Dec 7 - Wednesday
We got up a little before 7 and had breakfast. I tried the eggs for the first time since we arrived at Tierrepatagonia. They were delicious. Usually steam table scrambled eggs are really weird. Not these. I took a few shots of the room. We met a woman from Berkeley who was traveling with her daughter. Her daughter was interested in Chilean medical schools. The first day her mom went riding horseback for half a day. The daughter rode all day. The next morning, the daughter showed up at breakfast with her arm in a sling and an ice pack on her shoulder. The guides had done some first aide. I was sure she had fallen off a horse. Wrong. She had taken a bath and slipped horribly. She cracked her head and injured her collarbone. The following day she went to the local hospital. Given the hiking, trekking, and outdoor emphasis, the local hospital is aces at treating broken bones. She didn't have a concussion - good - but had broken her collarbone. I've taken a photo of the deadly bathtub.
We got up a little before 7 and had breakfast. I tried the eggs for the first time since we arrived at Tierrepatagonia. They were delicious. Usually steam table scrambled eggs are really weird. Not these. I took a few shots of the room. We met a woman from Berkeley who was traveling with her daughter. Her daughter was interested in Chilean medical schools. The first day her mom went riding horseback for half a day. The daughter rode all day. The next morning, the daughter showed up at breakfast with her arm in a sling and an ice pack on her shoulder. The guides had done some first aide. I was sure she had fallen off a horse. Wrong. She had taken a bath and slipped horribly. She cracked her head and injured her collarbone. The following day she went to the local hospital. Given the hiking, trekking, and outdoor emphasis, the local hospital is aces at treating broken bones. She didn't have a concussion - good - but had broken her collarbone. I've taken a photo of the deadly bathtub.
The window behind looks through to the main bedroom. I guess the idea is to idle in the tub and stare at the mountains. I'm too short to even begin to see out that window. The real issue is the raised platform below the tub. The door beyond goes to the shower. It was almost impossible to get out of the shower without bashing your foot on the platform. The platform itself has no skid proofing. Oldies take their time leaving the tub. The 20 something daughter danced out of the tub and did her header.
The view from our window. Every room looked at this - spectacular!
As we left the hotel. Ian, our Australian buddy, came to say goodbye. He and his wife had been on our Laguna Azul tour. Strange place, we gathered a great group that just happened to be at the hotel in the Chilean part of Patagonia at the same random time. It has been a very nice place to stay.
Factoid: When the Spaniards arrived in the South, they saw the indigenous people. The Spaniards were a small bunch, the indigenous group was relatively large. The locals also wore shoes made from guanaco fur, which made their feet look huge, at least to the Spaniards. Hence Pata (foot) gon (large) - patagon - Patagonia - Big foot land. Love this stuff.
The drive from Chile to El Calafate in Argentina is about 4 1/2 - 5 hours. About an hour of that is going from Chile (immigration) to Argentina (immigration). The Chilean side would have been trivial, but we ended up behind two tour buses filled with people going our way. Somehow our driver, Jorge, managed to jump a bit of the queue and we got out of there. It was looking hopeless, although the authorities were very efficient. Had we avoided the buses we'd have been out of there very quickly. A little distance down the road we got to the Argentinian side. There really were only 3 guys in front of us. GAK! Every person who enters Argentina for more than a day has to fill out a form, have their passport checked, and entered into a book. Jorge did most for us, but that took an amazing amount of time.
The rest of the drive was across the Argentinian pampas. Estancias (ranches) and land that the cattle or sheep had pretty much munched away. It was phenomenally boring. We stopped for a coffee and a bathroom break. Then off across the pampas. Eventually we began to see the Argentinian peaks. Argentina is on the wetter side of Patagonia so the mountains have more snow. They really are spectacular. El Calafate is a small town along a lake - Lake Argentina. The thing that they are known for is a huge glacier. More tomorrow when we've actually seen it.
Our hotel Posada Los Alamos is actually a golf resort. It has two bars, two restaurants, spas, a pool, and probably lots of other stuff. We had lunch at the little bar near the front desk. I had empanadas - better than the ones we had in Buenos Aires a few years ago. We went souvenir shopping. We rested. This is the first day on the trip that we haven't been running wild. The rest felt good
A view of El Calafate from the road coming into town.
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