Arrayanes Forest – Hiking 12km

Arrayanes Park and the Quetrihue Peninsula

in Lago Nahuel Huapai, Argentina

There is sunshine – amazing!  Thank goodness for the sun because today is a very important day. This afternoon we will tour El Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes (pronounced “a-ra-shaw-nace”) – hiking 12 km on a peninsula attached to the southwest tip of La Villa Angostura. The National Forest of Arranyanes Trees is one of the foremost, and smallest, national parks in Argentina.

But first, another exploration. By 11 am, which is really record time at this point, we are on the road north. About 5 km north of the town, there is a Lago Correntoso, which basically means “Lake with Currents”.

It connects to Lago Nahuel Huapi, the main lake, through a little 100-yard wide, 500-yard long channel called Rio Correntoso, the river with a current, which is sort of obvious. However, it is a major landmark, and has a very nice bridge.

We have included some pictures of men fly fishing on the way to Arrayanes. Signs posted make it very obvious that if you don’t pay a fishing license fee, you are in trouble. However, considering the previously mentioned double yellow lines…

We went to the Playa Lago Correntoso (beach – by the way, is pronounced “pla-sha” here), just to the east. It was truly a very nice black beach, similar to something in Tahoe. If it had been on our schedule, we would have stopped at the small parrilla there, which was again of course overlooking the water. As always, the sheer number of cool places to eat lunch and have a beer overlooking some body of water is amazing.

Map of the Quetrihue Peninsula in Lago Nahuel Huapai

Our schedule was to get to the dock for the boat ride out to the end of the Arrayanes Forest Park by about 1:45 to get our tickets, so we had an hour or so to shop for trinkets. They have a lot of wood carved items, woven pieces, elves and little gnome figures, etc. Also ashtrays which you also find in all restaurants – although most places have “no fumar” signs prominently displayed.

At the information ticket office I found I was in the wrong place, had to get the actual ticket for the Arrayanes boat somewhere else, and then come back for the park entrance ticket. It was funny that at no time did anyone check me for the park tickets, which had cost $8 each. On the boat, please, and we are off!

You take an 80 passenger boat one-way to the far end of the Arrayanes Forest peninsula (actually the Quetrihue Peninsula) and hike back. It is more of an island than a peninsula, because the connection section is only a few hundred meters across. A very nice 45-minute ride later, after double-cheeked hugs with the people in front of us (we had talked with them for a only few minutes), we are deposited at the Arrayanes Forest. There was a tour guide on the boat who spoke only Spanish, and she continued to guide the guests to the 45 minute mini-tour of the local forest. We decided that she was way over our heads in Spanish, so we toured the banos facilities instead, and went to the trail head.

Let me mention the Arrayanes forest. The Arrayán tree (name comes from the Arabic Ar-Rayhan or Rihan — “the aromatic”) is actually a shrub. Some of them are 650 years old, and on average in the main part of the forest, they are 300 years old and 15-25 meters high.

They look kind of like Manzanita bushes, but have very tiny bark and are red/blonde. The bushes have grown very tall. Although arranyan trees exist here and there elsewhere, this is the only Arranyanes Forest in the world.

A few blog posts back, at Lago Gutierrez, I said the “gnome” forest was the most beautiful hike I had ever taken. Scratch that. The trees and land in this small area of Arrayanes were hard to describe, and so we will just leave a few pictures. This country has some very beautiful hikes.

The hike trail is shared with bikers – the kind on mountain bikes. So you have to listen for the sound of their tires – and often squeaking gears. They don’t yell, “Dude, on your left!!!” It’s more of a basic understanding, like passing on double yellow lines.

   
We also shared the Arrayanes trail with various cow-type people and at one point a black dog walked along with us for several kilometers. The dog eventually went on ahead and when we arrived at one of the final lookout points, she was fast asleep despite being repeatedly “loved on” by each group of arriving hikers (see photo of JB at mirador with sleeping dog). It was a wonderful hike.

Fortunately,  Fernando had warned us to take the Arrayanes Forest boat FIRST and then hike back – instead of the other way around. This was excellent advice because that 1st kilometer is mostly vertical – and would have been a killer at the beginning – going up! As it was, it was reasonably steep going down – even with stairs! Thank you, Fernando! Pity the bikers!

The hike was 12 km – they say plan Arraynes for 3 hours – and we finished in 2 hrs 30 minutes. That’s about a 20.5 min/mile pace, mostly uphill. We were proud!! This after stopping for photos, a short liverwurst sandwich & chocolate cookie picnic, a biker who took a spill in a mud hole and other meanderings.

There was a beer garden at the end of the hike, across from the Arrayanes ticket office. You know how good a cold beer tastes at the conclusion of a strenuous adventure? Sure you do! The local (national) brand is Quilmes. It is apparently not owned by Bud. The beer was cool and went down well.  Goodbye Arrayanes!

On the way back home, I was looking forward to a hot bath to soak my feet. Have you ever had that sort of expectation, but then sadly when you get home, all the hot water is all gone? Pobre JB!

Short but sweet, after Arrayanes, we went to a quick parrilla dinner at Parrilla Las Varas downtown that turned out to be the best barbequed chicken we had had so far. We were pooped, so we decided to call it a night.Tomorrow is New Years Eve! Carol’s new catch phrase is “por supuesto” (of course).

Other Information of Interest:

Wikipedia link on Arrayanes National Park

Arrayanes National Park, Arrayanes Park, Arrayanes Forest, Argentina Tours, Carol and JB

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