• Woke up at 6:00am (by mistake) for coffee before early disembarkation at Ushuaia, Argentina. Coffee bar was closed so we had nothing to do until 7:30am when the dining room opened for breakfast.
• We were picked up by our guide for a city tour. With permission from our guide Hagai & Dana joined us on the tour. We found out that city tour meant 2 stops on the hills for panoramic view of the city and bay, that’s it.
• Yet again, our hotel, Los Nires, is at the outskirt of town. It offers shuttle to town every 2 hours which meant that we needed to use a cab to get to town.
• We dedicated the day to administrative duties: laundry, telephone calls to the moms in Israel and internet. Maya called – she was checking with us whether we will be back home on time to pick up Alex from the airport, since she had a game at Stanford and Alex was flying into the bay area to see her. Although the call was more focused on “I need something”, it was great to hear her voice and chat for a short while.
• We met Hagai & Dana for a great dinner at a recommended seafood restaurant downtown (La Casa de los Mariscos) whose pink color made it seem from the outside as a dive. The food was excellent and so was the company. After dinner we said our goodbyes, and accepted their invitation to contact them and visit them in our May’s trip to Israel.
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
1 day ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.