Before hitting Bariloche, we decided to stop a few hours south in the town of Esquel, to check out Los Alerces National Park and do some more camping.  We spotted a hostel right across the street from the bus station, so headed on over and checked ourselves into one very cramped dorm room.  Our roommates turned out to all be Argentinian, as it was definitely holiday season.  They pointed us in the direction of the tourist information centre and the supermarket, and we set off to explore the small town.

Esquel was the first town in a while that didn’t feel set up solely for tourists, so it was quite refreshing.  We even managed to find some cheap vegetables that we fried up with some eggs and the remaining blue cheese, getting a few looks from the Argentinians grilling steak.  But of course we had some red wine (that wasn’t out of a box this time), so that helped us fit in.

It was much better than it looks

We got up early the next day to catch the 8am bus to the Park, arriving at 10:30am.  We set our bags down and headed up to the first mirador.  It was gorgeous, and we had the place to ourselves.

Moving on we hiked through a very narrow trail along an emerald lake, widening the trail considerably as we crashed through with our giant packs.  At the end of the trail, we realized we had to walk on the road to get to the free camping site where we planned to spend the night. 8km later, we made it.  We were exhausted, but set up camp on the beach, made some food, and had the place pretty much to ourselves.

Waking up, it was bliss.  We slowly packed up, and hit another narrow trail that led to the bus stop for heading back.  This led to another more well used trail, that took us across a suspension bridge where two lakes merged into another.  A gorgeous spot.  Eventually we had to hit the road again, which was actually fine to walk on being a dirt road and not very busy.  Unfortunately this lack of traffic also seemed to foil our attempts at hitchhiking.  I guess it could have also been our massive bags, or our rather unkempt look.  Three hours later, we reached the beach where the bus would come in a few hours, so we lay on the beach for some rest.

Not a bad view to wake up to

We grabbed the bus and arrived back at our private room in the hostel (we realized it only cost $4 more to upgrade from the dorm), cooked some pasta, drank some wine, and stayed up til 2 in the morning charging our electronics, washing our clothes, and getting in some much needed internet time after the crappy signal in El Chalten.  We set our alarms for a few hours later and headed to the bus for Bariloche.

A few more photos below:

Narrow trail