Isla Victoria, Bosque de Arrayanes & Puerto Blest Lake Cruises Guide

Occupying 557 square kilometres and plunging to depths of 464 metres across seven glacial fjord arms (brazos), Lago Nahuel Huapi is the liquid heart of northern Patagonia. Every day of the year, sleek catamarans and the historic 1938 vessel Modesta Victoria depart from the timber pier of Puerto Pañuelo (at Km 25 of Avenida Exequiel Bustillo below the Llao Llao Hotel) on two completely different half-day or full-day National Park voyages.

1. Cruise 1: Isla Victoria & Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes (Península de Quetrihué)

Sailing north-west across the open main body of Lago Nahuel Huapi, this five-to-six-hour excursion visits two protected wonders in a single trip:

• Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes (The World's Purest Cinnamon-Barked Forest): At the southern tip of the Quetrihué Peninsula (which was designated an independent 1,796-hectare National Park in 1971 specifically to protect this botanical rarity), you step onto an 800-metre raised wooden boardwalk winding through a dense, sunlit grove of pure arrayán trees (Luma apiculata), some more than 600 years old and reaching fifteen metres high. Famous for their smooth, cold-to-the-touch, saffron-and-cinnamon-orange bark dappled with white spots and gnarled roots, the trees frame the historic 1933 log Tea House (Casita de Té del Bosque de Arrayanes).
• Isla Victoria (Puerto Anchorena & Playa del Toro): On the return navigation, the boat docks at Puerto Anchorena on the 20-kilometre-long Isla Victoria. Here you can walk forested trails beneath towering coastal redwoods and native conifers initiated in the early twentieth century, ride the island chairlift up Cerro Bella Vista, or walk along the black volcanic sands of Playa del Toro to see indigenous rock paintings.

2. Cruise 2: Puerto Blest, Cascada de los Cántaros & Emerald Lago Frías

Sailing west into the narrow, cliff-lined fjord of Brazo Blest (passing Isla Centinela, where National Park founder Francisco "Perito" Moreno is buried, and where captains sound three ship-horn blasts in salute):

• Valdivian Temperate Rainforest & Cascada de los Cántaros: Because moist Pacific clouds funnel straight over the low Andean pass into Brazo Blest, annual rainfall jumps from 800 mm in Bariloche to nearly 4,000 mm at Puerto Blest, creating a lush Valdivian jungle (Selva Valdiviana) of giant ferns, mossy lianas, and 1,500-year-old alerce trees. Climb the 700 stepped wooden stairs beside the roaring tiers of the Cascada de los Cántaros up to Laguna Los Cántaros.
• Optional Extension to Milky-Green Lago Frías: From Puerto Blest, a three-kilometre bus ride along the Río Frías brings you to Puerto Alegre on Lago Frías, whose water is a surreal, opaque turquoise-emerald caused by fine glacial rock flour suspended from the glaciers of Cerro Tronador; check official excursion operators at Puerto Pañuelo for daily departure times and National Park embarkation fees.