San Martín de los Andes is a small town a few hours north of Bariloche. It’s definitely a tourist hub but the focus here is being outside. And this is not a surprise given the town’s location, surrounded on all sides by steep mountains and Lake Lacar, a beautiful icy-blue body of water. In the summer, people flock here to mountain bike, kayak, windsurf, etc. In the winter it’s the quintessential ski town, down to the Swiss chalet style architecture.

Macky’s friend Flavio owns a local bike/outdoor store, Adventure Store, and he let us take the kayaks out for a day free-of-charge. We spent six hours tooling around on the lake, finding secluded beaches, demolishing a pound of salami and getting sunburnt. A fantastic day.

This weekend Flavio and Adventure Store put on a small mountain bike race in the hills outside of San Martin. Macky had a good time kicking butt and I had a good time being confused when the race ended 2 laps earlier than I was expecting.  But the best part was the kids race. There were a ton of kids racing, starting with the 5-6-year-old age group and going all the way up. They provided excellent pre-race entertainment for all the adults, whether they were crashing spectacularly into one another or playing air guitar on the start line.

At the race we met an American couple named Neil and Sheila and their two boys Aiden and Shane. They invited us to a parilla (Argentine style barbecue) at their hotel. Aiden and Shane were adamant that we bring our bathing suits and swim in the hotel pool. Seeing as free food, swimming and kids are three of our favorite things we accepted the offer gladly. Neil and Sheila also invited a family they had met a few weeks ago when they mistook their lakeside mansion for a refugio (inn). Instead of turning them away, the family (three sisters, their husbands and a passel of children) had invited them in, fed them and let them stay the night. So when Neil ran into two of the sisters, Flopi and Maria, in the supermarket in San Martin he invited them and the whole crowd to the parilla. Neil met us in the parking lot, saying, by way of a warning, “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve invited the Von Trapp family.”

The reason for the nickname soon became clear. There were at least 10 kids, all blonde and adorable, ranging in age from a composed and mature 15-year-old, to a pair of curly haired 7-year-old twins in matching blue flowered shirts, to shy baby Juanjo who Macky would have adopted on the spot had the opportunity arisen. After dinner, the kids put on a show, singing and dancing to a song from Annie (translated into Spanish), ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” and, of course, “So Long, Fair Well” from the Sound of Music. Shane and Aiden ran around the hotel inviting everyone to the show and by the time the music started a crowd had assembled on the patio. After the last song, Shane threw out his hat, shouting “Propinas para la Family Von Trapp!” (Tips for the Von Trapp Family!) over and over again until his chagrinned parents corralled him.

The show ended after midnight. We exchanged datos with our new friends and made plans to visit the Von Trapps at their house on Lago Hermoso (about 30 km from San Martín). Overall, a wonderful evening.