Argentina Trip Report Day 13: Bosque Arrayanes & Isla Vittoria; Day 14: Circuito Chico: Llao Llao peninsula

DAY 13, Dec 10, 2013: Cruise to Bosque de Arrayanes and Isla Victoria

We had booked a cruise to 2 islands. We had to reach the port to board our catamaran.

Before we started off, we enjoyed our beach again...sunrise over the pristine lake and snow covered mountains was AWESOME!

We caught bus 20 in the reverse direction and went to the port...Puerto Pañuelo.

As seen the company Turisur offers 3 cruises—we took the 1^st.

Here we are on the boat to Bosque de Arrayanes.

We had wanted to go by Cau Cau catamaran but our hotel said they were fully booked and booked us with Turisur.

With Turisur there was only Spanish commentary. The guide gave us a short translation when we approached her.

The ride on the serene lake was scenic.

Landed on the island which has a forest of rare arrayanes (myrtle) trees...they can be seen only in a Japanese island other than here.

These are the catamarans... they allow only these 2 companies—each is allowed to make 2 trips daily—at 10, and 2.30... we opted for the morning trip. Each boat can carry 250 people... Visitor number is thus limited.

This island is on the northern shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi.

BOSQUE LOS ARRAYANES:

The Myrtles National Park was created in 1971, covers Quetrihué Peninsula with an area of ​​1840 hectares.

Love the welcome board—Argentine flag is also always present.

There are a few boardwalk trails on the island. We started on the main circuit—800 m. Lovely seeing the dense forest of myrtle trees.

This tree, related to the Australian Eucalyptus, usually grows on the water shores, in very wet lands. However, pure myrtles forests can only be found in the south of the quetrihué peninsula and north of the Victoria island (Nahuel Huapi National Park). The park contains one of the only forested communities of Myrtle or Quetri (hence the name of the Peninsula Quetrihué, which means "place where there are Quetris").

The bark of this tree is made of silky-smooth and thin layers. The plant, through the segregation of tannin, dyes the bark cinnamon red, which falls off and produces their characteristic whitish spots.

The Arrayan trees, also known as myrtles, are usually myrtaceae bushes that grow on the shores of lakes and rivers, in this region they make up a thick forest with unique characteristics; here we can find wide trunk species, which are 50 feet and as old as six hundred and fifty years, in some cases.

Quite an awesome sight. The bark is cold to touch. Surprisingly the tree bark becomes white once it is cut...

How the tree reproduces...

Chucao, rayadito and pudu can be found in this forest—- we saw a pudu on 3 occasions and managed to video it on our last day in Argentina...

Nice cabin... this cottage was in the Disney movie Bambi.

The pro photographers take a pic here of all the tourists. Here's the screen grab of a pro photo. Why waste money to buy their copy when we can take a video shot of the TV screen when they show us the pics?

They don't count the number of people when leaving, so it's entirely up to us to make sure we board the catamaran when it leaves... otherwise, we can get left behind on the island.

It's very scenic by day but will get cold and scary at night if one gets left behind.

There is a 12 km. land route that connects Bosque Los Arrayanes to the port of Villa La Angostura. at normal speed, the walk usually takes about three hours. The path is signposted and its difficulty level is medium, with some undulations.

ISLA VITTORIA (VICTORIA ISLAND):

After the forest of myrtle trees, we landed at Victoria Island.

Victoria Island is the largest island of the Nahuel Huapi Lake.

 RED TRAIL:

Here we are on our 1st trail.

Instead of taking the blue trail 1st as the group did, we started on the red trail. Nice to be on our own..

Cedar tree here.

This is a Museum...nice wood panelled roof... had a native boat.

Nice to walk through the dense tree lined paths and appreciate the numerous tree species such as the sequoias, birches, firs, aroma trees, pines, etc. These exotic species were imported from Europe and the United States by the previous owners to create a large garden center.

 Huge trees...rustic seats for relaxing,,,.

 Huge cypress trees...cypress avenue.

 Conical fir trees seen in distance.

We took both these trails...red and orange!

ORANGE TRAIL:

rosa mosquito—musk rose and Spanish broom yellow flowers...

 WHITE TRAIL:

Here we are on top of the white trail—-we were not supposed to do this but we climbed all the way up...and were rewarded by this wonderful view.

The board shows where we are... from our red trail, we had gone on the white trail as well.

Our boat had docked to the right of puerto anchorena... we had 1st started on the red trail and then gone off a bit on the orange trail also.

Then we retraced and went up the red trail and reached this white trail and got to this lovely viewpoint.

We then went down and did a bit of the yellow trail but the sun was blazing... so we did not go up to the paintings (pinturas).

We retraced and took the blue trail of cerro bella vista and then came back. 

Sat at the scenic viewpoint near the pier for 1/2 hour, had our food and reached our boat by 4.30.

That is the summary but here re the details...

Row of giant sequoia—the largest tree in the world.

These are nire—-antarctic beech –trees.

Giant sequoia—redwood trees. They are the world's largest trees.

However, the wood is not very strong and is unsuitable for construction work. Without knowing this, the timber lobby in the US has felled several giant sequoia trees... the trees break to pieces as they fall and majority of the wood is wasted.. the rest was used for making matches. when people knew of this, there was an uproar and a ban on cutting sequoia!!!

Here's a giant sequoia in close quarters. ...

YELLOW TRAIL:

This is the yellow trail.

There are some cave paintings by ancient Mapuche Indians.

This trail was along the coast and quite scenic but this was one of the very few shaded spots... in other places, the sun was blazing.

Crystal clear lake and lush vegetation against mountain backdrop...on the yellow trail.

We quit the yellow trail and went toward the blue trail. Did Bella vista on the way

BELLA VISTA TRAIL:

We went up the Cerro Bella Vista trail.

 Climbed the 900 m. (3000 feet) high Bella Vista Mount —earlier they had a cable car here...

The Maravilla balcony has viewpoints along the descent path with 100 year old coigues and cypresses. playa=beach; pinturasa=paintings.

On the bella vista trail—a lovely view point on balcon maravilla.

BLUE TRAIL:

 Blue trail starts here...the board says ida y vuelta time is 1 hour but the path is pretty steep and there is only one way—the other is closed..

Trail goes on and on... lovely views at the end as usual!

Fin de sendero= end of trail.

Coastal trail:

 This is the coastal trail.

 Better look at cypress trees.

 The degree of difficulty of each trail— we did all of them. Hugely rewarding!

Bought a magnet from the souvenir shop and boarded the boat.

WHAT AN AWESOME DAY!

Dec 11, 2013, CIRCUITO CHICO AT LLAO LLAO: 

6am: Packing up...we were taking the 1.30 flight to Buenos Aires to catch our onward flight to Miami at 11.

We wanted to leave the hotel by 11.30.

So we checked out at 7, kept our bags with them and took the bus to Llao llao hotel.

Since the hotel breakfast is till 10.30, we decided to take it after we came back from our walk.

7am: we caught the no 20 , got down at Llao Llao hotel. Llao llao was the last stop in the reverse direction toward west. We had taken this bus umpteen times from our hotel into centro... toward east.

Also in the reverse direction to the port for our cruise to the 2 islands —Bosque de arrayanos and Isla Vittoria.

CIRCUITO CHICO AGAIN:

Our hotel had given us a 5 peso bus card, we loaded it with pesos from the local store and used one card for our trips... in the end we had 40 pesos left and we returned the card to the hotel. The going exchange rate had been 81/2 peso for a dollar in Bariloche.

Lovely climbing roses on a post...we decided to use the morning to walk the circuito chico trail near Llao llao hotel before going back to our hotel for breakfast... breakfast is from 8.30—10.30.

The hotel staff does not let non guests enter their premises, we walked in the picturesque surroundings.

 We preferred to be far from center and we were happy how our decision worked out.

  Golf course on the right . Lots of nice birds on the golf course... managed to get this one in the pic.

 At Port Panuelo—this is where we had come the previous day for our tour to 2 islands—Bosque de arrayanes and Isla Victoria. Port Pañuelo is at km 25.

Another golf course and the lake beyond... saw a pudu, the smallest deer.

We wound up our walk, caught a bus and went back to our hotel by 10.

Lovely breakfast... fresh squeezed orange juice, strawberry and other fruits, warm croissants, yogurt, bread, cheese...there were brownies and cakes too. The bread slices had variety —rye bread with caraway seeds was great —-toasted them to our liking. Hot chocolate was awesome!

Bariloche is famous for chocolates and we had gorged on artisenal chocolate from a nearby shop.... bought several batches.

Hotel called up a taxi for us to board our flight to Buenos Aores

When the domestic flight from Bariloche reached Buenos Aires, we collected our bag, got a free ride to the international airport in their shuttle. From the international airport, we boarded our flight to Miami.

At the airport—had to board late as staff opened all bags before boarding and threw off liquids!!!

Reached Miami, took our flight back to Houston.

The 2 week Argentine vacation in the pristine southern region had been AWESOME...

This had been our second visit to the country... both visits were FANTASTIC! We hope to return! 

Our next report is on our FABULOUS visit to Peru:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/06/how-to-plan-trip-to-perutrip-report-day.html