There are two ways to get to the beach known as "La Playita" (Little Beach), one is from the path of the Pitranto Grande and the other is to arrive by car by the road near the lake. I did both walking. When I went in May, autumn showed all its colours in the forests of the National Park.
Autumn in the road to "La Playita"
Autumn in the road to "La Playita"
At the end of the path of the Pitranto Grandeand crossing the portal of trunks, we found a sunny trail of sand after the deepest darkness of the forest of pitras. This path was surrounded by vegetation among we could see rosehip, brooms and murras. But not everything is beautiful in this path, unfortunately we went through an area where we found the reamins of a forest fire. It was small but it´s sadness to see the burned trees.
Sand path to "La Playita"
Walking to "La Playita"
We found another small trail that ran beside a stream in the forest. Walking we arrived to the place that serves as car parking near the lake. From there we have followed a little but easy path between the rocks and the lake to reached to the sandy beach where tourists enjoy the summer sun. In this sector the lake is shallow and the water is warmer, that allows swimming.
Walking to "La Playita"
La Playita
But leaving the forest called Pitranto Grande, and halfway to La Playita you could found another path, it is the footpath to the place known as Mirador del Lago (Viewpoint of the lake). This path is about 800 meters long and rises 150 meters above the lake and in parts passed through the forest, in others you walked very near the wall rock of the hill and with great views. It is a path with no major difficulties except the slope.
Walking to the "Mirador del Lago"
From the top we can see the lake, the Andes mountains, and the valley where it is situated Villa Lago Puelo.
Mirador del Lago (Viewpoint of the Lake)
Enjoy this beautiful view of my place in the world!!!!!
A few days ago, I received an invitation from Jimmy Langman (Editor of PATAGON JOURNAL) to send him some pictures to write a post about LAGO PUELO in their web.
He was very kind to put my name on the photos and the link to my blog; also he wrote a little review. But that of mine as a photographer was so much!!!... I love photography, but I have to learn a lot and I haven´t still a good camera fot that).
Now I invite you to see the post and the web in general, where you can find a lot of interesting information (not only of tourism) about both Argentine and Chilean Patagonia...
Note: First of all, excuse me: I have to say that I´m trying to write this blog in English so you can read it, but I recognize that my English is poor...
"Changing the river of lion´s color for the blue lake,
changing the color of the concrete for the green forests,
changing the broad 9 de Julio avenue for the colorful Los Notros Avenue ,
changing the hurry of the city for the tranquility of a village,
changing the skyline of the city for the silhouettes of the mountains,
changing the gray of the asphalt for the leaden gray sky before the rain,
changing people for solitude, madness for peace , city for nature ...
I change Buenos Aires for Patagonia! "
The months pass, at first very slowly, but less than two months of our move, the time seems speeded up. There is so much to prepare, organize, fix, buy ... The main concerns were the house and moving and both of them are resolved.
We rent the house to a member of the place where my husband works, and who lived her whole life he lived in Lago Puelo. We called her a real NIC (born and raised), and who lives a few feet of what will be our home. We will live in an area called The Island, between the stream called Golondrinas (Swallows) and the Azul river (Blue river), a few blocks from downtown (if you can call them blocks ...). There is a small forest and greenery around.
The other major issue was the moving, we decided to recruit a company of Bariloche after having seen several companies and asking for prices. Fortunately the people of the company packed the furniture; I shall have to pack dishes, clothes and books, the small things but the worst!!. Luckily our apartment in Buenos Aires is small, but in these 7 years of marriage we have accumulated a lot of stuff (and crap too!)
Between what needs to be prepared are the curtains. I bought the fabric and I shall make them myself to cut costs. I was told that in Lago Puelo it costs a lot more expensive, because they come to town to buy the fabric ...
Next month, December, and I shall begin to pack our winter clothes to go forward a little work. The rest will be prepared together with my husband who returns home to spend the Christmas and New Year in family. Today I realized that I still have a month and a half to leave the job that I have for 16 years!. On January 8, the truck will be loading "our home" and if all goes well, on January 11 will be receiving it in Lago Puelo and we will begin to decorate our new home...
Inside the "Lago Puelo National Park" there is another beautiful footpath of no difficulty, of about 30 minutes walking and a length of 1000 meters, called "Sendero del Pitranto Grande" (Big Pitranto Path).
Between the pier and "La Playita" (Little Beach) we find the entrance to the "Bosque de las Sombras" (Forest of Shadows). To the left, we can see another gate made of wood. We enter by this portal, we can see to the right the dependences of the National Park Administration offices, and to the right a lot of trees like crab apples, plums and "murras". We arrive to a place with two another gates of trunks: one is the beginning of the path called "Antiguos Pobladores" (Old Settlers) and the trail to the Botanical Gardens; the other one is the entrance to the Pitranto Grande (Big Pitranto).
But what is a Pitranto? It is simply a forest of pitras, a strange tree known by different names: the Mapuches called it petra, but it is also known as patagua, temu, picha... Belongs to the Myrtaceae family and is relative to the myrtle. The scientific name is MYRCEUGENIA EXSUCCA (Myrceugenia is a combination of myrcia gender and eugenia, exsucca without juice). Source: http://www.florachilena.cl/
We enter into this strange and dark forest by a path that seems to have a padded, soft and swampy floor, composed of leaves and roots; some sectors are completely flooded. With its shade, the pitras protect the quality of the water in which they grow.
Unfortunately the forests of pitras are disappearing, and the "Pitranto Grande" is one of the largest remaining in the region. Under its shadows grow ferns that can be found only under these trees, they are called "beef ribs" or Quilquil.
The pitras are trees that grow between 10 to 15 meters high, their trunks are 50/60 centimeters in diameter and they can live up to 150 to 200 years. Their very twisted branches that form strange shapes and their flaky bark are really striking and give the place a fantastic and magical look. It seems to be into a forest of a Tolkien´s tale. This forest of pitras and myrtles is very dark, even more than the "Bosque de las Sombras" along which we traveled in a previous post. Link: Bosque de las Sombras
Walking along the path we find some wooden bridges built across streams of very dark but transparent waters. At the end of the trail appears another portal of trunks: we left the deepest darkness of the forest and change it for the sunshine; the path becomes a sand road surrounded by vegetation, among which we can see rosehip, brooms and murras. Following this path we came to "La Playita" on the shore of Puelo lake.
I hope you have enjoyed this Pitranto Grande Path, one of the many circuits that can be found in this beautiful "Lago Puelo National Park".
One of the most beautiful and magical circuits of the "Lago Puelo National Park" is that called "Bosque de las Sombras" (Forest of the Shadows).
The trail goes into the green and deep forest... It is a path with no slope of 600 meters, of easy difficulty and its duration is about 30 minutes. We can go into the forest by a footbridge made of coihue´s wood and built on the marshy and flooded ground. Here the water is transparent but it seems dark.
The "Forest of Shadows" is a very green place, where you can see several types of ferns and trees as pitras or pataguas, myrtles, avelinos, all of them with very twisted branches that give us the feeling of walking into a dim light...
The presence of fairies seems to float in the air, and that we are walking into a storybook of elves.
