• Today is mostly travel day from Ushuaia to Bariloche with a plane change in El Calafate.
• It was very cold the night before, so when we woke up we noticed the snow on the hills around Ushuaia, a beautiful view, no wonder the motto for the unexpected weather in Patagonia is “you can have the four seasons in the same day”.
• Our air travel experience started with checking us through to our final destination, however, our luggage was checked in only for the first segment. We were told to pick our luggage at El-Calafate and recheck it in for the continuing flight to Bariloche. We asked the airline why it is so, but nobody had a good answer. From the puzzled look on the airline personnel it appears as nobody asked them this question before. That episode was quite humorous.
• The connecting flight in El-Calfate was 2 hours late due to volcano ashes on the route of the incoming plane. Of course, nobody gave an explanation to why the flight is delayed; we found it later from the news. While waiting in the airport we converse with few people from a large group of middle aged Israelis traveling in South America. Surprisingly, Maggie was nice and participated in the conversation.
• Bariloche Weather was warm and only few white clouds in the sky a nice change from Patagonia Sur.
• The Edelweiss hotel was nice and for a change not far from the center of town.
• The Lamb dinner that night was quite disappointing; the meat was fatty and chewy, but the Patagonian Malbec was very good.
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
2 days ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.