La Route de Siete Lagos

La Route de Siete Lagos (Road of 7 Lakes) is the iconic route in Argentina.  If you ask Argentinians what to do in Patagonia, they will list this before they list the places in Southern Patagonia like El Chatlen.  This drive would take about a hour and a half if you drove it straight.  We took 5 hours, saw every lake along the way, and thoroughly enjoyed it!  The road curves through the mountains and was a joy to drive.

My companion for the day was my new friend, Mouna.  We actually hit the first couple of stops the afternoon we arrived in Villa la Angostura.  The viewpoint over Lago Espejo Grande (Big Mirror Lake) was beautiful and showcased a beautiful tiny beach far below us.  We had to go!

The view of Lake Espejo Grande

So we turned off the road and off-roaded a little bit in the rental car to the beach below.  The water was so cold!  But so beautiful.  The wind here was so strong that there were constant waves lapping up against the beach, much like you would get in the ocean.  We swam a little and enjoyed the beach before heading back to Villa La Angostura for the night.

Enjoying the beach at Lake Espejo (Grande)

The next morning, I picked up Mouna early and we set out for the day before most of the crowds of tourists arrived at the viewpoints.  We enjoyed a view of the shortest river in the world that connects Lago Correntoso and Lago Nahuel Huapi.

The humungous Lago Nahuel Huapi early in the morning.
If you have a magnifying glass then you can see the River Correntoso

Lago Correntoso

Lago Baily Willys and another view of Lago Correntoso were pretty in the morning (I think we saw both).  Then a bit of a hike to the first of many campsites along this route gave us our next lake:  Lago Esperjo Chico (Small Mirror Lake) that lived up to its name from the beach.

The next stop was supposed to be Lake Traful from Villa Traful, but the side road leading to Villa Travul was so bad that we just said hello to the lake and then turned around to save time for the rest.

The next stop was actually a short trail to a waterfall for one of the many rivers connecting these two lakes.  Cascada Nivinco was a recommendation from my Bariloche hostel guide, and was a great suggestion!

Mouna and me in front of the waterfall

The beautiful Cascades Nivinco

The next stop was a short drive on a dirt road to yet another campsite, this time on the huge Lago Traful.  This time with sheep wandering around!  It was a gorgeous beach, chill campsite vibe and clean bathrooms and restaurant nearby.  If I come back to the Route de Siete Lagos, I will camp here!

Excellent beach on Lago Traful

A quick view of Lago Villarino and then on yet another campsite along Lago Faulkner, where people were putting in boats.  The road was getting really curvy and fun to drive by this point.

A view of Lago Villarino

Lake Faulkner

We saw another waterfall on the road - Cascada Vullignanco

We were running out of time by the time we saw the very popular Lago Hermoso (Beautiful Lake)

Lago Hermoso was full of vacationers on Saturday

Then we checked the last two lakes off the list - The "Hidden Lake" that you can only see from a distance, and then a view of the deep blue Lago Mochonico.  After another 30km drive on a really fun road, we finally reached Lago Lacar where the adorable ski town of San Martin de Los Andes sits.

The "Hidden Lake"

Lago Mochonico

The cute little town of San Martin de los Andes

We grabbed lunch in San Martin and then hit the road again to get to Pucon in time for the pre-excursion briefing for our volcano tour the next day.

On the way to Pucon, we crossed the border with full view of the stunning Volcan Lanin.

As soon as we crossed the border into Chili, all the  mountain ranges turned into Volcanoes.  So cool!  It also became much green than the Argentine side.  Chile clearly gets more rainfall and we saw fat cows and ranches and festivals on the road to Pucon.

We finally arrived in Pucon, which turned out to be backpacker central.  More on Pucon coming up . . . .