Agro-tourism (15-23/Feb/06)

Bariloche, Argentina

In the end we spent 5 nights at Esther’s cousin’s house. He lives in between the 2 main towns, Coyhaique and Puerto Aisén, in the countryside where he has a few greenhouses and grows mostly lettuce and coriander. The first day there we learned how to harvest them and prepare them for the shops, then went to Puerto Aisén to all the small supermarkets and corner shops to sell them. Since then we have mostly been farmers, learning a few tricks of the trade, planting the next batch of lettuce, and fighting a bug invasion. On the last day we visited the neighbours and oversaw the slaughter of a sheep (if you’re gonna eat meat you should see how it’s made at least once), crucified it on a roasting stick, and plonked it next to the fire (of coigue wood, very important) for a few hours. Hmmmm, tasty. We missed out on milking a cow (but at least had seen it the day before) because of a hangover. Oh, and we grabbed & held our first chicken.

Our next stop down the Carretera Austral as this neck of the woods is called was Futaleufú (al these weird names derive from the local Indian tribes), but the best way there by bus is through Chaitén (which involves doubling back on yourself a bit) and spending the night there. Due to the constant rain there is an “urban campsite”, a big bare room in a house where you can sleep on the floor and even pitch tent if you want. Before going to Futaleufú we had a dip in the local thermal baths, quite amusing being in the open air in shorts while it’s freezing cold and raining around you.

Futaleufú is the rafting capital of Chile, but in the end we didn’t go down the river because it seemed a bit hardcore (even though they assured us it was OK for beginners), but mostly because the weather was a bit crap and we found out it was half price (even if not as good) in Bariloche. And so we spent the night there and caught the next bus across the border…

…To Esquel, to see the Alerces national park. But since it was a bit tame, what with having to hop on pleasure boats (and pay!) to get to the good bit and no long distance treks we just breezed on through, pausing just to hop on a tourist steam train called La Tronchita (aka The Old Patagonian Express) which was really nice.

Now we have been a day in Bariloche, the town my father fell in love with (not quite sure why, the town is nothing special, but the location is pretty amazing – maybe he meant that). Yesterday we did some rafting, which sadly was tamer than expected, more or less the same as the other time we did it in Northern Spain a few years ago. Still, the river was beautiful, with eroded rock canyons & vegetation along the shore. Now we are off for the king of all activities (and cheapest) – trekking. We have a nice 3-day route ahead of us, and some rock climbing saved for when we get back.