LOS ARRAYANES NATIONAL PARK

Los Arrayanes National Park was created for preserving a wooded place of arrayanes forest.

GENERAL INFORMATION OF THE AREA

Los Arrayanes National Park was created in 1971, as independent National Park, because to that date, it formed part of Nahuel Huapi National Park. It was created in order to preserve a singular wooded forest of arrayanes. The park has an area of 1.753 hectares, covers the whole Quetribué Peninsula, located on the north side of Nahuel Huapi Lake.

On the south of Quetrihué Peninsula, part of the most irregular area level is located: the arrayanes forest, white flowers trees with cinnamon bark with whitish spots.

The park conserves a sample of eco-region Patagonian forest, whose climate varies from warm to cold and humid, with snows and winter rains. There are frequently frost during the hole year and strong winds from the west.

This eco-region has rugged and rough mountain landscape, with valleys, glaciers. Semi-residues forest predominates on the north, with peat bogs in their most southern part.

WALKS AND SERVICES

In Los Arrayanes National Park, is not allowed to camp; although, it is possible to camp in the nearby places as Villa La Angostura and nearby localities.

Close to Villa La Angostura, in the north zone of the peninsula, there is a path of 12Km that connect this locality with arrayanes forest. At 1 kilometer of this route, there is a panoramic point.

A planked path of 800 meters let you know the growing development of arrayanes trees.

Inside the forest, you will find a candy shop and bathrooms for your comfort.
 
NATURAL RESOURCES

Flora

From the coast of lakes to 900 meters above the sea level, the siempreverde forest grows; coihue is the most representative tree of the zone. Next to this tree, there are several cypress, radales, arrayanes, palo santos, ñires, pataguas and hua huán. In the north zone of the peninsula, the understory has a dense thicket of maqui and colihue cane. In places where the soil is less dense, there are thickets and herbaceous with beautiful flowers as tmichay, calafate, chilco, mutisia, amancay and botellitas. On the south, next to the coast, covering an area of 20 hectares, there is a singular formation of the zone: the forest of arrayanes.

Fauna

In the coasts of lakes and internal lagoons, the huillín lives in, a native aquatic mammal in danger of extinction.

The pudí, a native small stag, lives in the dense understory, appropriated place for its habitat.

The cormorán imperial is a marine bird, one of the few fresh water colonies. It makes its nests on the rock faces of Victoria coast and Menéndez Island.

The most southern hummingbird is the rubí. It basically eats the nectar of red flowers of the forest. Trees like notro, chilco and quintral, is the only bird that pollinate.

Other birds that live inside the park are patagonic woodpeckers, rayaditos and chucaos.

CULTURAL RESOURCES

The first settlers’ occupations were the hunting, the fishing and the harvest. The nomadic hunters ate animals of the steppe as the guanaco and the rhea; whereas other groups used canoes for navigating, fished and hunted animals of the wooded zones as the huemul and small mammals. Both groups developed a strong closely linked with the earth.

Around 1600, the white man arrived through mountain ranges, from Andean territories forming part of the slave’s expeditions, of evangelist missions (century XVII) or in exploratory travels (century XVIII). The travelers found tehuelches and araucanos groups, that changed notably its population increasing and its lifestyle after XVII century. These groups incorporated new resources (apples, horses, sheep, some seed cultivations, etc.), made strategic alliances among them, reduced its mobility and shared the language.

The Campaña al desierto (1879-1883) caused the disarticulation of indigenous population. Then, the shelters from both sides of the mountain range settled down in the region. Juan O´Connor was the first owner of the south zone of the peninsula; the lands were acquired by Lynch family, where they built a tea house for promoting this place of friends gathering.

ACCESS

You can arrive by Nahuel Huapi Lake, from Pañuelo Port in Bariloche and from La Mansa bays and La Brava in Villa La Angostura.

By land, it is possible to arrive at Villa La Angostura by national routes 237 and 231 from San Carlos de Bariloche city and 234 from San Martin de los Andes.

CONTACTS

Arrayanes National Park
(Nahuel Huapi National Park)
San Martín 24 C.C 380
(8.400) San Carlos de Bariloche
Río Negro, República Argentina
Phones: (029) 44-423121/423111/422734/
436227 (education)/44-422989

National Parks Administration
Santa Fe 690, C1059ABN
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Phone: (011) 4311-6633/0303
Mail: informes@apn.gov.arov.ar