San Martin de los Andes (Drive Day 218: Feb 2, 2004)
It is hard to leave a place as River-Runs-Through-It, movie-set beautiful as Junin, but we assume the next town bearing a similar name will be worth the drive. Turns out the drive needs no added bonuses; the trail of seven lakes is a destination in itself. In the space of 40 kilometers, the entire scenery goes from expansive Montana to piney, mountain Oregon, with bright blue lakes instead of wide open rivers. San Junin de los Andes is to Argentina what Vail must be to Colorado – a place for wealthy skiers and socialites to enjoy the mountains from resort lodge comfort. We, in our dusty camper, are distinctly underdressed so we stock up on some overpriced groceries and find a campsite on the shores of still-lovely Lake Lacar. It is far enough from espresso shops and art galleries to bore the winter jet set, so it feels like we have this national park all to ourselves.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa. Like travel anthologies? I’m in a brand new one called Alone Together: Tales of Sisterhood and Solitude in Latin America which you can get here.
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