Bore da todos! At last I can finally say it. Bore Da from the Fabled Lands of Yr Wladfa! From Trevelin “Tre-Felin” Trevelin, known in Welsh as the Town of The Mill or El Pueblo del molino en español.
Now you would think that arriving to what was the end goal of this journey that has taken over 8 months to reach from Mexico City would be a sense of achievement and accomplishment and it would be a victorious stroll on in to the final prize right? ¿Right??
WRONG!!!
As you should probably know by now how things plan out on paper tend to go differently when it’s put into practice and this dear reader was one of those days!
So after my last trip in Bariloche to the 7 Lakes I stayed one more day for a bit of a rest before pushing on down here and during this rest day I booked the 0800 bus as this would get me down there with enough daylight for a proper look round and maybe could even go for traditional afternoon tea after we get settled in? Well that was the plan and on paper it sounded good.
Fast forward to the next morning. I wake up wondering what time it is as I don’t remember the alarm going off. Check the phone it says 0835 🤦♂️🙈 FAACK!! for whatever reason either my alarm never went off or I slept through it or did I somehow knock it off? We’ll never know! Oh well no time to dwell on that now how do we fix this clown 🤡 start to the day? Well I check the bus timetables and there is another one to Esquel today but I have to wait until 14:00 for it. Shit though it’s going to be a long wait around for this one! I message my host at this gaff and tell him I missed my bus and about the new one, he’s cool about it and says I can stay there till 13:00 to sort myself out so at least we can wait around here and not in the bus station outside the city.
Finally go time rolls around and the bus shows up in good order. We’re on board and rolling but now our ETA is around 19:30 instead of circa 1400. This is a slight problem as I need to get a connecting bus at either 20:00 or 21:00 so just have to sit and see how it goes.
The ride down is pretty pleasant actually seeing the lakes in the evening sun then it soon gets dark around 18:30. I look on the map and it’s going well. It’s Looking like we’re going to arrive in Esquel about 18:45 nearly 45 mins ahead of time then all of a sudden we are pulled to the side of the road and stopped in the middle of nowhere. Looking up I can see the blue lights of a police stop.
So I get my passport out thinking someones coming up do a check but nobody comes up though can hear the hold door being cracked open downstairs and can vaguely in the dark make out that they have taken everyone’s luggage off the bus and got the dog there doing the sniff test round them all. The dog doesn’t go crazy and 15 minutes later all the bags are back on the bus but we are still kept in place.
About 1.5 hours go by and we’re left sitting here with no explanation whatsoever until someone near me basically says they are looking for some drug dealer passing through this way but still not letting us go. After nearly another half hour drive goes out and has a word and now they let us move. We arrive in Esquel and I am in luck as the Jacobsen bus – the colectivo to Trevelin is pulling in as well. It is 20:50 driver of the colectivo goes on his break and will be back for 21:00. Happy days.
Drive of the Colectivo comes back and I’m first on board but you need to pay by debit card or a Sube card. I don’t have a Sube card and my Monzo card keeps getting rejected by the tapper. I’m lucky the guy is reasonable and says I can get on, we’ll sort it at Trevelin.
We get to Trevelin and my card works first try there. Great I get off and am greeted by the Dragon above the tourist centre in the main plaza of the town. I had made it! At last I had made it! I soon find my gaff and get checked in and manage to find a cool bar nearby to get a light bite and a few well earned ales down me after that. Have to love when a bad travel day all works itself out in the end.
Next installment we will explore the town of the mill properly! Croeso i Yr Wladfa 🇦🇷 🏴 🇦🇷 por fin!!!!
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