Parque Nacional Los Alerces...and a LOT of rain

We'd planned on taking an old steam train tour up into the mountains today but there were no seats left for us. Too bad - it would have been fun. Instead we took advantage of the time to wander around Esquel (a cute, Banff-like town) stocking up for our upcoming venture into the national park to camp.

Guille was so worried about the rain that she bought a brand new, certified water-proof tent in Esquel. She knows she'll use it again so instead of putting up the one we've been borrowing, we'd use the new one. A good investment.

We got to the information centre around 17:00. While we were planning on tenting, the ranger told us that they were expecting 50km/hr winds and upwards of 60mm of rain. If we didn't want a soggy night, he suggested we try getting in to one of the many cabins. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea. We tried several spots but no luck.

Accepting our fate, we pulled into the Bahia Rosales campground. It's a beautiful campground on the lake. It has a store, a common cabin/hall, showers with hot water, toilets and water. It's gorgeous despite the rain.

There were plenty of empty campsites to choose from so we opted for the one with the least mud, a mix of trees and open space, and one on a bit higher ground.

Fortunately it wasn't pouring too hard when we put the tent up but boy did it pick up! At which point we noticed a drip inside the tent! That was not supposed to happen. A little MacGuyver-ing and some kind words to the universe and we were sorted.

Then came the 'guardian angels'. That's how Guille prefers to think of the troop of slugs that began to climb the sides of the tent en-masse. I'd never seen anything like it. This picture shows a few early in the night, but they just kept coming and sliming all over the tent throughout the night. Blech! The joys of camping!