Changing Rooms

Friday 16 February

We had opted for an easy morning today, just catching up on the blog and having a swim in the pool – out of the end of the “spokes” and follow a pebble path down the hill to another “cell-like” building. We thought we would be the last to breakfast, but that was far from the case, and in the end most of the group were there with us.

We checked and sent emails before returning to our room to blog – it was so lovely sitting on the bed with the beautiful view of the fjord and surrounding mountains while composing the blog – several of our group had complained that there were no chairs to sit on in the room – just a wooden cube at the desk – but when Mike told the Manager some suggestions for improvements, he was told that the owners had specifically said that no changes were to be made to the rooms at all – it was the architect’s “concept” of how the hotel should be! He obviously had not had to get in and out of the bath!

Around noon we decided it was time to try out the pool – an infinity pool, with a sauna and jacuzzi - so imagine our disappointment when we found it locked. On the way back we met several others of our group hoping for a last minute dip before lunch. As time was getting on, and I still had to pack, we decided not to pursue the pool, but just showered and packed at a leisurely rate, arriving at the bar in plenty of time for a drink before lunch. This was part of the compromise of having to leave today – a morning for activities and lunch – the active three (Dave Tracey and Phillip) had gone on a 3 ½ hour hike to see the cave paintings – which as it turned out were not very good, but the hike up through the forests, off the main tracks was excellent, if you were fit. The food was yet again superb – smoked salmon, prawns and scallops, a selection of cold meats and quiches, salads, fruits and deserts – with lots of wine of course.

We made our way to the coach – we were all traveling together in one vehicle now – and set off on the five hour journey to El Calafate. We had to traverse the concrete road again – there were still lots of men working hard on several different sections, while others attended ‘site meetings’ or sat at the side of the road, watching the traffic. We stopped at the same little village as we did yesterday, for just ten minutes, which gave me chance to write and post my last three postcards from Chile, before turning right and walking up the road to the border crossing. In fact, Colin was posting the cards for me (I couldn’t find the post box), while I queued up to get our passports stamped, and when my turn came, the guard just stamped both passports and took the visas without checking who was actually there – Colin was still down the road! We climbed aboard the coach once more and traveled for about ten minutes across ‘no man’s land’ to reach the Argentinean border. We had had more visa forms to fill in, and Mike just collected everyone’s passport and forms and took them in a batch for stamping – apparently each passport took six stamps on the various forms and papers required to enter Argentina. A guard came out to see us safely across the line, and we were soon eating up the miles across more steppe plains and hills towards the shore of Lake Argentina. Part of the road was metalled, but there was a very bumpy section, which when it rains, I understand, is very treacherous. I managed to blog a bit on the way, although if the road got too potholed, I had to stop, as the cursor kept jumping half a page away.

We reached El Calafate and entered quite a smart reception area and waited to be allocated rooms. The first room we were given was poky and dark and had water dripping from the ceiling in the bathroom. We asked for a change, and were given another room, a bit further along the corridor. We went to find the money exchange only to find it closed at 20.00, nearly and hour ago. Back in the lobby we found others who were also dissatisfied with their rooms, had been given alternatives in a different wing of the hotel. We went to see one of these rooms, which was entirely different from the “cell we had been allocated. We returned to reception to ask for a another change, but the receptionist said she had no more rooms in the better wing, and anyway the request had to come through the travel agency. (We had apparently been given our room because we asked for a double bed, and all those in the newer wing were twin bedded). Mike was currently out booking trips to walk on the glacier with crampons for Tracey, Dave and Phillip – our active three. By this time it was almost 21.30 and we still hadn’t eaten any dinner. So we decided it was more important to eat than to change our room. We met Mike on his way back – he had already spoken to several of the rest of the group, so was fully appraised of the situation. He said he was on his way back to sort it.

We found a pizza style restaurant, serving other snacky foods too, which was more than enough for us at that time of night. Linda and Mike joined us, and as we were ordering Mike arrived to join us and to say our room was changed to one of the larger style. The food was ok – not Remota standards, but quite edible – I had a vegetarian pizza with anchovies, and Colin had a tuna salad with chips. And beers – we felt we needed to cut down our wine consumption – probably a bad idea in view of all the room changes!

We returned to the hotel and found we had a larger room, still on the ground floor, facing an inner courtyard, but with lots more space and more modern facilities – much, much better than the claustrophobic dungeon we had first seen. All we needed now was a good night’s sleep.