Patagonia trip day 3

29 July, 2015

Day 3: My first day on the moon

San Carlos de Bariloche to Futaleufú (306 km / 7 hours)

We left Bariloche this morning after a wander around the town. It's really Whistler-esque in both aesthetic and the fact it's a ski town. I tried to buy a lonely planet for Argentina but wasn't able to (something about the Brits writing it and claiming they own the Falkland Islands while the Argentinians believe otherwise). The drive from Bariloche to Futaleufú was my true first time in the classic Patagonian flats. It was this moon-like landscape of brown plants and brown rock around the brown dirt road but all surrounded by snow-capped mountains in the distance. Eventually we crossed back into Chile around Trevelin and headed to Futaleufú. Futaleufú is tiny and completely ringed by mountains and river. The actual town was about two stores and ten houses but with a massive central plaza featuring a waterwheel. The only other truely notable feature was that all of the trees were shaped (as in carved). So I bet there's some obsessive Chileno living there that loves making trees look like radishes.We camped just outside of the town. We met a really generous rancher who came out into the rain and gave us some paper and wood to start a fire. It rained all night but luckily wasn't cold (there was a bit of snow collected on the car in the morning though).