Welcome to Patagonia

Lakes are meant to be calm!

We're in Patagonia! And for the last couple of days we've been getting the traditional Patagonian welcome. Wind. I've decided that I prefer hills to wind. Hills are marked on a map, they're predictable when you're on them, and they're much quieter. Yesterday we covered 25 miles in about 7 hours. The road was awful and there was quite a bit of uphill, but the real problem was the 35mph head wind which slowed us to walking pace for most of the day. It can turn what should be a pleasant, short ride into a long and hard day. This morning we experienced the flip side as we had the wind behind us as we cycled from our lovely, sheltered, campsite at Lago Lolog to San Martin de Los Andes. We had planned to be here by lunch and got here in time for coffee. It doesn't mean I've forgiven the wind for yesterday though.

The view from bed in Villa Pehuenia

We're now in the heart of the Argentine Lake District, which is definately the most beautiful area of Argentina we've seen so far. Since the last post we cycled through the famous (in the world of wine...) Uco Valley in Mendoza, spending a few days in a small town called Tupungato where we had a couple of wonderful gourmet meals at vineyards. We then caught a bus down to the lakes, via Zapala to Villa Pehuenia, a small village in the quiet northern region of the district, on the bank of Lago Alumine. We arrived late and the hostel we planned to stay in was full so we ended up a place nearby called Posada la Escondida. It was the most incredible hotel we've stayed in - the kind of place where they make your bed in the morning, then re-make it (for sleeping, with chocolates and candles) while you're having your evening meal. Mental. Our room was a couple of metres from the lake so we had the most wonderful view from bed; so great I actually got up at 6:30 to take photos.

A typical road through the lake district
 (sometimes there are lakes too)

Since then we've done quite a bit of camping (our way of paying off the hotel bill...), including our first night wild camping next to the Alumine river. We spent a couple of nights in the 'trout fishing capital' Junin de Los Andes, where we tried our hand at fly fishing. Unfortunately the trout are protected so I had to throw back the one I caught, but we got to keep the perch that Marion caught. The restaurants there will cook your fish for you, so we went to a lovely place on the plaza, perch in a plastic bag, and they served it up with garlic chips and a bottle of wine. mmmm.

We're going to stay a day here in San Martin before heading down La Ruta de Siete Lagos (route of 7 lakes). This is a 3-day ride through apparently some of the best scenery in the lake district. It should be wonderful, but at the moment we're just praying for the wind to stop!