San Martin de los Andes, Argentina

***This should have been posted before Mendoza***
We left mid morning for the 3 hour drive up to San Martin. We decided to take the scenic route 40 and highly recommended seven lakes route up the 40. We had the weather on our side this time, the sun was out in full force and we struggled not to stop continuously along the way to take pictures.



We reached San Martin in early afternoon and were led by car through town and up a hill to our Airbnb. I feel like we are tucked away in a cabin up in the Muskokas  up here. Isa even has her own upstairs suite complete with balcony. The only issue with arriving anywhere in the afternoon is that most places are closed for siesta. We were beyond hungry because there are really no stops outside of the towns along route 40, so we lost our chance for food 2 hours before. Luckily the creperie was willing to serve us early and lucky for us, it was delicious. We took the boys down the road to play in the big park after that before grabbing groceries and heading home.




The next day, we were up and out for a run along route 40. I think this will remain one of my fondest memories of this trip. We ran this route a lot while we were here and looking out into the mountains with the lake pressed between them made each run pass quicker than I wanted it to.



We had quite a bit of downtime here in San Martin. All the trekking we thought we would do was deterred by the fact that no one rented baby carriers for hiking. We accepted the downtime without much protest. I think everyone had had enough action in Bariloche, it was refreshing to get into a routine again and lounge around watching the only English tv channel we could find. We also managed to take care of some daily life things, like getting the boys some stellar bowl cuts...


We explored town and hit up the ferria (market) in the park. We met this insanely talented woman who painted an entire mountain scene on a tile in front of our eyes in 2 minutes flat using only her fingers.

 The downtown square was set up for Christmas with a giant tree and decorations that were all made from plastic bottles. A little disheartening, but also a great way to re-purpose them. 

We took a trip to a couple of lakes in search of a view over San Martin. Unfortunately we didn't find the promised pano view, but we did find a beautiful lake. We decided to set up shop and have our picnic there. The boys got a kick out of playing in the cold water and throwing rocks/trying to skip stones with us.




We had wanted to do a few treks up this way, but the baby gear gods were not on our side. I mean 30$ a day per baby carrier for a rental...times two! So we were selective in our excursions and settled for Lanin National Park. Lanin is a volcano that straddles the Argentina and Chilean border. It's beautiful and we thought we would make a day of it. /first taking the scenic drive there and starting the day with a picnic by the lake. 



After lunch we started the 4km trek that gets you close up with the Lanin volcano. After hiking 35 mins, I think we had made it just over half a kilometer. The boys, esp Archer, were not quite cooperating with our hiking plans. So we did what any reasonably sane person would and turned around and drove back home.


We still managed some stellar views though.


We made our way back to Bariloche for one final night. We stayed a little closer in the town this time around. We finally made it to Manush, the top rated brewery in Bariloche. It did not disappoint. We sampled a few brews and got some dinner. Tomorrow we kick into Xmas gear. Looking forward to seeing what Mendoza has in store for us.

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