In Patagonia

We love Patagonia. The Chilean side had completely different vegetation, almost like a rain forest. After rain finally drove us off Chiloe Island, we camped our last night in this really cool forest preserve in Aracuria, where they had really nice hiking trails.

From Aracuria, it was the easiest Argentine border yet, although considering the jams at the previous two, that’s not saying much. Returning to Argentina, we spent two days in Villa La Angostura, on the shores of the beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapí. In Punta Alta, a friend had shown us impossibly beautiful photos of this place and it certainly lived up to it. None of my photos do it justice. The lake is very oddly shaped and a dozen different shades of blue and turquoise.

We camped two nights in a free rough camp on Lago Espejo, alongside some cross-country cyclists, which has been a common sight here in Argentina. I cannot imagine biking these mountainous roads, although the scenery is indeed spectacular and the air is clean and crisp. This is also where we’ve been seeing the most hitchhikers.

The most exciting thing I purchased expressly for this trip was a paperback of Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia, which I dutifully carried all the way to Buenos Aires before I started to read it. What made it even more exciting was that in the very first book I read on the trip, A New Time for Mexico, Carlos Fuentes mentioned In Patagonia and said something like it was one of the best books ever written by one of the greatest authors of the century. The book is divided into short scenes, some just a page long, including several snippets relating to the myths and realities surrounding one of Patagonia’s most famous visitors/residents, Butch Cassidy. He, The Sundance Kid, and Etta Place (from what I understand the Kid’s real partner in crime) bought a ranch in a little town called Cholila after netting $30k from a bank robbery and deciding to leave the country for a while.

It is so fun to read about the country you’re driving through. We drove to Cholila from the El Bolsón brewery, where we spent another cold and rainy night–but with delicious beer. Patagonia is filled with good microbrews. From Cholila, we drove through the Los Alerces National Park, alongside yet more turquoise lakes and rivers. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to camp in the park because of a plant called the Caña Colihue. Once every 70 years or so, it produces an abundance of seeds which are a favorite food of rats, and a carrier of hanta virus, which can cause a potentially fatal respiratory infection. It was still a nice drive for the daytime, and at the end of it we arrived in Trevelin, where we camped in an apple orchard/campground for the night.

Trevelin and the neighboring town of Esquel, where we spent a few days enjoying the scenery and nice weather, are both towns with sizable Welsh populations. I guess if you know a lot of Welsh people you would be able to see the physical attributes of their Welsh roots in the faces of many of the people, but other than a Welsh-Spanish printed map in Trevelin, it wasn’t too apparent to me.

The highlight of our stay in Esquel was getting to ride La Tronchita. This is a narrow-gauge train that is called The Old Patagonian Express, after Paul Theroux wrote about it in his book with that name. Essentially, it is a small train that looks like a toy. I didn’t even know such a thing existed. It has an irregular schedule at this time of year, but we were lucky enough to get on a trip very easily. We rented a little cabin just a block away from the station and even climbed all over the train while it was just parked there. It’s just a tourist ride now and takes you to the station of Nahuel Pan, where several vendors await you while the train engine turns around, but the whole thing was completely delightful, especially if you love trains like I do!

Now I am stoked to try and get on the Southern Fuegian Railway, another narrow-gauge train in Tierra del Fuego. I do love trains.

More photos at limpire.