Esquel

Friday 14th January 2011

We caught the bus, 1 hour late, from Bariloche to Esquel via El Boslson. Beautiful mountains to El Bolson then flatter but nice to Esquel. On arrival at the Hotel Esquel the owner tried to tell us that we had no booking ( despite him agreeing that he had spoken to Ianne on the phone the day before ). Strange bastard. Then the missus arrived and common sense prevailed and we got our room. Esquel is located in a valley and has a superb location and a population of 40,000. We went to the station and then the bus station and booked tickets for "La Trochita", The Old Patagonian Express for 14.00 the next day.

On Saturday we went to the bus station and booked lots of bus tickets for the future and ended up having lunch, ham and cheese sarnies with 7 Up Free ( no calories or sugar).

La Trochita was wonderful. We went 18 km to Nahuel Pan and had a stop for 50 mins. This is a Mapuche-Tehuelche village ( or quite indigenous for thickies). As we were really doing this trip for Uncle Michael who had booked us for the full tour, we took lemon meringue pie and coffees in the dining car on the way back (How much!!!!!!). Weather cloudy with some sun. The trip was sold out and was one of three that day. I tried to buy a La Trochita hat and badge for Michael but these were not available even for large denominations of local currency. Bummer!

On Sunday 16th  we walked about 16km up and out of the valley to Laguna La Zeta on a dirt road and it was very breezy. We took a picnic and saw a hare and two large unidentified birds. The lake had various routes but the signs were not exactly convincing so we went back the way we had come. The picnic was enjoyed on a hill overlooking the town and a little zzzzz followed in the sunshine out of the wind. Marvellous.
 As is normal on a Sunday not much is open but we found a restaurant open for dinner. We can bring food into the hotel and eat it in the dining room ( they only do breakfast there) so this could be the plan for the next two nights. Barca won and Madrid only drew. Barca 4 points clear.

On the Monday we went on the bus down to Trelewin, another Welsh settlement and the 30 minute journey was not the spectacular event that Bradt Guide had led us to believe. More and more inaccuracies are being found with Bradt ( not pricing because everything in Argentina is now exactly double what it was 4 years ago). Trelewin ( town of the mill in Welsh) has a good tourist office and we got full details. A picnic coffee was taken in the main square , green and leafy, then we walked down to the mill museum. The museum gave a good insight into the early days, about 100 years ago, and most of the exhibits had English translations. There was a TV program, political we think, being broadcast from a large conference room in the museum. A walk along the river was then taken and off we went to have lunch at one of the two famous Casa de Te (Tea houses). Naturally it was lunch time, not tea time, so they were closed and we took a parilla lunch (our first) at the 1 restaurant that was open. After waiting 40 minutes to place our order we got greasy and poor quality meat. So much for the world famous parilla! Next time we will only go on personal recommendation.

An open air museum celebrating a famous horse was visited and the gardens were so manicured we could have been in northern Europe. Quite nostalgic really! Trevelin is probably worth the visit but it plays much on its Welsh Heritage, not just in road names.

On Tuesday 18th it was raining in the morning so we took the bus after lunch to Parque Nacional de las Alerces, a 50km ride. At the entrance to the Parque I told the man we were Jubilados (pensioners) so no pay! 100 pesos saved. We walked along a tree rooted, forest path along the lake for 5 km in the pouring rain. It took 90 minutes. After a coffee and hot chocolate at Puerto Limona, we walked back along the road and it only took 50 minutes including steep hills! We changed our sodden (correct spelling) trousers for plastic waterproofs and caught the last bus, 19.00, back to Esquel. As it was our last night we treated ourselves to an Irish Coffee which was the best I have had since leaving the UK 5 years ago.

As we were staying at a hotel they took Visa ( hostels. hospedajes, residenciales etc only take cash) so we offered the card. The hotel could not get a connection to Visa!!!!!! As ever Argentina deceives to flatter.

Summary of Esquel

We liked it. There was enough to do and the Nacional Park and La Hoya Ski Resort( not visited) would be worth more time if you hired a car. All accommodation in the town was fully booked. For the future the town needs more restaurants and coffee shops and the Museum needs to be moved into town from the 5 km outside town. All ATMS always had money.