la ruta de siete lagos

Its the route where you see 7 lakes, its very touristy and popular, we meant to do it yesterday but it rained. So today we did what every good tourist to bariloche does - hired a car and went driving along a dirt road past 7 lakes. Actually turned out to be the official 6 plus one we added as we missed the "hidden lake" so hidden was it that there were no signs or roads. We were really lucky and had a gorgeous day for it and the scenery was stunning (sorry, going to have to find a better adjective, seem to use it in every blog at the moment). Not much to say really.....just lake after lake of blue water surrounded by pine clad hills. Lovely. Can see why it makes people want to relocate here (pics dont do it justice but obviously have posted some as far more fun to look at pics than read my drivel!). So after many cries of STOP, I WANT TO TAKE A PHOTO, lots of jumping in and out of cars and lots of "ooh, isnt that pretty" we ended up at san martin de los andes (the end point, luckily!!), where for some reason i have decided to stay for a couple of nights! SM de los A is meant to be a pretty little mountain village that over here means lots of chocolate shops, ice cream shops and shops selling expensive bags....so heaven really! Unfortunately what it doesnt mean is that you are close to any mountain or access to the national park that you are here to walk in! A quick trip to the very help info people confirmed this to me and the best they could come up with for a walk tomorrow was a 30min boat ride then a 3 hr gentle walk. But to be honest, given my new found appreciation of how useless i am at climbing up hills that is probably all i can cope with. Shall spend rest of time shopping for expensive bags and some chocolate. ps for anyone interested, i actually cooked for 4 last night! Well, emma and rolf bought the food and emma gave me all the instructions but i was one of a 2 person team who produced a v tasty meal. hurrah. please do not expect this to be repeated in the UK