today i left parque huapi….but this whole area seems to be one big national park. it’s really beautiful. the drive took me from the heavily forested park into a large plain (pampa) with huge mountains in the distance — i imagine this is similar to patagonia. it was nice, but i think i prefer the trees. luckily, i ended up heading to parque los alerces….which was incredible (trees, lake, snow capped mountains, etc.). it’s hard for me to describe beauty, much less what makes something beautiful…but suffice it to say that if i weren’t so tough (emotionally absent), i probably would have cried from the beauty.

surprisingly, on one small beach of the huge lake, they have lifeguard towers….but you have to be pretty crazy to swim in the freezing cold water. maybe it’s for the boats/fishing — luckily, it’s winter (well, technically spring since yesterday, i think) so the park is completely vacant.