pricing structure (no discounts for seniors :( and no small hikes once you get to the top). I thought it was pricey, so I just walked part of the way up following one of the tracks and called it my hike for the day.
Then I came to the entrance of the Nahuel Huapi national park, where I was presented three options: Foreigner US$ 20, Argentinian US$ 7, or retired Argentinian Free. So I had to ask what the price was for a retired foreigner, and the young man asked me where I was from. "Mexico", I responded. "Well, can you talk like an Argentinian?" "Seguro, Ché" "Bueno, US$ 7 ... and please remember to talk like an Argentinian while you are inside the park". Gotta love it.
The main attraction of the park (in addition to its many lakes) is Cerro Tronador, a big turtle of a mountain covered by glaciers. I wonder if the name Tronador, or rumbling mountain, come from ice falls sloughing off the glaciers. Trying to climb it is way above my current pay grade, so I felt satisfied with admiring it from the distance.
The other attraction is the Cascada de los Alerces, which is at the end of a 16 km dirt track that starts with about 500 m of a narrow steep upgrade. There is a weird rule that says that cars are allowed in the inward direction from 13h00 to 17h00, and in the outward direction from 18h00 to 20h00. Most people (including me) seem to ignore this rule, but I had at least one sanctimonious driver shake his head at me while tapping his watch. The alerce is the South American pine, and the waterfalls are reached through an easy walk through a lovely forest of alerces. The waterfalls are nice, although not spectacular, but the Rio Manso has the distinction of being the only river that starts on the Atlantic side of the Andes but turns and cuts through the mountain range to go empty into the Pacific. Its gorge must be spectacular!
This is the end of my tourist phase, and I am going into roadtrip phase. As I said before, Patagonia is vast, so tomorrow I will drive to Esquel, 284 km away, where I will spend a couple of nights, before moving forward to Perito Moreno (550 km) and El Calafate (650 km). And then I have to get back to Bariloche in time to catch my flight to Buenos Aires and from there back home.
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