Villa La Angostura is a small town of about seven and a half thousand people on the north shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi, in the Patagonian Andes of Neuquén province, and it has the air of a Swiss resort that was built with local timber and stone. The name means the narrow village, from the slim isthmus that joins the town's peninsula to the mainland. It was founded in the 1930s, and the log-and-stone chalets, chocolate shops and smokehouses give it a cosy character. To the east, the city of Bariloche lies about eighty kilometres away along the lake.
The lake itself is a huge, deep body of glacial water, with long arms reaching into forested mountains, and it lies within Nahuel Huapi National Park, the country's first, created in the 1930s from land donated by the explorer Francisco Moreno. On the Quetrihué peninsula, the Los Arrayanes forest holds myrtle trees with smooth, cinnamon-coloured bark that feels cool and slightly damp to the touch. Behind the town, Cerro Bayo is a ski area in winter and a viewpoint in summer. The air smells of cypress, wet earth and woodsmoke.
For riders, the town is the start or finish of the Seven Lakes Route, the stretch of Route 40 that runs about a hundred kilometres north to San Martín de los Andes. The road is paved, with good surface and gentle to tight bends, climbing through beech and cypress forest with lakes appearing and disappearing between the trees. Traffic can be heavy in January and February, and rain and fog are common. In winter, snow and ice can close sections. Volcanic ash from a 2011 eruption of a volcano on the Chilean side once blanketed the area, and the landscape has since recovered. The best seasons are late spring and autumn, when the colours of the lenga beech turn red and gold.
Practically, the town has several fuel stations, supermarkets, restaurants serving smoked trout, Patagonian lamb and artisan beer, and plenty of hotels and cabins. Prices rise in summer, so book ahead. The Chilean border at Paso Cardenal Samoré is not far to the west, and crossing needs passports, vehicle papers and sometimes patience. Fuel stations are scarce on the Seven Lakes road itself, so fill up before leaving.