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Hotel Mascardi, located at the shore of lake Mascardi, was firstly open in the year 1942. Originally was built completely in wood but a year later a fire burnt it to ashes. So years later begun the construction of the present hotel.
Jesuit father Nicolás Mascardi originally came from Italy and asked to be send on mission to Chile where he developed a great work among the Indians of the region. He was highly educated in different sciences: math's, philosophy, astronomy, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and then the local Indian languages Puelche and Araucano. He worked in the villages of Concepción, Chilean and Chiloe. Then he crossed the Andes where he stayed until he died. He got in contact with the Indians "from the other side of the Andes" that were imprisoned, this made him develop the idea of spreading the holly bible among them in their homeland. It was not easy for Mascardi to obtain the permission to begin his new mission even more difficult was his trip across the Andes. On his crossing came with him the Indian that he set free in Chiloe in 1669. His voyage was through lake Todo los santos and Peulla, reaching Nahuel Huapi lake in 1670. With Mascardi came also a boy called Juan de Uribe you helped him inn the mission and later became a priest himself. In the region of Neuquen province by the Nahuel Huapi lake was built his mission.Probably was located on the Huemul peninsula of Nahuel Huapi lake, where he built his chapel and wooden houses.He made several voyages to the south of Patagonia reaching Puerto Deseado in Santa Cruz province. In his last trip he was murdered by Indians that did not know him. The vice-king of Peru was very enthusiastic with Mascardi work so he supported his mission with gold and silver, also he gave Mascardi a picture of the holly Mother that Mascardi placed in his humble chapel what gave the name to the mission "Our holly Mother of the Nahuel Huapi" The Mascardi lake is also called "seven colors lake" because it changes the colors according to the season and the hour of the day. It has different colors that go from a Grey blue to an intense dark green and marine blue. the main affluent of Mascardi lake is the Manso river that begins at the Black glacier at the foot of Tronador volcano (3554 m). When the river Manso gets into the mascardi lake has a milky green color this is due to the sediments that come from the glacier. | ||||||||
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The lake Mascardi was first found by Fray Francisco Menéndez in 1791, 125 years later would come Francisco P. Moreno exploring the region from the East. Moreno named the lake after an Italian missionary that the Indians murdered.
The Indian had great affection with him to the point that they denied to guide him back to Chile because they were afraid that he would not come back to them. After Mascardi's death there was no missionary in the region for 20 years until father Felipe Van Der Meeren came from Belgium.(in Spain he traduced his surname into Spanish to father Felipe Laguna - lagoon). In 1707 he was poisoned by the Indians.
Mascardi lake, through Manso river, los Moscos lake, Hess lake, los Alerces waterfall and Steffen lakes crosses the Andes and ends in the Pacific ocean. At the beginning the explores thought that its water run to the Gutiérrez lake and through Limay river to the Atlantic ocean. This made a great controversy between Chile and Argentina in the dispute for the limits. The queen of UK was ask to decide on this matter and she ruled that in this region the limits will be the highest mountain peaks. So the Tronador volcano served as limit between Chile and Argentina. Francisco P. Moreno worked for years in the Limit commission for Argentina in it is mainly thanks to his studies and explorations that this region was preserved to Argentina's future generations.
