BOTTOM LINE:
Drove from San Martin along the Seven Lakes Scenic Highway back to Bariloche
NOTEWORTHY: On of our best decisions was to bring cash from home rather than using credit cards and ATM machines. This is only because Argentina's currency was recently devalued and the small legal money changers would give us twice the official rate for dollars if we gave them 50 or $100 bills. Even though we were often at expensive tourist locations, our money went twice as far if we always paid cash.
BACK STORY:
God has been soooo good to us knowing when we need to rest. He gave us one glorious day in San Martin yesterday. Today we woke up to cold wind and a chance of rain.
We packed up and left our resort about 9:30 and headed into town to exchange the last of our US money. We picked up some breakfast and stop by the airlines office to have our boarding passes printed out for us. We finally left town headed to Bariloche at 11am.
Although the weather was threatening, it was pleasant and safe to drive in. We were actually suppose to spend one more day in San Martin, however our flight south from Bariloche is at 11am on Saturday morning. We had been told that the road between San Martin and Bariloche was under construction "24/7" with a 20 mile stretch being dirt/gravel. Construction delays were unpredictable. We decided to drive it today, stay in Bariloche and then be there Saturday morning to get gas in the rental car before its return...a much less stressful morning.
The road construction and the dirt road were not bad. We took our time stopping at points of interest. At one such stop we saw a couple of motorcyclists touring the country. The lakes seemed to be lined with lovely vacation homes.
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| church tucked in the forest |
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| enjoying the ride on motor cycles |
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| Vacation homes along lake |
We made it to Bariloche in five hours and felt like we were returning to some place familiar. Road construction sights are so different than in the US. Sometimes there are flag people and sometimes there are not. When there isn't a flag person, the heavy duty equipment seems to just continue with it's work and the traffic is free to move when and where ever it chooses. It seemed to work however I sensed that chaos could break out at any moment.
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| Bariloche in distance |
Speed limits on roads are NOT followed...in fact I believe the traveling speed is typically 20-30 mph faster than the posted sign. People freely pass one another on solid lines and on blind curves! The city of San Martin had NO STOP signs!!! It was crazy! No one stopped at intersections and acted as though they had the right of way! Crazy! Red flags and fabric draped shrines were along the roads in spots memorializing people...perhaps from car accidents. Some shrines are quite elaborate with pictures and stories and weird bottles of soda and beverages!??
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| Red fags marking memorial |
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| Shrine |
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| Our apartment for the night |
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