Rio Manso, Rio Negra district

 Today I hired a car and after downloading maps, sending directions to my WhatsApp and writing out by hand instructions for my route, I felt ready. I picked up the car and headed out of Bariloche to visit the lakes and mountains of the national park.

Leaving town proved  a challenge; a stick shift car, on the 'wrong ' side of the road but also who has right of way? I googled the answer and it depends on whether you are going up hill of down hill form the right or felt and at what kind of a junction - unfathomable! I decide to to give everyone from the right,  right of way and everyone else the same honour - just to be on the safe side!! 


  




I headed along the famous Route 40 to Lago Gutierrez. A beautiful day, i stopped at a view point over the lake  - fabulous! I spied a beach below and needing a bathroom and a coffee decide to find the campsite and the beach .

A truly magical place - quiet deep blue lake, soaring mountain sides covered in trees and a bright sun over the beech. taking my coffee to  the grassy a garden  I got chatting with a man and then his wife from Buenos Aires, they were showing a friend from Buenos Aires around the area they loved so much, they have been coming here for 3 months of the year for 20 years! Gorge and Nora generously invited me to accompany them for the day to visit the area. 

Getting in a complete strangers car was a little too much for this brit so I suggested I follow them in my car and off we went, first to an Empanada restaurant and then feeling confident we all piled into my car to explore the Rio Manso for the rest of the day.

such a lucky day for me! Gorge, Nora and Gisela became firm friends, I had a FABULOUS day exploring Rio Manso - places I would never have found on my own  and we laughed so much1 Gorge has some English but they were so patient with my haltering Spanish and by the end of the day i was  'Sarita' .

Driving route 83 along the Manso was an education; stone roads with deep ruts and stony mounds and the most terrifying plank bridges but the scenery!!!  amazing, breathtaking, beautiful. And with Nora and Gorge we stopped at little farms for refreshments, stalls for jams and preserves and escancias to see the views. they took me to suspension bridges, waterfalls and deep green lagoons.
















https://larutanatural.gob.ar/es/imperdible/52/valle-del-rio-manso 
https://larutanatural.gob.ar/es/imperdible/47/parque-nacional-nahuel-huapi 

 Lake 

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