We visited the craft market (very SaltSpring-esque) and then headed into the hills for our last patagonian trek. We couldn't do our originally planned trail due to a campground closure, so we had a bonus 10K of walking, on a dirt road past many farms with big dogs. Whee!
Once we reached the alternate trail it got rather more pleasant, meandering up a river valley along a good trail. We passed one other group of hikers and a few gauchos with 'herds' of 5 or 6 cows each. The only camping allowed was behind the refugio, in a field occasionally visited by very large Patagonian Chipmunks, that begged for food in typical chipmunk style.
The next morning we broke camp quickly and headed downriver to a lovely quiet place where we made our brekkie and chilled out drinking mate for a few hours.
Then we were off down the trail to our hostel and another few days of hippie-town relaxing. We went to the town's best restaurant on Dave's birthday and had a pretty fantastic meal of local trout grilled to perfections. The restaurant (Jauja) also has a chocolate shop and ice cream. Really, Really Good ice cream! Highly recommended! For those who've been tracking our search for the best ice cream in Argentina, this was the clear winner!
After El Bolson we headed to Esquel to simplify our bus connection to the coast. Not the most exciting town, apparently it's a good base for visiting a nearby national park, but we didn't have time. We did head to a little welsh town down the highway for high tea. Wow! The welsh tea tradition seems to have blended well with the argentine sweet tooth - after eating most of the 7 large pieces of cake we each got (Megan hid a few in her bag for the next day) we walked the 25K back to Esquel. Well, some of it - we flagged a bus before it got dark - but enough to reduce the sugar-induced jitters and let us sleep :)
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