Bariloche - Boat cruise to Punta Best April 5, 1980 With a day cruise, first by bus up Lago Nahuel Huapi to a landing where we boarded a cruise boat on up to the head of the lake. Saw assorted gulls, coots, and ducks - mostly along marshy shores. Did as I watched a cormorant soaring over Punta Best. A big gull (Podiceps major) is fairly common as I watched an adult jerking young ones on its back. The young are striped black or white, giving a grey appearance. Bariloche - bus cruise to Cascade Los Alverces and Cerro Tronador April 6, 1980 Our cruise today was by bus generally south of Bariloche past Lago Gutierrez and Laguna Mascardi to the waterfalls called Los Alverces, thence up a steep serpentine road to the foot of the great volcano Mt. Tronador. The name "Thunder Mountain" comes from the frequent ice falls off the face of the big glacier which send rumblings like thunder down the mountain. We watched several cascades of ice trembling down the craggy cliff at the head, the "Thunder" following. The forest belt is dominated by one of the big beech trees called "coihue". Above that is a belt of a smaller beech "lenga" with an understory of bamboo. Below the coihue is the foothill brush zone called "nire". Rainfall gradient goes from 120"/yr on the Chile side to 15" in the dry nire zone.