I’m not sure what happened to January 17. I think I took the day off, again, but I know others were off doing strenuous activities. Carol and I agree we were more “walkers” than “hikers” but nevertheless appreciated the experience. I do recall that Mark (P) and I were keen to taste some high quality Chilean wines. The wine at the hotel was included in the rate but they did have some premium wines for purchase. Too tempting to miss. So we tried the most expensive wine they had - a blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Carmenere. It was good, not great. But fun to do a tasting.
While I chose not to do 2 hikes a day - the standard rate of activity, I really liked the atmosphere of the hotel and the surrounding scenery. It was very relaxing and I’m happy I got to do the stuff that I had planned.
But, today was different! We departed to go to our next destination - Bariloche. This would be the first leg on our charter jet. The nearest airport was back in Peurto Natales, near the Singular, so, after we said our goodbye’s to Mark & Mauree Jane, we got on our bus back down the road for over 2 hours to reach the airport. When we got to the airport, it was closed but they had especially opened for us. Since we were traveling to Argentina, we needed immigration and customs and security people who all showed up and got us to our plane on time. It was a short 1 1/2 hour flight. Too short.
We asked Lisa to put on her Jackie O super-rich look for the journey.
When we arrived, we cleared immigration and customs and was greeted by our guide Nahuel (pronounced “Now-elle”. He is a wild and crazy guy. A true entrepreneur.
We arrived at our hotel about an hour or so later - the Lao Lao (pronounced Yao Yao). The hotel is an old lodge, very European style. They had built an addition which had nice views of the lake but was separate from the main building. While very nice, it was an exercise in navigation to get from our room to the restaurant and back.
Bariloche town is also very European - German, Swiss. Clearly it is a popular spot in the winter for skiing. In the summer it’s popular for hiking,water sports. All sorts of outdoor activities. It’s only a 1-2hr plane ride from Buenos Aires.
That evening we went to a local steak restaurant (we were in Argentina afterall). We ate huge steaks, great beef properly cooked. It was fun.