Off the beaten path...

Ok...well not exactly off the beaten path. We took a tour today - it was the only way to see El Abuelo, the 2600 year old alerce tree which is at the end of Lago Menendez. There were lots of people which made both of us cringe a little bit. Of all of those people, however, what I noticed was that I was the only gringo.

El Abuelo:

It turns out that Parque Nacional de Los Alerces doesn't seem to be on the agenda of many backpackers or international tourists. It's great. I'm getting a unique view of the places Argentinians go to see in their own country, and gosh darn it - there's no English in these here parts so I have to listen up and escucha bien!

We took the boat tour across Lago Menendez which took about an hour. There was some stunning scenery, including a lovely glacier.

When we got to the dock at the end of the lake, they took us on a 1900m walk. I didn't believe them when they said it would take 2 hours, with minimal elevation gain. I was forgetting that there were going to be lots of starting and stopping with explanations and photos. Guille and I trailed behind after a couple of stops and played with our cameras letting the crowd move on and leaving the forest to ourselves. Much better!

It's so much like the west coast of Canada here. That may be why I'm not as interested in the lake-forest-mountain-sky picture so much as pictures of the trees and flowers we don't have back home - like bamboo! I didn't expect that!

When we got 'home' we ran down to the lake shore, about 20m from our tent, and enjoyed the last of the sun before it went down over the mountains. Then it was time for a trip to the cafe here (oh yes...it's a fancy campground) for some snacks and small dose of internet - which was effectively useless given how slow the connection was.

We had our first campfire at our site last night. It took some doing to get it going because it was all rather damp from the recent (heavy) rains. As we cooked our vegetable stir fry on the little stove and drank wine, we played some music and danced with our headlamps on the strobe setting under the arrayanes trees behind the fire. Thank goodness the campground is nearly empty and there were no witnesses! ;o)