Transfer IN OUT APT/HTL/APT

Permanent Coordination

Full Los Alerces National Park
Breakfast af the hotel. Today we will know one of the most attractive national parks in Patagonia: Los Alerces. The park spans two hundred and sixty-three thousand hectares protected since 1937 with the fundamental aim to safeguard the woodland species after which it is named, the lahuan or alerce. During our stroll around the park we will visit beautiful places which make up a water basin with more than 12 lakes and rivers, such as the Futalaufquen Lake, the Arrayanes River, the Verde Lake, the Menéndez Lake, surrounded by an Andean mountain range, together with glaciers and the Valdivian jungle. What completes this wonderful offer is the one-thousand-year-old alerces forest located in the north of the park, one of the few forests still kept in wilderness in the world, known as Alercial Milenario. This region is considered, by experts, the most beautiful of all regions in Patagonia and honestly they are not mistaken, it is difficult to find another destination with so much charm as this one.

Optional in High Season:
Navigation along the Menéndez Lake & Alerces Milenarios Forest or
Navigation up to Kruger Lake without disembarkation
In Summer there is an optional navigation to Menéndez Lake having access to the alerces milenarios forest (one-thousand-year-old alerces) discovering trees of more than 2,500 years of existence, which have an impressive appearance. We must arrive at the Arrayanes River, we walk over the hanging bridge to cross the river, and border the Menéndez River up to the Puerto Chucao entrance. At this harbour we embark at midday to sail along the Menéndez Lake, the biggest of the park, till we arrive at Puerto Sagrario. During the voyage, we can see the Torrecillas Glacier.

Once on land, together with the guide, we walk into the forest of alerces milenarios (one-thousand-year-old alerces) and enjoy the Cisne Lake and the rapids of the river with the same name. We can appreciate the oldest alerce in the park, with 2,600 years old and a diameter over 2 meters and a height over 57 meters. Another possibility is to sail along the Verde Lake, the Arrayanes River and the north area of the Futalaufquen Lake until we reach the Kruger Lake once we pass through the Los Monstruos Strait. In this second case, we don´t disembark.

Patagonian Express "La Trochita"
Breakfast in the hotel. We start a fantastic journey of 25 kilometers in the vintage Patagonic Express La Trochita, which was declared National Heritage Patrimony. It is an old steam train whose narrow gauge has less than a meter, it goes across the Patagonic steppe, with its wagons, whose heating are iron salamander stoves with firewood as fuel, were built in 1922 together with its engines Baldwin and Henschel. The first trip was inaugurated in 1945 up to Esquel. The train offers a dining-room with delicious cakes that can be served together with chocolate and coffee. The route begins at the Esquel station, going through the Esquel stream, then the way changes so as to go parallel to the mountain range and the route towards a town called Tecka. It crosses the steppe, we can see acquatic birds such as ducks, cauquenes and flamingos in low lands called mallines in indigenous language. The route ends in Nahuel Pan station (name of the highest mountain of the zone) where there is a place with craftmen. While we visit a small handcraft center, the steam engine performs the maneuvers to get ready to go back. During the return, the train crosses the valley. The journey lasts nearly 3 hours and it isn´t cancelled for bad weather, unless an excess of snow provokes blockages. Today there are two stretches, the touristic stretch which joins Esquel with Nahuel Pan and the passenger´s stretch which goes up to El Maitén.

Parallel 42 Comarca
Breakfast in the hotel. We begin a full day excursion visiting the mountain range towns that form the Parallel 42 Comarca, interprovince boundary between Río Negro and Chubut provinces. This region is characterized by the cultivation of fine fruit and hop which is used to flavour handcraft brewed beer produced in El Bolsón. There is a special micro-climate in this region due to the fact that the valley is 200 meters over sea level and it is not attacked by the strong winds of the rough Patagonia, creating an ideal climate with fertile lands, where redcurrants, morello cherries, maroons, blueberries, apart from strawberries and raspberries are produced.

During our itinerary, we will visit the Lago Puelo National Park, Epuyén, El Hoyo and El Bolsón. The first stop is at the Leleque Museum, on the Benetton Estancias (ranches), which shows the history of the Tehuelche natives who originally inhabited these lands and were fiercely dislodged by the Mapuche natives who entered the country through Chile. Then comes Epuyén, the capital of fine fruit, then we visit El Hoyo and Golondrinas. Later, in the province of Río Negro, we come to know El Bolsón, and we stop at the craftmen fair where the stalls display woollen, carved wooden and ceramic goods and more. Beer is very special, thanks to the hops, you can try different flavours, stout, made of wheat, with honey or fruity. We also visit the Loma del Medio and the Mirador Río Azul. At dusk, we return to Esquel.

Trevelin: Nant & Fall small waterfalls, nant fach flour mill and pisciculture
Breakfast in the hotel. We depart from Esquel to visit the Nant and Fall Province Natural Reserve, where three waterfalls form the stream with the same name that means Arroyo de Los Saltos (Waterfalls Stream) in Welsh and are located in a lush cypress forest. They are the natural drainage of the Rosario Lake which forms these waterfalls in its way to the Corintos River, affluent of the Futaleufú River. The Nant Fach flour mill is a replica of the old mills built by Welsh colonists in the Valle Hermoso, in Colonia 16 de Octubre in the end of the 19th Century, where wheat harvested on the farms in the Colony was processed. It was since 1890 that a booming wheat industry was created in Chubut and the Welsh received important prizes at an international level for its quality.

Typical Argentine political mistakes made this region be declared unsuitable for wheat growing, the limit from the Colorado River to the South, thus eliminating the agricultural financial assistance which was granted at that time, favouring the north of the country. Since then they have taken up the cattle activity. The mill that is a museum nowadays belongs to the Evans Welsh family, being Mr. Thomas Dalar Evans the one who populated the whole valley in 1890. We can see musical instruments of those days, as well as sewing machines, irons, even carriages used for the wheat harvest. This is situated in Trevelin, whose translation means Pueblo del Molino (Mill´s town) where Cwm Hyfryd (Valle Hermoso - Beautiful Valley) is located surrounded by mounts and with an unaltered ecosystem. To end up the circuit, we will go to the salmon station at the Baguilt Stream, only 20km away from Trevelin, where they breed young fish, with big pans with near 200,000 Brown Rainbow trouts which are then spread in lakes and rivers in Chubut so as to make trout sport fishing (catch is returned), a sustainable resource.