It´s a two hour plane ride south to San Martin de los Andes, a small quiet town with chalet-style wooden houses at the top end of the Argentinian lake district. As soon as I´m off the plane, I´m in a completely different place. The sky is blue, the air is clean and of course it´s several degrees cooler - about 12 degrees. It´s also very dry and by the end of the day my skin is gasping for moisture.
My sadness at leaving Buenos Aires evaporates as I´m surrounded by Alpine landscapes of the snowy peaks kind. I'm in awe. Sparkling blue lakes, deep green forests, snow-topped mountains and not very many people. Now that´s my kind of landscape. It feels like Switzerland, not Argentina.
A local guide takes us on a 3-hour hike around the bordering lake, Lago Lacar, for brilliant views of the town and surrounding mountains. I ask if it´s going to be a hard walk (as I want to prepare myself).
´No, no, very easy´ I`m told.
Is it heckers. That´s one thing I´ve learnt here. Distances, time and difficulty etc. is severely underestimated. At one point he takes a short cut and scrambles up the side of a hill. When I try to do it, the soft mud gives way and I´m clinging on to a scraggy branch for life. Still the views are worth it, I think.
(Photo - Lago Lacar)
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