November 8, 2025
Cholila to Lago Rivadavia (Los Alcerces NP)
I made the now usual early start, which this morning is 06.30, to use the wifi to update the journal. My indigenous host arrived yawning at 9. I am hoping he can exchange some dollars for me as I'm apperhensive about the Los Alerces National Park given that two and a half years ago when I was here, cash was the only mode of payment for entrance to the park. But he doen't have enough pesos more to exchange after exchanging some so I could pay for the hostel, or know how much I'd need for the park entrance. He said his wife would be along shortly and she a tour guide has both money and knows the fee.
When she came I never saw such a tall woman. She towered above me and probably is descended from the orriginal Patagonians who were people of great height. She said the entrance is 20,000 pesos and having cash, I'm able to exchange enough.
The morning dawned with low cloud enveloping everything and before long the rain was on, heavy and persistant for a while, but then it stopped around 09.30 while looking like it would start again any moment.
I set off shortly after 10 while it was still fair, though with an ocational few droplets of rain, it was unsure whether to start again or remain threating rain. Cholila was reminding me of a village in Southern Chile in rainy weather. The small panadaria where I bought breakfast pastries called factoras but they didn't have bread. And having passed a few other small shops I continue out the road with the screech screech of the Tero Tero birds. They stride fast along the verge, screech screech in alarm at my approach before taking to flight and wheeling around to land further up the road.
At 3 kilometres I reach a small hamlet where the old road comes to a tee on the right. There is a shop which looked closed and the ruin of a petrol station. A little further the road turns to gravel, or ripio as its called here, but the mountain bike tyres roll effortlessly along, even cruising over a section of washboard.
I arrive at the scattered settlement of Rivadavia around noon and stop at a shop to buy the bread the panadaria in Cholila didn't have. I also picked up 2 avocados, a tomatoe and an orange. The old woman behind the counter well up in her 80s, instead of using a calculator to sum up the overall cost, picked up each item, studied it then wrote the price on a piece of paper and having listed each figure underneath the next drew a line at the bottom and preceeded to sum up the amount line by line carrying the 10 over to the next in the old fashion way that anyone of a certain age will remember from primary school.
When I reach the national park it was a relieve to find I could pay by card; however, I would still need cash to pay for camping as free camping is no longer permitted anywhere in the park. I also got a useful leaflet with pictures and names of flora and fauna.
It was time for lunch, so I rode down a track from the park entrance complex to the lakeshore of Lago Rivadavia which flanked the road into the park on the right. In a clearance amongs the mature trees of the lakeside are seats made from old logs. I spend around 2 hours here, having gone for a short walk along the lake, looking at the majestic shaped trees which can be up to a thousand years old. And I was visited by a snall bird.
It started to rain as I rode on and I stopped underneath a tree to cover my backpack bungie-corded to the rear rack with a plactic sheet. However, it wasn't far more until I turn down to a wood cabin which is the administation for a campsite. It had all but stopped raining by now.
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