The Old Patagonian Express & The Young Argentine Students

I took another bus West across scrubby Patagonia back to more moutainous, pretty Patagonia to the town of Esquel. I´d only planned to stay one night but the place I stayed was very comfortable and they had very nice, crisp, white cotton sheets. This may not sound like a big deal but they are quite a step up from the pilled, thin polyester sheets that some of these cheapie places have. On my first day I went to take a train ride on "La Trochita" the steam train named by author Paul Theroux as "The Old Patagonian Express". The "express" part is meant to be a joke as it goes at about 10 miles/hour. Really. It now runs as a tourist train. I did not buy a ticket in advance and the legions of Argentine retired folks milling about the station led me to believe that maybe the train was full. This fact was confirmed by the young ticket agent so I decided to pull a Pamela Russin (a woman that I worked with in Korea who always managed to obtain the unobtainable) and said, "Are you sure you don´t have one more seat available?" It seems he did. One seat but without a window. Due to the lack of view I got the discouted Argentine student price which at one third the foreiger price was a good deal. I will have to pull the Pamela Russin a bit more often. When I got to the train car it was occupied entirely by a group of high school students. They sat anywhere they pleased to include my non-window seat which they said they were happy to have so I got a window seat. THey were actually all quite sweet and referred to me, initially as "la señora". As in, "watch out, the señora is walking by" or "no, you can´t sit there, that´s the señora´s seat". They were from Gaiman, a town that I had visited a day or two before. Evidently many people came to Patagonia from Wales in the late 1800s. They have many villlages with street names like "Diego Williams" or "Pablo Evans" or "Rhys Hernandez". These kids were very nice and when they got wind that my name was Laura, they all (the entire car) sang some pop song called "Laura". THe train went to a little Mapuche (native people) village and then back to Esquel.
The following day I went hiking all day at the very beautiful Parque Nacional de los Alerces (trees that are kind of like the giant redwoods). IT was a beautiful day and an amazing park...moutains, lakes, glaciers, flowers. Just incredible. I really enjoyed it tremendously. Oh, and the Lupine Lady has been around here as the entire 2 hour bus ride to the park, and within the park itself, the road is lined with purple and pink and white lupine flowers. It is really lovely.
Now I am in the nearby town of El Bolsón. It is very warm here and sunny. THere is a lot of hiking in the area. I will do some this afteroon and maybe tomorrow as well. I have finally made it out of Patagonia and am now, just barely, in the Lake District. I will also visit the town of Bariloche and maybe another village before making my way to Buenos Aires for my last few days. I´m somewhat eager to come home but there are still so many places I want to see. OH, and yes, I still REALLY miss Antarctica. I´m dashing off a email to young Pablo to suggest that if anyone should quit, that I could fill in for the rest of the season. Ideally I could be an assistant bartender to Hugo, who doesn´t really need any help but he has good views of the icebergs from the lounge area.
Oh, and I believe today is Thanksgiving. So far I have celebrated with a tasty vegetarian pie from the Hippie flea market in town.