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Day 9 - She said: Wow! Our last full day in Villa La Angostura. And what a great day it was!
We started off lazy, which we both needed. We've taken a lot in in our time here, and we were both pretty exhausted. A slow start was just what the doctor ordered, and gave me an opportunity to (finally) catch up on the short story series that Andy got me for my birthday LAST year. LOVE these stories. One Story, if you're interested in checking them out. It's a huge variety, consistently good.
And I now return you to your regular programming.
Today, it was an adventure. When we finally got it together to go to town, I had to get some cash from the ATM. I got cash out, but left my debit card in. So...THAT was awesome.
I discovered it when we were just down the road, so we made our way back and talked to someone at the reception desk and got it sorted out. A bank person had to come out and open up the machine. Ultimately, I got my card back. And felt like a moron. But a moron with a debit card, which is better than one without. I think.
Today was the day that we rented our bikes (one of our registry items). We'd been to the port, and we'd spent quite a bit of time out our way, so we decided to go a different direction on the bikes. We didn't have much of a plan, but decided to make our way toward Lago Correntoso, which is the other lake (besides Lago Nahuel Huapi) attached to what was described to us as "the world's shortest river," Rio Correntoso. It's really short. That's true.
We found a route that would take us to a lookout, so we took that. We went into Mapuche (local native) territory, and came upon a pedestrian only zone, so we locked up the bikes and started hiking. We ended up at Mirador (lookout) Belvedere, which gave us an amazing view of Lago Correntoso. The view was PRETTY hazy, however, as we're in the midst of an ash (ceniza) day here. Nevertheless, it was lovely and it was a great hike.
From the lookout, we made our way down the mountain a ways to Cascada Inacayal, which is an awesome waterfall. Words don't do it justice, because in many ways a waterfall is a waterfall, but each has something unique that you just can't capture in words or pictures. It's just the experience.
From there, we got lost in the forest. In Mapuche territory. Which would've probably been fine, but I feel very strongly about respecting natives and their land.
Anyway, thanks to my awesome sense of direction, we eventually found our way back to the bikes and back to town, where Andy was able to buy himself an Argentina bike jersey when we returned the bikes. Yes, only Andy got a jersey. Not because I'd already bought myself things and thought I should stop, but because they didn't have any small sizes. In fairness, I probably have bought enough for myself, between my yarn and my lovely poncho.
After that was sorted out, we were off to buy some wine, which we HOPE makes it home safely. I did some pretty spectacular packing, and we'll just have to see how well it works. It either will or it won't.
On our way back to the resort, we were going to stop at Tematyco to try out yerba mate served the traditional way (and buy a couple more souvenirs), but it was closed. The sign says it's open Thursday through Sunday, 4 PM - 9 PM. Not true. Oh well...we'll try and get our driver to stop in town tomorrow so we can pick up the traditional "gourd" and straw. We can get the loose yerba mate at home, or we might grab some here. We shall see.
For our last night, we stopped in at the resort restaurant again - La Trattoria. The special was risotto el bosque, or rice with ridiculously tasty mushroom sauce. It was very filling - which was awesome after 4 hrs of hiking and biking. We accompanied it with the national beer, Quilmes, which was decent but no microbrew (IMO).
We were taken care of by our guy again, who loves to make sure everyone is comfortable and happy, and truly delights in his work. When we told him we were leaving tomorrow, he was very lovely when saying goodbye. What a gracious host!
That, as they say, is that, folks. I'm going to go crash so we can get up and take care of our final packing details before our private transfer to Puerto Montt and flight to Santiago.
Hasta Luego!
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