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Well it was easy to tell it was Friday last night as a younger crowd started serenading at roughly 2:30 am this morning somewhere within earshot of our rental. The light sleepers were awake taking in the culture like it or not. With a few of us still semi-comatose we awoke earlier than normal (before 8 am - tough duty here in Argentina- please contain the tears) for an adventure down the 7 lagos (translation - lakes) road. This is one of the more picturesque excursions in the Lakes District of Patagonia, and has been highly recommended. Our first day is not yet over but has proved to live up to the hype. Varying landscape as we traversed different microclimates and many rivers and - you guessed it - 7 lakes. The mountain scenery was like a combination of scenery from the Pacific Northwest and Switzerland with a Patagonian twist. All of the water is crystal clear...it was the ultimate tease for me to drive by river after river of amazing fishing water with no one in site and not be able to test it out...already plotting a return outdoor adventure only trip. The mountains were beautiful, many still with snow near their peaks. We saw moee than our fair share of estancias, and roaming cattle and sheep that do not seem to have any containment ae they were often nest to the road. The road is a generous term for roughly 40 km of the drive- this is the only sacrifice that must be made to make the trip. It is an unpaved, potholed section which tested the fortitude of our subcompact suspension and tires. One scare only which fortunately did not result in a flat tire. Besides many short stops at vista points our three main stops today were at a small forest of arrayanes trees lakeside, Villa La Angostura and San Martin de Los Andes. The trees were a must do as the arrayanes trees were supposedly the inspiration for Walt Disney for the forest in Bambi. In a forest setting they are unique to Argentina, and have a mottled cinnamon colored bark that sheds to reveal patches of a silvery under layer.Villa La Angostura is a beautiful small town that has done a great job of developing their town center
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