A good option for a short walk in Esquel: Plaza de los Mates in the middle of nature

With this type of travel, where you plan to stay a little longer than usual, it is possible to get to know places that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. Each new city I visit has its own charm, and I like to have enough time to visit as much as I can. During my stay in Esquel I had a lot of free time in the evenings, as I got a very good volunteer shift during the late evening hours. Taking advantage of this scheme, I walked around most of the city, visiting the most touristic places and those that are not so touristic .

One of the most popular areas for tourists is the La Zeta Lagoon. This lagoon can be reached by vehicle, making it a good option for family outings and for getting to be in a beautiful place without making so much physical effort. Of course I love walking to places, so that's how a group of hostel guests and I got there. Autumn was approaching, so we wanted to make the most of the last days of good weather .

After staying in the lagoon for a while until the sun started to go down, we decided to walk a little further. The thing about southern Argentina is that in the afternoon the weather can be as hot as summer, but as soon as night falls, the temperature drops abruptly. To warm up a bit we chose one of the many trails around the lagoon, and one of them was the one that took you to the Plaza de los Mates .

Of all the trails in this area, the one in this square is the shortest and takes only about 20 minutes. A short walk around the lagoon leads to a path that enters the forest and then comes out into a clearing with short grass, where there are some games for children and also a place to spread out. As for the name, it is called ‘de los Mates’ (of the gourds) because it has some gourds carved in wood distributed around the place. In case you don't know, a ‘mate’ is the drink made of yerba mate and hot water that we consume in Argentina, and the recipient in which this infusion is contained has the same name .

While I like quiet days with little walking and a relaxed atmosphere, from there I was already spotting the mountain I wanted to climb at some point during my stay. The highest mountain in Esquel is called Nahuel Pan, at over 2260 masl, and it was the one we could see from there. That big mountain looked like a physical challenge, and at that moment I felt emboldened to do it. I had done some research on how to climb it and I knew it wouldn't be an easy task, but it was my goal to reach the summit before I left (spoiler: a month and a half later that day, I made it to the top) ❤️.

I liked Esquel so much that little by little the nostalgia of having left El Bolsón faded away and the excitement of getting to know more about a new city began to emerge in me. This nomadic trip took me to a lot of unthinkable places, but I liked it because I know that improvisation can also work. Before being in this corner of Chubut I didn't know much about it, but at that moment, seeing with my own eyes all the beautiful things it had to see and do, I knew it was a good decision to schedule a long stay there. And that was just the beginning ❤️.

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