Parque Nacional Los Alerces

On Monday Feb 4 we left Peninsula Valdes, to take  an overnight

bus (a double decker  which even included a little dinner tray,

plus bed-like foot platforms, pillow and blankie)  to Esquel.

Going to Esquel was a last minute decision to stay 2 nights in 

Parque Nacional los Alerces. We arrived at the bus station at

6:30 AM with no confirmed reservations and only an hour to catch

the only bus to the park.

Luckily the tourist office was open (at 7 am!) and the young woman

was very efficient. After some tense moments she was able to

confirm reservations in the Parque Nacional los Alerces ...

supposedly camping was an option with the rental of camping

equipment, but only David was excited by this prospect.

Our accommodations were in a very posh 1930s European style lodge

complete with lounge chairs and a large terrace overlooking the

lake. 

Dinners were so-so and rooms looked nice, but ours (Esther and David)

overlooked the kitchen area. This wouldn't be a problem except

Argentinians eat dinner at 11pm even in the middle of nowhere and

with their kids, so there was lots of clanging and cleanup at

midnight under our window. Nothing serious and we were really glad

to have made the stop. Again, the only visitors were Argentinians,

and again, we were struck by how genuinely nice and interested they

were in us,and very kind despite our very bad Spanish.
 
We did 2 short hikes and one full day of 17km, in an old growth

forest where the trees were at least 30 meters high but only the

very tops had foliage.

The undergrowth was bamboo which created a golden light and enabled

us to see the sky.

At the end of the hikes we swam (or chickens like me and Annice

soaked their feet)  in cold crystal clear lakes from Andes

waterfalls.

Throughout the park there were  unusual trees which we couldn't

identify (see photo).

If anybody can help us

in identifying this

unusual tree that looks

as if it came straight

from the dinosaur period,

we will be happy to find out.

 --Presently we are in Bariloche and this is the first place

that we haven't fallen in love with.  Part of it is because

3 of 4(myself Esther is the healthy one) have the dreaded

"Tourista", or more appropriately, the "near death experience".

It started with David who missed the beautiful dusty hike down

from the cable car

yesterday with the fantastic views of the lakes,

View from Cerro Otto

followed by Simon and Annice this morning (sorry, no pictures).

We came prepared, the lomotil has been very useful and drinking lots

of Gatorade. It isn't very serious as we are slowly recovering thanks

to our in-house doctor, Annice. The B&B is comfortable and the rooms

have private WC, a god-send in our currently compromised state.

Annice isn't too bad so we have been walking aroundthe city but

our plans for cycling are on hold.
 
On Monday we fly south to the Glaciers for two weeks of trekking.

This blog was delayed by our condition (we are now doing much

better) so we´ll take this opportunty to post a couple of videos

from Peninsula Valdes.

Community life of sea lions

Our cycling adventure