Siete Lagos Drive. Seven lakes + a few more that go right along the border between Chile and Argentina. Stunning beauty. This was the entire reason I wanted to do the Berryhill Lake District Mega Road Trip. We decided we would do this drive and then tack on places to stay at the beginning and end of the trip. Some people recommend taking a couple of days on Route 40 to go from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes to get the most out of the experience. We decided we would get up early and try to do it in one full day. We had a reservation that evening to catch a ferry to take us to our next spot. And if we missed it, we'd be in trouble. So, we packed our things, stopped in Villa La Angostura (CUTEST little town at the start of the drive), for just a little more of our favorite chocolate, and were on our way...
And then the rain began to not only fall, but pour in massive quantities with not a hint of blue sky anywhere to make an appearance. The fog came in so quickly that, it was difficult to see much of anything. And this is how our incredibly scenic Siete Lagos drive began. And stayed. It was raining so hard, that NO ONE had the desire to step one foot outside of our vehicle. The boys gave in to the lulling tapping of the raindrops pretty quickly, while Kate decided this was the best time to ask questions about all of our crazy dating experiences before Joe and I got married. She was LOVING it.
We realized that in decent weather, this drive would have been INCREDIBLE. It still was pretty, we just couldn't see as much of it as we would have liked. And the best part about drives like this is getting out and hiking to those beautiful vistas. We also realized that people like to spend a few days, not because it takes forever to drive Route 40, but because you want to stop and get out there! So, if you aren't getting out of your car, you actually can manage the drive, pretty darn quickly. Which is what happened to us. All of the sudden, I realized that we were almost through it, and I said, "Joe! We have to at least stop at one of the lakes to just prove that we made it here!" And so we did.
We decided "Beautiful Lake" sounded like a good one :) Jake was the only little one brave enough to go outside with me for a few moments to take a look around.
It was freezing and wet. But still beautiful.
We captured our proof and got back in the car.
We made it to San Martin de Los Andes, technically the end of the Siete Lagos drive, in record time :) Another incredibly cute town, full of character. What do you do when you have time to kill? Why not eat?! We found a delicious restaurant called La Creperia, and made ourselves at home for a little while.
When we had our fill, we loaded into the car again, and continued on our journey. The entire drive really was gorgeous. Even in the cruddy weather. We loved it.
Back into Chile, we waited for our ferry to arrive to take us across to Huilo Huilo.
I think this would have been an amazing ferry ride in beautiful weather. Every once in a while, we would roll the windows down in the car to take a look outside. You could barely see the waterfalls that were spilling into the lake because the wind and the rains were so strong. So we huddled in our car, ate chocolate and watched Cloudy Chance of Meatballs to take our minds off what we were missing (well, my mind. Everyone else didn't seem to be affected as much by this turn in the weather as I did!).
We've just come to learn down here that it is ALWAYS an adventure no matter what. You can't count on anything to go according to plan and you have to roll with a lot. We've definitely been rolling :)
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