Our beef dinner last night in BA at Cabanas Las Lilas was great, but did not meet our extremely high expectations for melt-in-your-mouth steak--spoiled by all the good steak in D.C., I guess. We will have to continue our research! Nevertheless, The place was beautiful, on the water, open kitchen, good service. And did I say? Sottevocce was the Italian place our first nice-- absolutely great food.
Also, the tango place was Esquina Carlos Gardel, a place from the 1930s. It has the rep of being one of the best, and the dancing was tops.
Quirks of Argentina so far: (1) As we fly into BA on LAN Argentina, the pilot announces she will be spraying the cabin with insecticide. We never noticed how he did it, as there was no obvious smell or gas. They're worried here about the transmission of dengue fever and malaria, which seems to be a problem in parts of the north. (2) Nothing opens before 11 am and museums don't open till at least 12. Normally we would have had two meals by then, but we're adjusting and now sleep late, eat breakfast at 9:30, lunch at 2, and dinner at 8:30. (3) We have thought it best to drink only bottled water, worried that much of the city may still have 500-year-old plumbing. (4) WiFi is not readily available, and the one computer our hotel has for guests has a 15-min limit. (5) One cannot find a bank to change money. Instead, we pay with dollars and gets pesos in change. (We don't like ATMs or credit because of the charges attached.) (6) in the bathrooms there are bidets and drains in the floor but no kleenex or washcloths. (7) Our BA hotel is called Unique Luxury Park Plaza Hotel. While it was not unique, we liked it a lot. ( Unique turns out to be a chain of 4 hotels.) Our hotel in Bariloche is named Charming Luxury Lodge and Spa.
And we are now in Bariloche! While BA is close to the Atlantic, Bariloche is in the lake country 2 1/2 hours further south and west, near the Chilean border. The town is ramshackle, but our hotel--which Richard found thru Expedia--is another 20 mins drive beyond, set on a cliff overlooking magnificent and huge Lake Nahuel Huapi. The hotel is just 2 years old so is immaculate, and in our room we have a jakuzzi, a dry sauna, a wet sauna, a balcony and 2 picture windows overlooking the lake. Below our room is a heated pool and a beautiful private beach. People are kayaking, but we discovered the water temp of the lake is freezing! All around the lake and as far as our eyes can see are mountains, and islands, and other lakes. It reminds us of Lake Tahoe. There are 42 lakes in this region, and the mountains are a huge draw in the winter. No snow evident yet.
And by the way, we feel lucky to be here. From June thru December, the airport was more or less closed because of ash from a Chilean volcano. People like our friends the Reuters either gave up their reservations or flew into another airport 100 km south and bussed in. We had lovely skies today, and as long as the winds don't blow from the northwest all will be well here.
We had lunch at the Llao Llao Hotel, a wonderful place that opened in 1938 just after the region was declared national parkland. It reminded us of the WPA hotels in the US, in a stunning lake-side setting. A remise, or taxi for hire, then took us on a 3-hour drive with hikes and a chair lift, to view the fabulous scenery of lakes and mountains. At day's end we are pooped!
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