I know I mentioned this briefly in an earlier post, but let me tell you more about my marvelous excursion on Lago Nahuel Huapi. I had not planned to go, as it seemed a bit expensive, and a day on a boat on a mountain lake in winter did not sound like an enjoyable day to me. But, I rethought it, and on the bus trip out to that end of the Lake (which is the prime trip to take as a tourist, known as Circuito Chico [The Little Circuit]) I decided to see if I could get on the boat. I could and it turned out not to be that expensive: $110 pesos for the boat and $20 pesos for entry into the national park (which they don't tell you about when you buy the boat ticket!) for a total of $130 pesos which sounds expensive (and is if you talk to Argentinos) but translates to $43 US. For six hours on a boat, with guided tours at the two stops, in an amazingly beautiful location, really not that bad as I recall such excursions in the States.
Anyway, I started out on the top deck (two decks total, top exposed, bottom enclosed) and lasted about 15 minutes into the trip before the cold wind while the boat was moving drove me below. You could still see very well through the large window and the pictures as you will see in the Kodak Album prove how amazingly beautiful it is up here. The first stop on the tour was Isla Victoria. This large island in the lake was turned into an experimental tree farm in the early 1900's by someone (I don't remember his name) who was looking for lumber trees that grew faster than the native Argentine trees. They produce an extremely hard wood and are excellent for lumber, taking a lot of wear and tear (the guide showed us the oldest house on the island, over 100 years old, which has fallen into disrepair, but still has the original wood shingles on the roof and siding on the house and still basically protects the interior.) The problem is, the trees grow so slowly that it takes 100 years before producing a tree which can be harvested for the lumber! So, they started bringing in trees from other parts of the world to see how they would grow in Argentina. Two such trees were of great interest: Oregon and Ponderosa Pines, from the Western US. In the US they grow to maturity in 40 years. Well, it turns out, in Argentina they grow to maturity in 20 years! And they grow tall and straight, excellent for lumber. So, now they use them for most of their lumber needs.
On this island though, about 15 years after the first pines were planted, it became a national park, protecting all the plants and animals. Therefore, the trees were never harvested. And these pines, not only are exotics (it was wild to hear them described as exotics!) but invasive exotics. That means, like the Australian pines imported to Florida to protect the orange groves and the kudzu imported to the southern US, they have no natural enemies and they grow like wildfire, taking over and killing the indigenous species! So the pines are now being harvested by the rangers and they are finally beginning to manage them to protect the indigenous species on the island.
The other interesting tree on the island was the Sequoia, from California. They were very interested in them and they, too, grow much faster in Argentina. They have 80 year old trees over 50 meters tall, which is how tall they grow in about 300 years in California! They are not invasive, though, because they need fires to help them propagate, and they do not have fires on the island. So the seed pods do not open up and spread the seeds, which only happen with the heat of a fire.
The other stop on the tour was the tip of a peninsula where a forest of Arrayanes Trees has developed. These are a member of the myrtle family (I assume that makes them a relative of the Crepe Myrtle) and usually only grow as bushes. But in this location the conditions were such that in their competition with other trees for survival, they won and became the dominant tree in the forest. This is the only known location in the world where that has occurred. They have a striking appearance and have created quite a fairy-land forest.
Enjoy the pictures by following these links to the Kodak Gallery Albums. This link will take you to views from the boat: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.2283bj9m&x=0&y=-xmvuwj&localeid=en_US
This link will take you to views of Isla Victoria: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.7wlzk50q&x=0&y=-qpmwto&localeid=en_US
This link will take you to views of the Arrayanes Forest: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.6i38cstm&x=0&y=d1a6ho&localeid=en_US
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