Patagonia Lakes District in Argentina

It was almost a year ago that my tour group with Gap flew from Buenos Aires to the city of San Carlos de Bariloche for the start of the tour through Patagonia. The first few days of the tour took us through the Argentina and Chilean Lakes districts in the northern region of Patagonia.

Bariloche was situated on a lake edge and is known as a center for skiing during the winter. There is noticeable German influence in the construction of many buildings, and also the various chocolate shops. I was there during the summer. After arriving in the late afternoon, and getting dinner, I went out with my tripod and took some pictures of the town square lit up at night. There was a lot of graffiti painted on the square. Noteworthy was from the “Mothers of Plaza de Mayo” group of human rights activists who seek to re-unite with their abducted children and grandchildren from the 1976-83 Dirty War. There were also a lot of stray dogs in the square who insisted on play-fighting each other wherever I tried to set up my tripod.

The next day was a free day on the tour itinerary. My tour group decided to travel together to Cerro Campanario, which was supposed to have some excellent views of the region. We went to find the local bus. There was no bus stop sign at the intersection where we were supposed to catch the bus so we were not sure if we were in the right place. Soon some other tourists showed up and reassured us we were in the right place. Soon the bus came and we rode it almost 20km out to Cerro Campanario. There was a ski-lift up to the top, but we had heard there were some trails and decided to hike. When we asked for directions, the operator of the ski-lift office refused to acknowledge there was a hiking path to the top. But another by-stander gave us directions to the nearby trail. It was not very long, but it was steep. Once at the top, there were indeed some excellent views.

Climbing to the top of Cerro Campanario

View of the lakes discrict from the top of Cerro Campanario

My tour group

Religious monument at the top of Cerro Campanario

Another view from Cerro Campanario

We took the bus back to Barriloche. Originally we were going to try to take another ski-lift to another mountaintop with a hike and a viewpoint, but we learned that place had to close due to high winds for the day so we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon lounging in town. In the evening, I went back out for some more night time pictures. The next morning, we boarded a bus to Puerto Varas, Chile.

Bariloche Town Square

Protest Grafitti from the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo

Lake Nahuel Huapi, seen from San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

Town Square

Chocolate shop window display.

Restaurant showing German influence in the area.

Government Building on the Town Square

Cathedral of Nestra Senora de Nahuel Huapi


I signed up for this tour with GAP at the last minute, less than two weeks before departure while I was in between jobs. Originally I had booked the trip for 2 months later, but had to exchange it for an earlier departure so that I could accept a job offer. At first I was told I was the 15’th person on a tour which was cutoff at 15. But then another GAP tour to Antarctica got canceled when the boat had to go into drydock to be repaired, and several on that tour were offered this Patagonia tour in exchange (plus excellent discount on a future Antarctica Tour). Since GAP keeps the tour groups small, they opened up a second tour that ran separate, but in parallel to the original tour, and I was switched to the second tour. It was like they segregated the North Americans into this second tour since the other group was composed entirely of Europeans and Australians and ours had all the Americans and Canadians.

I chose this tour since the itinerary included lots of free days at each stop, and I had plenty of time since I was between jobs at the time. But between the time I decided this was the tour I wanted to take, and the time I actually booked it, GAP quietly removed 4 days from the itinerary. Our guide claimed it was response to participant feedback about “too much time” spent at some stops. In reality, this was more likely a cost-cutting measure in response to strained economic times and rising costs. The days lost included most of the extra free days at several stops. I did not notice this until some from our parallel tour were complaining about it. Those who had booked earlier than me ended up with several extra free days in Buenos Aires due to the shortened tour with hotel paid for by GAP. This removal was unfortunate, since those extra days meant we were a little rushed at some stops and removed the flexibility of re-scheduling activities in case of bad weather. One of the days that was lost was in Bariloche, so we did not get the time to explore the other parks in the area. Other than the unexpected loss of the 4 days, I was very happy overall with the tour.

Related Links:
- Maps showing locations of stops on this tour: Google Maps, or Google Earth.
- Index to More Pictures and posts from stops on this tour.
- More pictures from this stop on the tour.
- More blog posts from this Patagonia Tour