Argentina

November 6-29, 2009

November 14: Hiking in Alerces National Park

Our plans for the Andes was to concentrate mainly on the National Parks in the area, the first one being Parque Nacional Los Alerces.

Parque Nacional Los Alerces was established in 1937. As part of the Pacific watershed, the 2630-square km park protects some of the most biologically important habitats and scenic landscapes of the central patagonian cordillera. Vegetation changes considerably as you move east from the chilean border into the area affected by the rain shadow cast by the cordillera. Up against the border, rainfall exceeds 3000mm a year which supports the dense Valdivian temperate rainforest (selva Valdiviana), and most interestingly, the species for which the park is named: the alerce. The eastern margin of park where we visited today is much drier, receiving 300-800mm rainfall annually. Cypress woodland and ñire scrub mark the transitional zone here between the wet forests and the arid steppe near Esquel.

In researching the trip we had found it painfully difficult to find any detailed information on the internet regarding hikes and things to do. And when we got to Argentina we found that the tourist information places weren't much better. Most places just directed us to places that offered packages with guided tours which wasn't really of interest to us since we had the kids along and wanted to be able to go at our own pace. In the end, one of the best ways to find out what to see was to read travel blogs. Between the blogs and the guide book we were able to figure out an excursion to see one of the oldest trees in the world in this park but it's in a protected area of the park only accessible by boat and guided tour so we booked our tickets this morning and then decided to head to the park to scope out the route and see what else there is to see.