Mirador Lago Gutierrez
At breakfast this morning we asked the waitress how to get to the lake. I had printed the information from the Internet, and knew from that we needed bus 50, but were not at all sure where to find the bus stop, nor how to get tickets. This waitress spoke a bit of English, and she asked one of the others that spoke only Spanish, and between them they told us to get tickets at the “kiosko” and told us it was across from the gas station.
Across from the gas station there is a kiosk, but it goes to the gondola lift at Cerro Otto, which is not what we wanted. However, the ticket agent told us the bus stopped up the street, but that we’d have to go to another kiosk downtown to get tickets. We walked to the main street, and didn’t find any kiosk, but eventually came to another Cerro Otto kiosk. He was able to tell us that we’d gone too far, and pointed out a store next to the kiosk. We had walked right by it on our way, so returned and got our tickets.
This “kiosko” was just a small confectionary selling tickets, drinks, and the typical things you find in such a store. The clerk told us, in Spanish, how many blocks and what turns to take to get to the bus stop. We thought that we were following his directions, and headed for a bus stop with a number of people. I asked, with my printed paper since I find it hard to properly pronounce the name of this lake, if bus cinquento stopped here. One of the men said “NO”, and pointed in the opposite direction, and told me more than I could possibly understand. But the pointing was in the right place, and I think he said to go across the corner, since that’s where we found the next stop on the other side of the street.
When we got there we asked the people waiting if this was the right stop for bus 50. That started a disagreement, as some of them said “No” and others said “Si” and then they were discussing amongst themselves what route to take. Eventually they decided that, yes, this was the correct stop, and bus 50 did show up in just a few minutes.
I had showed the bus driver the paper, so he knew where we wanted to stop, and by following a couple of the highway signs we knew we were getting close. When the pavement ended the bus pulled off, and I asked the driver if this was it, and he said “No, proxima.” We headed down the gravel road for another kilometer, crossed a bridge, and were let off right at the lake (and another kiosko).
Cascada de Los Duendes
One of the older women on the bus also got off, pointed us to the road with the “Camping” sign, and so off we headed down the road. Two kilometers later after a nice walk along a flat gravel road, with very little traffic, along the lake and many summer cottages, we reached the National Park sign, “Nahuel Huapi”, a small beach, a campground (which we didn’t get much of a look at, as you’d have to pay to enter), and a large archway leading to the hike to the waterfall “Cascada de Los Duendes”.
Flowers along the hike
We’d known about the waterfall, and that the hike in to it was flat, so Enid didn’t take her hiking poles today. However, 100 m before the waterfall is a junction to the viewpoint over the lake “Mirador Lago Gutierrez.” We decided we’d eat lunch first at the waterfall, which we did and took some pictures, then headed up the trail to the viewpoint. It was good at first, and only 800 m long, but near the top it got very steep. The trail was dry and dusty, and worn down to the roots of the trees. Coming down some of the young boys were laughing at one of the others, who slipped and slid on his butt for some feet, but then as they passed us the one laughing the loudest also slipped and fell.
Views from the top of the viewpoint
While steep, it wasn’t too bad going up, and we reached the top which has very nice views out over the lake, and also back to the main ski area where you can see all the lifts and runs. Of course now in the summer they have no snow. On the way down Enid held on to my backpack through the steepest stages, and we got down without incident.
David swimming in Lago Gutierrez
When we arrived back at the lake we welcomed the swim. I think it may have been the coldest water I’ve ever swum in! However, being hot and dusty from the hike it was very refreshing. There were a few other brave souls in the lake, though not many, but there were quite a few people enjoying the lake in kayaks.
After swimming we read on the beach under the shade of a tree, until we felt it was time to return. The hike back was on a much more busy road, as now there were many people obviously heading to the lake at the end of the day. The bus was about half full as we left the lake, about half of whom were boy and girl scouts, and their leaders.
By the time we got to town the bus was packed. We really had no idea where we were, though we thought we still had to go a ways to our stop. However, one of the women said “Centro” and we could tell by her pointing that we should get off. It really was in an area which we didn’t recognize, but then one of the scout leaders told us we should get off at the next stop. Since she spoke some English she got to do her good deed for the day! We worked our way to the back of the bus and got off, fortunately, as the bus turned and went in the opposite direction of our hotel.
I have been so impressed with the friendliness of the Argentinian people. This is a town that lives on tourism, but even in Buenos Aires the people we met were very helpful, for example in telling us where the stops were on the metro. Everyone you meet says “hola” or “buenas” (and then a lot more Spanish, most of which I don’t understand!) We had a great deal of fun today, doing things we really like to do: hiking and swimming and exploring a new country.