We left Puerto Natales airport late morning for the 700 nm flight to San Carlos de Bariloche, our port of entry into Argentina and location of our home for the next couple of nights the Llao Llao hotel in the Nahuel Huapi National Park. The flight was unremarkable except that we had to carry it out at FL 300. Our aircraft was hit with an airworthiness directive restricting our altitude, due to a very small number of instances of engine surges caused by carbon buildup in the combustion area of the engines. The engine manufacturer (Pratt and Whitney Canada) has developed a fix, but it will be some time before it can be implemented, and the Federal Aviation Administration's interim solution is to restrict our operating altitude. This is unnecessarily conservative in the view of PWC, the aircraft manufacturer, Transport Canada, and certainly all the operators, but we're stuck with it for the moment and it means increased fuel consumption and reduced speed and range.
Clearing customs at Bariloche was reasonably straightforward and our van picked us up to take us to the hotel (pronounced "jhow jhow" in Argentine Spanish, vs the "yow yow" the double l would normally yield). A night at this fabulous hostelry is apparently among the "1000 things to do before you die" listed in the book of the same name, and we concur.
View of the Hotel Llao Llao
Our hotel was a few km. beyond Bariloche, and our driver gave us an impromptu tour of the town on the way. It has a population of about 150,000, having more than doubled in the past few years. The main industry is tourism, including skiing in the winter, and it has a definite European alpine look to it, not surprising as there has been a Swiss "colony" for about five generations, and there were a number of German immigrants following WW II. There are several chocolate shops, and another small local industry is production of rose seed oil, supposedly a skin rejuvinator, and rose hip tea. The roses were brought by immigrants (I believe I was told English), and have spread into the wild.
The town is in the national park, and although land in the town can be privately owned there are developmental and architectural restrictions, so the rapid growth has caused some stress. Passing by the civic centre, I noted that the log-built police station had a burned and blackened look, and our driver told us that there had been a shootout between the police and a criminal gang some months previous, one of the gang being killed, and the gang had retaliated by coming into town and firebombing the police station - something our Banff RCMP don't have to deal with.
Soon after our arrival at the hotel, Brenda felt the need for a bath.
View from the bathtub
I thought she hadn't smelled too bad before, but what do I know?
A bit of repose on the balcony, then another fine dinner. In the morning we went on a tour with a local guide who showed us the sites (many of which were different views of our hotel) and some of the local flora including the trees (Lenga or Nire) that host the Llao llao fungus after which our hotel and the area are named. They cause a bole to grow on the tree and the spherical mushroom-like fruiting bodies were valued by indigenous people. The name translates as "yummy yummy".
Our tour included a trip up a small chairlift about 350 m. above the valley, for more great views.
View of the area from the top of the chair
The afternoon found us both feeling the need to burn a few calories, having stoked up pretty generously over the previous days, so Brend went for a hike on one of the local trails, and I found a small mountain to run up (Cerro Llao Llao, actually).
Cane bower along Brenda's trail
We both felt better overeating at supper time.
In the morning, back to the airport to clear outgoing airport security, deal with landing and parking fees, etc. It was about an hour or more of round and round and up and down, but finally back to the airplanes, and on our way to Buenos Aires, FL 290 away from the Andes and Pategonia and over the Argentine steppe and the pampas. The latter looked very much like the prairies in springtime. Distance was about 720 nm., which in our reduced circumstances was about 2 1/2 hours.
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