Los Alerces National Park (Chubut, AR)

From Bariloche (see our previous blog post), we were heading to Peninsula Valdés on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, a road trip of around 1000km. Not being very fond of spending that much time in one go in our little Polo we decided to stopover in Esquel, a small town located 4 hours' drive south of Bariloche, in order to spend an extra day visiting the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Park called "Los Alerces".

Refugio Frey Loop in Nahuel Huapi National Park (Barlioche, AR)

It feels like we have always neglected Bariloche a bit, or at least never have quite gotten around to properly sample some of its fine outdoor activity potential. After all, it’s one of Argentina’s top hiking and skiing destinations. We’ve been passing through several times over the years, and last year we even managed to squeeze in a very pleasant half-day walk to the Cerro Llao Llao viewpoint on our way back to Santiago from Central Patagonia. Back then we decided we needed to return for a more decent hike one day and in early March finally we managed to do exactly that.

Melimoyu

Patagonia continues to be a fascinating travel destination for us where we would definitely like to spend much more time than we have had the opportunity to do so thus far. At the end of February, we managed to get to know a new part of it, and that trip turned into a bit of an epic because… well, it’s Patagonia and things don’t always work out as planned.

Parque Pumalín

The end of the year is usually travelling-to-the-South time for us and this year we went to Parque Pumalín in northern Patagonia for a few days of hiking, camping and relaxing. To get there you have to make your way to Puerto Montt (we went by overnight bus), and then follow the  Carretera Austral (again by bus) to the village Hornopirén, from where a 4h ferry connects to the continuation of the Carretera Austral on the other side of the Comao and Reñihué Fjords. In other words, a bit of an epic to get there in the first place, i.e. right up our alley q-;