Our last weeks in South America were spent in the northern part of Patagonia, called the lake district. This area is mountainous, dotted with cone-shaped volcanoes, and as the name suggests, contains many lakes. Our first stop was Pucon in Chile, where we were shook by the 8.8 earthquake our first night. Unfortunately this meant that during our 3 days there, we didn’t get a chance to hike up the active volcano, peer into the crater, and slide back down on a sled. We’ll have to come back.

Next we stopped in a cute mountain resort town in Argentina called San Martin de los Andes.  We hired a guide (our German B&B owner) to take us mountain biking. It was fun, but we’re both now convinced that mountain biking as we know it doesn’t really exist outside the USA. We encountered this in Europe and Costa Rica and now South America. A town can even be known for mountain biking, rent you a nice bike, and then point you towards a gravel road (or worse, a paved road like in Switzerland). At least in this area of Argentina single-track exists, but there are no signs or maps, so you have to pay a guide to show you around.

Bariloche is a much bigger and busier town, a beautiful 4-hour bus ride south of San Martin. There’s tons of adventure sports in Bariloche – biking, rafting, kayaking, hiking, climbing, canyoning, etc. We skipped most of these, but we had a great time hiking with our friends Jaime & Gareth from England. I met and traveled with them in Ecuador, and since we’re both doing round-the-world trips, our paths will probably cross again in New Zealand or Australia.

Another day in Bariloche, we rented a moped to drive around part of the lake. Someone had suggested this, and we didn’t realize how brave we were until we picked up the moped and started driving. It was intense. Ben drove and did a great job, but he’s not used to driving a moped or motorcycle, and there was tons of traffic. We’re lucky to be alive!

We signed up for an ice trekking expedition – aptly called Big Ice – that took us to watch chunks of the Perito Mereno Glacier break off and fall into the water for a while and then go hike around on the glacier.  The photos tell the whole story…

Perito Moreno Glacier

The front of the glacier

A natural bridge sometimes forms here

Alonna

Looking out over the glacier

100-ft wall of ice

Tiny hikers on an enormous glacier

Big ice

Ben

Hiking on the glacier

We crossed many blue streams like this

Ben on Perito Moreno Glacier

Alonna & Ben

Hiking on the glacier

Big Ice

Yes, the pond really is that blue

Blue holes, crevasses, and streams

Hiking

Cool photo op

Ben

Ben, hiking on the lateral moraine

Perito Moreno Glacier

Icebergs from chunks of the glacier falling off