Explore Bariloche and the Lake District
Heading south beyond Cholila and Leleque you’ll notice a distinct change in the scenery, as the lush pine forests are replaced by drier terrain that is home to the stunted meseta-style vegetation more typical of Patagonia proper. Some 90km south of the Cholila/Leleque turn-off, Esquel, the main town in the area, is a starting-point for visits to Parque Nacional Los Alerces, as well as a scattering of Welsh villages of which Trevelin is the most appealing. This is also the stage through which the steam train La Trochita, one of the region’s most enduring attractions, plies its trade.
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Trevelin and around
Trevelin and around
The main Welsh settlement along the Andes (most of the Welsh towns in Patagonia are closer to the ocean), TREVELIN is a small, easy-going place that retains a pioneering feel, with several low brick buildings characteristic of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth. Lying 24km south of Esquel, it has beautiful views across the grassy valley to the peaks in the south of Parque Nacional Los Alerces. The town was founded by Welsh settlers from the Chubut Valley following a series of expeditions to this region that began in 1885 with a group led by Colonel Fontana of the Argentine army and John Evans. Its Welsh name means “village of the mill”, and the vital flour mill, a stalwart brick structure dating from 1918, now forms the main museum in town, the Museo Regional Molino Andes or El Viejo Molino. Well worth a visit, it displays clothing of the original colonists and even a combine harvester from circa 1900. By the entrance is a fascinating group photo of the 1902 plebiscite when the whole colony had to vote on whether it wanted to be Chilean or Argentine: those who want to know more should read Down Where the Moon Is Small by Richard Llewellyn, which is evocative in its recreation of the early years of the Welsh community here.
Another worthwhile attraction is La Tumba de Malacara, 200m northeast of the plaza, where Clery Evans, granddaughter of the village’s founder John Evans, relates the origins of the settlement (knowing Spanish helps). In the garden is the grave of her granddad’s faithful horse, El Malacara – who leapt heroically down a steep scarp to save his master from the same grisly fate that befell his companions. They had been killed by enraged Mapuche warriors who, following an atrocity committed against their tribe during the Campaign of the Desert, were bent on reprisals against any Europeans. The house attracts a steady stream of Bruce Chatwin pilgrims, as the story features in his classic travelogue, In Patagonia.
The town’s Welsh heritage is evoked in the celebration of a minor Eisteddfod (two days in the second week of October), and two casas de té, the better one being Nain Maggie, at Perito Moreno 179 (t02945/480232): the teahouse is named after owner Lucia Underwood’s grandmother, who was born in Trelew, came to Trevelin in 1891 and died in the town ninety years later at the age of 103.
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La Trochita: The Old Patagonian Express
La Trochita: The Old Patagonian Express
A trip on the Old Patagonian Express rates as one of South America’s classic journeys. The steam train puffs, judders and lurches across the arid, rolling steppe of northern Chubut, like a drunk on the well-worn route home, running on a track with a gauge of a mere 75cm. Don’t let Paul Theroux’s disparaging book The Old Patagonian Express put you off: travelling aboard it has an authentic Casey Jones aura and is definitely not something that appeals only to train-spotters. Along the way you’ll see guanacos, rheas, maras and, if you are lucky, condors, as you traverse the estate of Estancia Leleque, owned by Italian clothes magnate Benetton, Argentina’s biggest landowner.
Referred to lovingly in Spanish as La Trochita, from the Spanish for “narrow gauge”, or El Trencito, the route has had an erratic history. It was conceived as a branch line to link Esquel with the main line joining Bariloche to Carmen de Patagones on the Atlantic coast. Construction began in Ingeniero Jacobacci in Río Negro Province in 1922, but it took 23 years to complete the 402km to Esquel. Originally, it was used as a mixed passenger and freight service, carrying consignments of wool, livestock, lumber and fruit from the cordillera region. The locomotives had to contend with snowdrifts in winter, and five derailments occurred between 1945 and 1993, caused by high winds or stray cows on the track. Proving unprofitable, the line was eventually closed in 1993. The Province of Chubut took over the running of the 165km section between Esquel and El Maitén soon afterwards, and La Trochita has matured into a major tourist attraction.
For most people, a ride on La Trochita means the half-day trip north from Esquel to Nahuel Pan, 22km away (see http://www.elmaiten.com.ar/ for latest timetables and prices or call t02945/451403). There is an occasional sporadic service running the 165km to El Maitén and returning the following day.
