Along with delicious steaks, award-winning wines and South America’s highest mountain range, a sprawling lake region — los lagos — is just one more thing Argentina and Chile have in common.
Separated by only by the Andes, which serves as a natural barrier between the two countries, these watery lowlands were once dominated by the Mapuche, an indigenous people known for their textiles. Hundreds of years later, this area started to take on a European feel as German settlers arrived in the 19th century, setting up Alpine-style houses along pebbly lake shores that, to them, looked a lot like home.
The pebbly beaches of Bariloche, Argentina
Today, this region’s snow-capped mountains, active volcanoes, roaring rivers and sparkling lakes attract growing numbers of adventure seekers. On the Argentine side, Bariloche is the region’s undisputed capital city. Almost 1,600 km from Argentina’s actual capital city, Buenos Aires, this mountainside village looks distinctly more German than anywhere else in the country. The central square is filled with chocolate shops and Alpine-style log houses, while tourists pose with brandy-bearing St. Bernards, the town’s unofficial mascot. As befits its teutonic roots, beer — not wine — is the drink of choice around town.
Central plaza, Bariloche
The town overlooks Lago Nahuel Huapi, an enormous deep-blue lake that stretches over 100km. The lake also lends its name to the nearby national park, whose lofty peaks surround the area. An attractive lakeside walk leads down to the stony shore, where brave locals swim in clear but freezing waters.
Brave locals take a dip
A short bus ride from Bariloche, the tiny town of El Bolson sits alongside the main highway, which winds through the Andes into Chile. This tourist hotspot was originally founded by adventurous hippy-types. The landscape here is truly stunning; craggy mountain peaks, some frosted with snow, surround a valley dusted with poplar and fruit trees and other crops. We stayed in a little eco-hostel, El Pueblito, a sustainable place that brewed its own line of delicious beer using locally-grown hopps.
Beautiful El Bolson, Argentina
After a few days hiking around El Bolson, we booked a bus ticket to take us over the Andes into Chile. We’d been warned that the weather on the mountain’s Pacific side was more temperamental, but the sleet that lashed our bus still came as a suprise. Our first two Chilean towns, Osorno and Puerto Montt, were ragged clusters of ramshackle wood houses moldering under grey skies; our guidebook described the latter’s best feature as its many exit points.
Chile's Chiloe Island, between the rains
Our third stop, Chiloe, was a more interesting village, at least so far as we could tell from beneath the sea mist. We’d just about given up on Chile when the weather suddenly cleared, allowing us to cruise out to visit los penguinos, as locals affectionately call the penguins that congregate along the island's rocky shore.
Chiloe's rocky coast
The most common of these are Humboldt penguins, a unique South American species identifiable by a distinctive black chest band. According to our guide, they glide gracefully underwater, but walking on land is a different story. Watching these adorable birds clumsily hop around was easily the highlight of our island trip.
Los Penguinos
At this point, we were pretty frustrated with the weather, which was so rainy and gray we felt we might as well be back in England and Seattle. It was enough to make us cancel our trip further south to Patagonia, which we figured would only be colder, and hang around the more temperate lake region a while longer.
Tourists pack the volcanic black sand beaches of Pucon, Chile
This is how we stumbled across Pucon, a lakeside town popular with adventure sports enthusiasts and Santiago daytrippers. The black sand beach was packed with throngs of sun-bathers, kayakers and jet skiiers, and the weather — with blue skies and blazing skyline — was more in line with what we’d been expecting from Chile. Similar to Bariloche, the Alpine-style of the local hotels, bars and restaurants belies the area’s Germanic heritage — albiet in a very distinctly Chilean setting beneath a snow-capped volcano.
Volcan Villarrica, Pucon's resident active volcano
Chile has around 500 active volcanoes, and the towering peak overlooking Pucon, Villarrica, erupted as recently as 2015. Still, this doesn’t deter travel operators from running day trips up to the top of the crater’s edge. After an early start, we trekked over dusty volcanic rocks, before – trusty ice axe in hand – climbing through the snow line to the smoking crater. From the summit, we had spectacular panorama views of lakes and mountains of this stunning region, which also included a handful of less-volataile craters.
Volcan Villarrica: Views like this make the hike worthwhile
The trek up took around five hours, but sledding downhill on plastic guards using our ice axes as rudders took just a fraction of the time. Back in Pucon, we treated ourselves to a well-deserved platter of ceviche with local brew, again in the shadow of Villarrica. This laidback lake area, with its stunning vistas, pleasant temperatures and delicious food, went a long way towards redeeming our travels in a country that, to put it mildly, hadn’t gotten off to a great start. Finally, we were starting to see why Chile, just like Argentina, is one of South America’s most popular travel destinations.
By Tom Mountford