Last hike in Argentina

 November 14

Had a great sleep last night. For the first time, Alyssa and I had separate rooms. She got terrible sleep every night because I snore too much, I got terrible sleep because she woke me up every night to stop snoring.  We headed into town to the little bakery coffee shop we had gone to our first morning here two weeks ago. She has been craving their focaccia bread for two weeks and planning to buy to take with her on the plane. She was heartbroken when we arrived and found out they only did focaccia bread on weekends! I got a ham and cheese roll. That was absolutely fantastic.

The street we parked at is interesting. They have a guy who walks up and down the street putting a piece of paper on your windshield two weeks ago when we parked and saw him doing that we ran back to the car thinking we were getting a ticket for some reason, only to find out that it is a parking slip, when you get back to your car, he flagged you down on the side of the road pull the slip from your windshield wiper and you pay 100 pesos which is .10 cents US.

We drove 30 minutes outside of town for our last hike in Argentina. It is a 5 mile out and back to a lagoon.  The trail is fairly muddy and well traveled through a heavily wooded forest area. There are very easy to follow markers along the way on the trees.

I spotted a very small butterfly fluttering along the ground, just prior to crossing this tranquil stream

 

The trail opens up alongside a small lake, surrounded by a beautiful mountains 

Another larger stream with a bridge that leads through a beautiful golden Meadow again framed by gorgeous mountains 

I have come to a lake that is formed by a beaver dam, a sign of the entrance that they have an invasion of Bevers in the area that they are trying to remove .

Another bridge crosses over the next meadow when I emerge from a steep tree covered portion of the trail.

We parallel a stream, that appears to be the lagoons outlet, for about a quarter mile with one final rise 

I crest the final hill and have a beautiful view of Lagoon Esmeralda nestled in an ark of snow patched mountains. There are some beautiful waterfalls coming down the hillside and a light rain has begun to fall. 

I set up to get a picture right at water level looking at the mountains. It was funny because this dog kept running right to where I was and it would sit down in front of me every time I was getting the camera positioned. 

I was finally able to get a couple of water level pictures 😂

I got some pictures with Alyssa then set off for the return trip to the car. 

I stopped for a cool picture of this tree growing on top of a large rock. Its roots dropped down the side into the soil. 

As I cross back over the longest wooden boardwalk, I can’t help and stop for some more pictures of the surrounding mountain and meadow. 

Stopped for a few more pictures at this small flooded meadow lake.

I arrived back at our parking area. Total hike was 6 miles and we are a very glad that we decided to do this last short hike before leaving. We’re headed to town for dinner and then check in at the airport. I will do my travels on a new post but leave tonight, Thursday at 7 PM and do not get home until 10:30 PM on Saturday. It is going to be a long period of travel. I will have a free day in Santiago chili between flights. We chose a restaurant over looking at the harbor that had delicious food. As we arrived to the airport, I got my last pictures of one of the mountain ranges in Ushuaia.

Todays hike video