Lake Puelo ( es, Lago Puelo) is a
lake located in the northern part of
Chubut Province, in
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
Patagonia. Of
fluvial
In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...
-
glacial origin, its deepest point is 180 meters. The narrow L-shaped lake is surrounded by
Lago Puelo National Park
The Lago Puelo National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Lago Puelo) is a national park of Argentina, located in the northwest of the province of Chubut, in the Patagonia region of South America. It has an area of . It was created to protect its scenic ...
.
The lake is fed by the small rivers, ''Azul'' and ''Quemquemtreu''. The outflow from Puelo Lake is the
Puelo River which flows to the
Pacific Ocean through Chile. The river emerges from the lake at the border with Chile, flows through a narrow turbulent passage called Arroyo los Hitos about long and into Lake Puelo Inferior (Lower Puelo Lake), entirely in Chile.
The lake is surrounded by typical
Valdivian temperate rain forests
The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainforest ...
, more typical of the maritime-influenced area of Chile rather than the eastern side of the
Andes in Argentina.
The term ''Puelo'' seems to have its origin in the
Mapuche expression ''puel-có'', (''puel'' = east, ''co'' = water) meaning something like "Water at the East", as it was located in the easterly part of the area occupied by the indigenous
Mapuche people.
The town of
Lago Puelo is located in the narrow valley of the Azul River about north of the lake. Tourism is the principal industry of the town and area.
References
External links
Tourism at Lago Puelo{{in lang, es
Lakes of Chubut Province
Tourist attractions in Chubut Province
Patagonia