San Martin de Los Andes

San Martin de Los Andes is 2 to 3 hours north of Bariloche by bus. It's a small town that sits on the edge of a lake, and as with Bariloche, there are mountains and lakes around it where you can trek, go out on boats, kayak, ride horses, etc. It's small, cleaner and quieter than Bariloche, but still tourism is pretty much the economy. Most of the town is made of wood and there are rose bushes all over. When we arrived by bus, we walked a few blocks from the bus terminal to a b&b that the owners of the cabin we rented in Bariloche told us about. It was about twice as much as we paid in Bariloche, which didn't make sense to me and at any rate was more than we wanted to spend, so we rented a place right across the street instead. We ate lunch and then looked for what to do. We ended up hiking a trail that runs from the lake a mile or so up a hill to a look-out point at the top. There is a small village at the top, and we were told that they are part of the Mapuche indian tribe. I wasn't clear weather the land belongs to the tribe or the pueblo just happens to be there. The view from the top was great. In one direction is a panorama of town and in the other direction is the length of another large lake with mountains in the distance. We hiked down the back-side of the hill to a tea house run by the tribe. When you arrive, you ring the bell out front and no body answers. Then you walk around back to the house behind the tea house and clap your hands a few times and say "senora" and a woman comes out to unlock the tea house. It was the one cold day we had in the mountains, and the tea was hot and they had home made bread. We hiked back up, and down, to the town, showered and went in search of patagonia lamb and trout for dinner. This is a picture of the grill the cook the lamb on. It's a mechanized rack that turns in a circle around a pile of hot coals or wood. Those are whole lambs split in two, and they were good.