Lunch: Villa La Angostura
The midday stop is Villa La Angostura — fuel at the ACA station on the way in, then lunch in town. The town was formally established on 15 May 1932 — its name referring to its position on the narrow isthmus of the Quetrihué Peninsula, angostura meaning "narrows" in Spanish. It sits at the junction of two lakes: Lago Nahuel Huapi to the west and Lago Correntoso to the east. Local building codes, which require construction in wood and stone, have kept the alpine character intact in a way that Bariloche — its larger and busier neighbour to the south — has not always managed. The main street, Avenida Arrayanes, is the commercial heart: chocolate shops, breweries, a few good restaurants. The town is the gateway to Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes, a compact reserve on the Quetrihué Peninsula protecting a forest of arrayán trees (Luma apiculata) with their distinctive cinnamon-coloured peeling bark and cool, dimly lit interior — the kind of place that generates legends, including the persistent local claim, probably apocryphal, that Walt Disney was inspired by it when designing the forest in Bambi. Reaching the arrayán forest requires a 12-kilometre walk or bike ride along the peninsula; it is not a feasible stop on today's schedule but worth noting for a return visit.