San Martin de Los Andes, Argentina - Day 1

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Up and at ‘em bright and early this morning for our 8:00am flight to Bariloche, Argentina. Once again, traveling lightly proved to be useful as it didn’t take us any time at all to clear security in the airport and make our way to the boarding gate. At the airport, we also grabbed breakfast — a panini sandwich with ham & cheese for me, yogurt & granola for Tory, and eggs and toast for Andi and Aden.

Argentina is such a big country! It would have taken us 14 hours to drive south to Bariloche from Mendoza, or take a quick 90-minute flight as we chose to do.

San Carlos de Bariloche (called Bariloche, for short) is a bustling town in Argentina’s Northern Patagonia region. This area is known for its many lakes, and is one of the most popular destinations in the country for Argentines and foreign travelers alike.

At the airport, we rented a car and then stood in line to buy airline tickets for the next leg of our travels in Argentina. Andi was having a hard time getting the airline’s online booking site to work properly, so we figured it’d be easiest to buy the airline tickets we’ll need while we were at the airport.

The first thing we noticed about Bariloche was the weather — it’s so much cooler here! That’s because Argentina is located in the Southern Hemisphere; the farther south we travel within the country, the cooler the temperatures become. Tory was so happy to be in a more moderate climate; she literally danced in the parking lot of the airport.

While we waited for Andi to finish buying airline tickets, I forced the kids to do some journaling. “Ah, Mom! Why?” they both complained. I say, if we’ve got 15 minutes of time to kill, we’ve got time to do something productive. Today’s writing assignment began with the phrase “I would (or would not) recommend visiting Mendoza because …” Tory didn’t think she could answer the question honestly without getting in trouble, but I disagreed. Journaling is about writing from the heart & I encouraged her to do so. (Is it any surprise that she would not recommend Mendoza because of the heat?)

From Bariloche, we had a three hour drive north to the town of San Martin de Los Andes. Our drive took us along the iconic Route 40 highway passing by seven different lakes. The two-lane road was busy on a Sunday afternoon, and unfortunately didn’t offer the greatest views as the sky was cloudy and rainy. Good thing we’ll be staying in the Bariloche area for two weeks so we’ll have plenty of chances to see the famous lakes.

By 1:30pm, we were all hungry for lunch and planned to stop in a town called Villa La Angostura. Except, it was crazy busy in this town, too! Apparently everyone in Northern Patagonia was sightseeing the Ruta de los Siete Lagos today. Andi was refamiliarizing himself with how to drive a stick shift vehicle, so it really wasn’t the time to be dodging travel and people as we hunted for a parking spot. We continued through the heart of Villa La Angostura and picked a restaurant called Tasca Plácido that didn’t look so busy.

We quickly discovered that Tasca Placido was a fancier, seafood restaurant. Oh well, we were here and we were hungry. The waitress brought bread to the table right away which always seems to be accompanied with a hummus spread at restaurants in Argentina. Andi ordered rib-eye steak and salad for he and I to share and spaghetti for the kids. Our meals were fantastic! The restaurant turned out to be a cozy spot to enjoy a meal together on a dreary afternoon.

Back on Route 40, we drove for another two hours north toward San Martin de Los Andes. Our airbnb in this town is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a great location in town. A walking path near the house leads right into the downtown area.

The four of us spent some time unpacking our bags before walking into town for dinner. Andi picked a restaurant called Merken where we ordered a quinoa salad, two burgers, and more spaghetti. Aden is finally showing interest in eating again, but only wants spaghetti. Good thing that’s pretty easy to come by here.

It was 10:00pm by the time we paid our dinner bill. We still haven’t adjusted to late night dinners in Argentina. Every dinner seems to drag on just about 30 minutes too long. We were all tired and ready for bed after a long travel day.

Tomorrow, it’s my birthday! The weather doesn’t look like it’s going to be too favorable, but we’ll make the most of it. Excited to explore more of San Martin del Los Andes.