Esquel is a town of about twenty-eight thousand people in the northwest of Chubut province, on the dry eastern flank of the Andes, and it feels like the edge of a very big country. The mountains rise to the west, snowy and forested, and to the east the Patagonian steppe begins, an endless plain of grass and shrub where the wind never really stops. The town itself is a plain, practical place with wide streets, a few low buildings and a quiet air, yet it is the doorstep to some of the best scenery in Patagonia.
The town is known for La Trochita, the Old Patagonian Express, a narrow-gauge steam train that has run through the region since the 1920s. It was made famous by the writer Paul Theroux, who rode it in a journey recounted in a travel book, and its little wooden carriages, pulled by antique locomotives, still make tourist runs across the steppe. You can see the engines puffing outside the station, and the whistle is one of the town's sounds.
A short distance south, Trevelin is the centre of a Welsh community, descended from settlers who arrived in Patagonia in the 1860s and later moved into the Andean valleys. Welsh tea houses serve scones and cakes, there are chapels with Welsh inscriptions, and an old flour mill is now a museum. The story of how a group of Welsh chapel-goers ended up on this windy plain is one of the stranger episodes in South American history.
West of Esquel lies the Los Alerces National Park, protecting lakes of astonishing turquoise and forests of alerce trees, huge conifers that can live for three thousand years. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the oldest trees are among the longest-lived on earth. Cruises on the lakes reach groves of ancient trunks. The road into the park is partly gravel, narrow and slow, and in wet weather it can be slippery.
Ruta 40 passes through Esquel, a long run of open country with great sky and big distances between fuel stops, so fill your tank whenever you can. Esquel itself has several stations, supermarkets and mechanics. Wind can be fierce on the steppe, especially in the afternoon. The best season is from November to March, though nights stay cold.