Introduction
Villa La Angostura is a resort town on Nahuel Huapi lake near Bariloche. It’s famous for its Alpine-style wooden buildings. It is also known for behind on the Seven Lakes road toward the north to the town of San Martín de los Andes.
Los Arrayanes is a protected forest carpeted in 300-year-old Arrayan trees that can mainly be found here. Within the park there is a man-made trail to get around and another trail to cross the peninsula where the park is located.
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Getting there
There are 2 ways to get there:
- By bus
- Renting a car
By bus the journey takes approx. 1h15, there are buses at 8am, 9:45am, 11:30am, 1:15pm and 6;30pm. The buses are from the bus terminal of Bariloche.
But the easiest option is to rent a car because on this journey, you will first go to Villa la Angostura (83km) and then Puerto Angostura (3.6km).
The trip
Villa la Angostura
Our host had car to rent which was really convenient. We rented one with another family from our guesthouse. We left around 9am and drive toward Villa la Angostura. The road is beautiful and brought you to another state of Argentina.
When we arrived there, we parked the car and first walked around the town. It is a nice town with Alps style building. We hang around for a hour or so before taking the car back to Puerto Angostura.
Puerto Angostura
From there, there was many options to get to the national park:
- By boat both ways
- By boat one way and walking the other way
- By walking both ways
- By renting a bike there
We opted for the second options and chose to take a boat to get there and then walk back. So, we first went to the ticket office to check the schedule.
There are boat going to the park at:
- 10:30am
- 12:15pm
- 2pm
- 3:45pm
And return boat at:
- 1pm
- 2:45pm
- 4:30pm
- 6pm
The cost is 1200 pesos one way or 1600 return. Plus, you need to buy the entrance ticket there for the park which is another 400 pesos.
We picked the 2:45pm in order to have time to enjoyed lunch here in Puerto Angostura. We then headed to the beach side and found ourselves a nice spot to enjoy our morning cooked sandwiches with one of the best views ever.
The boat
There are 2 possible boat rides. From each side of the peninsula. We had the one from the main lake in order to get better landscape.
A bit before 2pm, we headed toward the peer to get the boat. There are 2 decks on the boats, upper one which is open and lower one which is covered. We went on the lower one which was almost empty as everybody rushed up. We then had lots of space and could also get out whenever we wanted.
The ride is around 45min and during it you have a guide giving you lots of information about the place, the lake and the park (in Spanish).
Some of them was that the lake is one of the biggest of Argentina and is the deepest one in the country with 475m and a new place spotted at around 700m depth (under validation). The lake temperature goes from 0 to 7°C in winter and up to 15°C in summer.
“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain
Where to stay in Bariloche
- Budget: Alberto’s Airbnb (our top pick!)
- Mid-Range: Sol del Nahuel – Hotel & Spa
- Luxurious: Llao Llao Resort, Golf-Spa
- Apartment: Studio Bariloche
