The sun was shining again this morning and the wind had dropped since yesterday and at 0900 the hire car was being delivered and so after breakfast the car was delivered. In the meantime I had emailed the Hotel in El Calafate to arrange a car to meet us at the airport upon our arrival and with no response, and then their web site was not responding and I was naturally getting a little nervous. I decided to phone the Hotel but the lady who answered the phone her English was just as good as my Spanish. So I passed the matter to the current Hotel receptionist where we are staying to see if she could help and then left for drive around a couple of the seven lakes.
But first, more mundane things, Jennifer dropped the clothes that needed washing in to a local place and we would collect them later in the day and then we departed down the coast to the LLAO LLAO Hotel, pronounced ZHAO ZHAO.
It’s a big and very nice Hotel with a fantastic views but being so big it felt a little impersonal compared to our much smaller Hotel. A coffee outside on the veranda watching the boats arrive and leave the small port below we took off back around the lake and arrived at the Swiss Village which may look like a Swiss Village when it snows but I cannot say it really looks like a Swiss village at this moment. There was dust blowing everywhere and every time a car went along the road the dust blew in to the air and we were just about to leave and an enterprising young lady in a Swiss style national dress stopped and offered the menu of her restaurant. She said some words in Spanish which of course we did not understand and we told here we spoke English and so she changed to Pigeon English to explain that on the menu they have Bif, Prk and Kitten. I think she means Chicken well at least I hope so, mind you there aren’t many cats around this place just a few dogs as usual.
We decided that this very dusty place was not for us although there quite a few tourists there and good luck to them. There is another issue that adds to the dust problems in that many roads are not surfaced and so when it is dry it is so dusty, your remember those photos of cars driving across the African desert with plumes of dust and this is exactly what it’s like. The Government should focus on this matter to reduce pollution and enable people’s health to improve as both Jen and I notice very much when breathing the dust in the air.
About ten minutes later we came across a little Café with the best view over the Lakes and distant mountains and so we had a snack there before continuing back to Bariloche and out the other side just to look where the Airport is as we don’t want any surprises when dropping the car back. Somebody had mentioned that the Airport is twenty minutes from our Hotel but after driving some of the route it really is about thirty five minutes away.
We returned to the room to finish some emails etc and both remarked on the sign in the large shower. There is a four inch white panel fixed to the wall with a bit of metal sticking out for about an inch with a label on ‘Don’t Press’ we have no idea what it is or does and what would happen if we pressed it on purpose or even accidentally. There is almost an overpowering urge to press it and say sorry it was a mistake. But more to the point what does it do??, perhaps we will never know.
The Hotel confirmed that Taxi arrangements were fixed at El Calafate and that the guy who meets us will help finalise the tour of the glaciers etc and so then we went to collect the washing and fill up the car with petrol and back for a rest in the sun and write blogs and do emails etc.
Dinner was questionable, do we stay in or go out or have room service is always a big question when you have been travelling for a while but in the end we decided to stay in and had a very nice meal ,and of course a glass of something and then waited for our meal to go down and then went back to the room for Noel to play the TV channels as they have Satellite connection with loads of programs and in the end we watched the end of ‘Doc Martin’ with Martin Clunes followed by the first part of ‘New Tricks’ instalment. This seems rather strange watching these programs from little old England deep down in Patagonia, no wonder the Presidents believes it is time to raise the 30th anniversary of the war for the Falkland Islands after watching these programmes.
Tomorrow morning is another early one with the alarm set for 06.40 to enable a 07.00 departure to connect with a 09.05 flight.
