Beautiful beautiful, beautiful, beautiful lake (sung by John Winston) would be as magnificent as the lake itself.
Nahuel Huapi is an enormous lake dividing two provinces in the Lake District, named in memory of the Mapuches.
I arrived in Bariloche after a beautiful flight: sunset to the right, rising moon to the left, reading a really interesting article about the sixth sense. After landing I went to Arelauquen Polo Club, a beautiful, sophisticated club a few kilometers from the town.
In the morning we drove in four brand new 4x4s to El Refugio, a remote restaurant with spectacular views owned by Marcos Malman. Everywhere was white and icy, like the Bond movie, and the ascent was hard – with the vehicles slicing into the ice on the edge of the mountain.
We drove to a point where there were ten motor-skis, and after a 10 minute rrrrrrr rrrrrr we arrived to a lunch of Malbec and fondue in front of a warming chimney fire.
We then returned after a short nap, had dinner at a no smoking restaurant (agh!) called Casis, which was fabulous.
The next day involved skiing and snowboarding at Cerro Cathedral, with fresh snow. It was an amazing afternoon, surrounded by cool people, nice girls and hot drinks.
“Here comes the lake, little darling,”…. Yes, Beatles fun forever. We travelled around the lake in 4x4s having fun conversations, while the sky turned red and violet during sunset.
We arrived at Las Balsas, definitely, THE hotel in the area, and possibly the most romantic place on earth. Located almost literally in the lake, lyrics of the first song came to my mind again, especially the “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” line. Dinner came with a party at Tinto Royal Resto, which started out very classy and refined and ended quite bizarrely, dancing the cumbia. Lovely!
This landscape, the peace of mind, its surrounding cities, Bariloche, Villa Langostura, the Llao Llao Hotel, and all the etceteras I have in mind – everything works in harmony, and things become clear in that mirrored, turquoise, smooth, cool lake: Nahuel Huapi.