5th February 2015 – Bariloche to Zapala

Today we are traveling through national parks and the 7 lakes area to San Martin de Los Andes on our way to our overnight destination of Zapala about 363km away.  We first drove around the lake that Bariloche is on giving us a lovely view back to the town.It’s a beautiful drive the parks are very heavily treed, the roads are windy and there’s only 1 short stretch of road works on the dirt. We had a lovely morning tea stop by a beautiful lake.The drive into San Martin de los Andes is very pretty.Once we left the national parks the scenery changed to dramatic volcanic hills and craters. The road rose to 1070 meters high at one stage as we drove around the edge of a crater looking out over the plains below, it was a stark contrast to this mornings lakes and wooded hillsides. To our left in the distance is Lanin Volcano at 3775 meters with its pointy peak prominently standing out amongst the mountains.Blue B is having more car trouble today so more ideas put forward and a couple of solutions tried. We are stopped by the side of the road on San Zmartin de Zlos Andes and the house next to us has a lovely green lawn, it is currently being watered at 12:30pm. They are very liberal with their watering here, which is why they have such green lawns and lush gardens.  Michael has a real beaut little thermometer, and this afternoon it was 36 degrees in the car and 44 degrees down in the tunnel so it’s warming up.  Blue B stopped a number of times this afternoon with the fuel system being the main focus by the would be mechanics, Ross, Ian, Pete & Michael. The fuel system was blown out each time and managed to get Blue B 100 kilometers before stopping again. Perhaps they’re onto something! We got to 60km from Zapala and Blue B refused to go any further so it had to be towed the rest of the way by navy car.  As it was 6pm when we arrived at our hotel and the boys were hot, tired & thirsty they decided they would look at Blue B early tomorrow.  Argentinian fact – Christmas decorations are still up, including trees & lights, some 6 weeks after Christmas! As you can see on the power pole in this town.