2nd February 2015 – Gobernador Costa to Esquel

We left Gobernador Costa continuing north on Route 40 on a sealed but potholed road all the way.  As we arrived at Esquel “la Trochita” The Patagonian Express steam train crossed the road were on so we had to stop. It’s always lovely to see a steam train especially as we are on our way to book for this afternoons train so we got to see it from the outside.The train originally operated as a passenger & goods train mostly hauling wool and then later just as a passenger train, and now it is only a tourist train. We had a fun ride for about an hour to Nahuel Pan station where the Tehuelche-Mapuche Indian descendants have a museum and sell their craft works.Today is quite warm and there hasn’t been rain for about 1 month here, but still the lawns and gardens of Canela B&B are beautiful, it’s lovely to sit out on the green lawn with bare feet & enjoy a cerveza (beer) or in my case a shandy. There is obviously enough water as the lawns and gardens are being watered continuously. The roses in the garden (1 was a peace) are gorgeous. Roses are featured quite often in the gardens of the towns we have been traveling through.  Our hosts for the evening Veronica & George are delightful and make us all feel so welcome. They booked us into a great restaurant for dinner, it was like a museum as the walls were covered in memorabilia of all sorts. They specialized in pasta which was very tasty and went well with our Saint Julia Malbec that we chose.