MUNGO EATS Latin America

Now that we are in Patagonia, you may have to endure a few posts where I rave about rivers and lakes.  Today we left San Martin and travelled part way down the Road of the Seven Lakes, which as you may guess, is a road which travels through the mountains past 7 mountain lakes.  I think we have driven past 5 and they are all quite nice.  Tonight we are camped at the campground at Lago Chico.  To be more precise, we are  camped along the river that leaves the lake.  I know that not 4 days ago I was singing the praises of the Rio Grande, but I really think that the Rio Grande cannot hold a candle to this river.  It truly is one of THE MOST beautiful rivers I think I have ever seen.  There are endless deep pools and the pools are all a clear turquoise green, and even in the deepest pool, you can see every single rock at the bottom.  There are countless fish jumping non-stop, some small fry and some 8″ trout. 

The forest surrounding the river is deep green and very lush.  There is black or brown sand along the shores, mixed with spits of interesting broken rock.  Wooded mountains rise above the banks.  It is absolutely gorgeous!!!  It was raining today, but even so we went for a walk along this breathtaking stream.

One funny note.  a few posts back, I told you about a group of motorcyclists that we were playing leapfrog with.  We drove up to the campsite today to find the same group of guys!!  This time we introduced ourselves instead of just waving as we putted past.  We sure seem to see the same people over and over again! 

Tomorrow we will complete the seven lake circuit and find ourselves at San Carlos de Bariloche, a town I expect to remind me a lot of Banff.  It is a very popular vacation destination for Argentineans.  I am really looking forward to it. 

Finally some good WiFi and a chance to get online. Some old maps going all the way back to Sucre in Bolivia.

From Sucre to Uyuni:
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Untitled in a larger map

Around Uyuni and then to Argentina:
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To Argentina in a larger map

Finally, to Mendoza:

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To Mendoza in a larger map

Last night was spent in the middle of nowhere, along a creek somewhere.  We were still an  hour from the nearest town and were feeling like we were done driving for the day.  We found a small river that we could camp beside and called it a night. 

Mungo was happy, because he got to run amok for the second night in a row.  He’s not terribly unhappy being leashed, but man, does he enjoy his freedom.

Apparently, I have  to practice taking more action shots!

He was having so much fun, that he didn’t even stop when he tore a small bit off one of his pads.  At the end of the night, we saw him licking at his foot and ripping at his feet with his teeth.  I then found a small piece of pad sitting next to him and finally put it all together, being the great vet that I am, and realized he had torn his pad.  We were in a pretty sandy part of the world and the tear was nice and fresh, so we had to dig out the booties, to keep his wound from getting packed with sand.  Then he was NOT happy.  I will never understand how a dog can run around with a huge gash in their foot and not even be lame, but put a simple boot on their foot and they are PETRIFIED to put it down at all!!!  The kids got a big kick out of watching him try to walk and pee with only 3 legs on the ground!! 

We seem to be in the land of fossils.  Kevin found a great fossil just walking form the river to the van.  Kevin was walking, not the fossil!  Check this out!!

Then I found this geode, while I was squatting (won’t tell you why!).  Just sitting there!  (the geode, not me).

Tonight, we are in San Martin de los Andes.  It is a very nice little mountain town that you could mistaken for Canmore without trying real hard.  There are tons of ethnic restaurants, gear stores and cafes, which we have not seen for many, many miles.  Also, there is something else that we have not seen for many miles…forest!!!  We went from the desert scrub that most of my latest pictures show you, to “planted forests”, where all the trees grow in perfectly straight rows, to mountains with honest to goodness, REAL trees.  There is a mixture of pine and spruce and a few other deciduous trees.  We honestly have not seen spruce trees since the US.  I am REALLY enjoying this part of the world.  By the way…we are officially in Patagonia.  We plan to spend tomorrow wandering the town, maybe trying out a restaurant.  We will leave San Martin in two days, and head down the road known as the “circuit of the 7 lakes”.  It is supposed to be beautiful. 

Some days start slower than others and today was one of those days.  Breakfast took a long time, packing up took a long time, getting a few groceries took a long time.  It was about 11am before we hit the road.

Shortly after we left town, we were passed by a group of motorcycle riders.  Their bikes were packed up for a bit of a ride.  They all honked  and waved as they passed us.  Actually, a lot of drivers wave in Argentina.  We waved, thinking, “Passed again…nothing new”.  For the next hour however, we passed and were passed by the same group of bikers again and again and again.  It would seem that one of the 6 riders would need to stop for something and the rest of the crew would as well.  The slow tortoise westy would creep up and pass them, then the hares, would zoom by again.  There was honking and waving each time. 

A couple of hours into driving, the road started running parallel to the Rio Grande (one of the many!).  Unlike most of the Rio Grandes that we have passed, this one really was grande and it looked like a normal river, well, a Canadian river.

It was not muddy and actually looked fast flowing and it was calling us to stop.  I miss “real” big rivers.

We stopped for lunch and then decided we would stay the night.  So, check out our campsite.

King Mungo seems to approve!

Yeah, finally, we get to start having some more fun.  We have been so busy making miles and making van repairs, that we have forgotten to have some adventures.  Today, we remedied this.  We actually thought we could go whitewater rafting, but we were told that the water was too low and too cold, so we opted to visit a cave instead, the cavern of the witches!!  Sounds good and spooky. 

Before we went to the cave, we got to stop at a waterfall.  The fall was not terribly impressive, I guess it has been a low snow year, so there was not much water going over the fall.

Even though there was little water, there were a TON of fossils to see.  They were mostly ammonite and trilobites, but there were EVERYWHERE!

Very, very cool.

After the waterfall, it was off to the cave.  Super, super cool!!!  Or as Sean would say, pwnage!!!(pronounced pownage, for all you folks out there without 9 year old boys, it is the ultimate expression of cool).

You enter the cave into a very large chamber, but shortly after you pass through the large chamber, things get a little squishy. 

Sometimes it takes a little thought to figure out how to get through the spaces.  Sometimes the ceiling is low and you have to duck, sometimes you shoot through legs first.

There were ladders to climb and go down as well.

There were plenty of cool crystal formations, some that looked like icicles and some that looked like curtains.

We all had a lot of fun, and would gladly do a little more caving if the opportunity arose!!

We leave Malargue tomorrow to continue south.  There may be only driving for the next few days, but hopefully we get to pack some fun in soon again.  It was a great day!