North Along the Cordillera

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From Esquel we have gone north to the national park de los alerces, named after very old trees that grow there that are similar to redwoods. we spent i think 2 days there and went on some hikes before moving on. we passed by the town of chilola, where butch cassidy and the sundance kid lived (we missed the turn to the house- things are not well labeled here) to the next national park, named lago puelo. both parks follow a similar theme: large glacier fed lakes hemmed in by snow capped mountains. lago puelo is especially interesting because of the large open valley and winding river that lead to the lake and because of the neiboring town of bolson. bolson is famous for being a hippie center in the 70´s and still maintains this charcter (picture the commons in ithaca, boulder, or berclay, but a little less developed). here you can find the streets filled with backpackers and standard assortment of street fairs, hitchhikers, hand crafted goods, juggling, and bongo beats. in bolson/lago puelo we decided to stay a few days longer than needed just to relax, and because a friend of gabriel (the argentine whose car we are using) is here and has been great with showing us around the area. we have been camping the entire time and so far the weather has been perfect- near 80-90 in the day (good for jumping off the cliffs into a lake after a hike in the sun) and probably 50-60 at night, and no rain. tomorrow the first rain of the trip is supposed to come. hopefully we will be all packed up and be on our way to bariloche before the storm comes.

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