I'll finish up posting about Argentina soon enough. Relax yourselves. Especially since we hope to embark on Gland Vracation '09 to Asia - imminently.
It's my blog. I can be offensive if I want.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Llao Llao & the Lake District
Jeff made all the arrangements for our Totally Awesome Honeymoon. However, I made it very clear that we had to go to San Carlos de Bariloche, in the Lake District, and stay at Llao Llao. We could do whatever else he wanted but Llao Llao had to happen.
Since I compulsively read about and research travel, destinations and hotels, I had heard about The Llao (as I call it) years ago. And decided whenever I finally got to Argentina we needed to meet.
The hotel is lovely. There is the old part of the hotel, in the original lodge, and the new part. The lodge is based on that very old school, country hotel model: small rooms, rustic design, not a huge amount of amenities. The idea is that you are not in the room much. The new part is great: big rooms, brand new fixtures, very 5-star. Not sure the old section is quite so 5-star.
The public rooms are great. It's decorated like a country, hunting lodge. And when I say hunting lodge I am not kidding. I suppose the place is not for everyone but I thought it was fabulous.
Sorry, Bambi, these chairs were everywhere. And
there were some cowhide ones, too. Sweet!
And antler chandeliers all over. That's Jeff's cigar smoke.
We drove around the area, which is stunning, but the best part of The Llao is the location. It is literally in the most spectacular location in the entire area. Whoever designed the hotel picked the most perfect spot.
Driving up to the hotel.
From the driveway, your first glimpse of the hotel.
Views in every direction:
Lying by the pool was the best. Gorgeous views.
The patio attached to our hotel room. Monte Tronador
in the background. (Thunder Mountain!)
Birds of prey were all over these here parts. This guy
was right outside the breakfast room and was stalking
a hawk's nest. He was a big boy, up to my knee. His
toupee looks lopsided, doesn't it?
Mama-hawk is getting pissed.
The Lake District is in northern Patagonia, and as in the glacier region, Argentina proves it's natural beauty is without rival. The lakes here are huge and very, very deep. And the mountains are very, very tall. And they rise of out nowhere. No rolling foothills, no graceful slopes - it's like walking into a pop-up book. The Andes are the Alps on steroids.
San Carlos de Bariloche, or Bariloche as it is called, is pretty tacky. It's a touristy ski resort town and it feels like it. Llao Llao is several miles out of town, so it's easy to fly in and out of Bariloche while avoiding that. Bariloche was built up in the 30s and 40s when the upper class from Buenos Aires could no longer travel to Europe because of the war. So a savvy developer decided he would make a Swiss-style resort for the Porteños. Everything is very Alpine and mountain lodge-y. I think this Swiss-Austrian-Bavarian vibe the Argentines seem to love probably also feeds right into their bad reputation for harboring Nazis. Seriously. It makes me feel badly for them because the Argentines are such lovely people.
We were told Villa La Angostura was a beautiful town across the lake (Lake Nahuel Huapi). We drove over and had lunch at a nice hotel called Las Balsas, part of the Relais & Chateaux chain. This is where I left my guidebook and they motor-boated-ed it back to me. Lunch was good and the hotel was elegant but rustic. But it couldn't compare to the situation of the Llao. And the town, in our opinion, was tacky. It got such rave reviews from so many people we are sure we must have missed something. It was tacky like Bariloche, but not nearly as big. One main drag a few blocks long and that's it.
En route to Las Balsas. There is so much cattle-raising
that there are now wild cattle everywhere.
And then our steak knives arrive in sheaths!
Yikes!
The moral of the story is that every time we tried to explore off the grounds of Llao Llao we were disappointed. Bariloche - meh. Angostura - meh. Las Balsas, very lovely but not comparable. Stay elsewhere at your own risk.
Next time, I'd sort of like to try San Martin de Los Andes, which is several hours away. It's supposed to be a much nicer town and also in the Lake District. But I fear disappointment.
Since I compulsively read about and research travel, destinations and hotels, I had heard about The Llao (as I call it) years ago. And decided whenever I finally got to Argentina we needed to meet.
The hotel is lovely. There is the old part of the hotel, in the original lodge, and the new part. The lodge is based on that very old school, country hotel model: small rooms, rustic design, not a huge amount of amenities. The idea is that you are not in the room much. The new part is great: big rooms, brand new fixtures, very 5-star. Not sure the old section is quite so 5-star.
The public rooms are great. It's decorated like a country, hunting lodge. And when I say hunting lodge I am not kidding. I suppose the place is not for everyone but I thought it was fabulous.
Sorry, Bambi, these chairs were everywhere. And
there were some cowhide ones, too. Sweet!
And antler chandeliers all over. That's Jeff's cigar smoke.
We drove around the area, which is stunning, but the best part of The Llao is the location. It is literally in the most spectacular location in the entire area. Whoever designed the hotel picked the most perfect spot.
Driving up to the hotel.
From the driveway, your first glimpse of the hotel.
Views in every direction:
Lying by the pool was the best. Gorgeous views.
The patio attached to our hotel room. Monte Tronador
in the background. (Thunder Mountain!)
Birds of prey were all over these here parts. This guy
was right outside the breakfast room and was stalking
a hawk's nest. He was a big boy, up to my knee. His
toupee looks lopsided, doesn't it?
Mama-hawk is getting pissed.
The Lake District is in northern Patagonia, and as in the glacier region, Argentina proves it's natural beauty is without rival. The lakes here are huge and very, very deep. And the mountains are very, very tall. And they rise of out nowhere. No rolling foothills, no graceful slopes - it's like walking into a pop-up book. The Andes are the Alps on steroids.
San Carlos de Bariloche, or Bariloche as it is called, is pretty tacky. It's a touristy ski resort town and it feels like it. Llao Llao is several miles out of town, so it's easy to fly in and out of Bariloche while avoiding that. Bariloche was built up in the 30s and 40s when the upper class from Buenos Aires could no longer travel to Europe because of the war. So a savvy developer decided he would make a Swiss-style resort for the Porteños. Everything is very Alpine and mountain lodge-y. I think this Swiss-Austrian-Bavarian vibe the Argentines seem to love probably also feeds right into their bad reputation for harboring Nazis. Seriously. It makes me feel badly for them because the Argentines are such lovely people.
We were told Villa La Angostura was a beautiful town across the lake (Lake Nahuel Huapi). We drove over and had lunch at a nice hotel called Las Balsas, part of the Relais & Chateaux chain. This is where I left my guidebook and they motor-boated-ed it back to me. Lunch was good and the hotel was elegant but rustic. But it couldn't compare to the situation of the Llao. And the town, in our opinion, was tacky. It got such rave reviews from so many people we are sure we must have missed something. It was tacky like Bariloche, but not nearly as big. One main drag a few blocks long and that's it.
En route to Las Balsas. There is so much cattle-raising
that there are now wild cattle everywhere.
And then our steak knives arrive in sheaths!
Yikes!
The moral of the story is that every time we tried to explore off the grounds of Llao Llao we were disappointed. Bariloche - meh. Angostura - meh. Las Balsas, very lovely but not comparable. Stay elsewhere at your own risk.
Next time, I'd sort of like to try San Martin de Los Andes, which is several hours away. It's supposed to be a much nicer town and also in the Lake District. But I fear disappointment.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
More Glaciers
No, I cannot stop writing about glaciers. Once you see these they will be all you think about, too.
Glacier stats:
Perito Moreno
1 mi. wide (each 'snout')
200 ft. high
30 miles long
Upsala
7 miles wide
200 ft. high
40+ miles long
--This is the largest glacier in South America
Spegazzini
1 mi. wide
400+ feet high
18 miles long
Upsala: This is a monster. It goes on and on. Just enormous.
And receding very rapidly. The boat stopped at one point and
we were told that the glacier used to reach as far as 'here' as
recently as Reagan's 2nd term. It was so many miles from
the current 'snout' we couldn't even see the glacier yet.
Spegazzini: The other beast. This thing was so tall.
More Spegazzini. The weather is very changeable.
Still Spegazzini. See how the weather has changed in just
a few minutes? This was our companion boat. The boat
was pretty darned close to the glacier.
Onelli glacier. Doesn't compare to it's neighbors.
Three glaciers meeting.
These truly are the greatest natural wonders I've ever seen and by a long shot. Nothing comes even close.
And the cold wind that whips off these things. I was literally blown over. I fell right on top of an Italian lady. It was mortifying. I think she thought I was tackling her. What's worse it you could see the wind coming at you like a little tornado. But I had no idea it was so strong!!!
Once you have seen things like this it's heartbreaking to know how we are destroying this planet. If everyone in the world could see this there would be no need to negotiate how to manage climate change. It would just get done. Period.
There was something like this on an earlier post but it's just so cool:
http://gosouthamerica.about.com/library/blArgspacepix3f.htm
Glacier stats:
Perito Moreno
1 mi. wide (each 'snout')
200 ft. high
30 miles long
Upsala
7 miles wide
200 ft. high
40+ miles long
--This is the largest glacier in South America
Spegazzini
1 mi. wide
400+ feet high
18 miles long
Upsala: This is a monster. It goes on and on. Just enormous.
And receding very rapidly. The boat stopped at one point and
we were told that the glacier used to reach as far as 'here' as
recently as Reagan's 2nd term. It was so many miles from
the current 'snout' we couldn't even see the glacier yet.
Spegazzini: The other beast. This thing was so tall.
More Spegazzini. The weather is very changeable.
Still Spegazzini. See how the weather has changed in just
a few minutes? This was our companion boat. The boat
was pretty darned close to the glacier.
Onelli glacier. Doesn't compare to it's neighbors.
Three glaciers meeting.
These truly are the greatest natural wonders I've ever seen and by a long shot. Nothing comes even close.
And the cold wind that whips off these things. I was literally blown over. I fell right on top of an Italian lady. It was mortifying. I think she thought I was tackling her. What's worse it you could see the wind coming at you like a little tornado. But I had no idea it was so strong!!!
Once you have seen things like this it's heartbreaking to know how we are destroying this planet. If everyone in the world could see this there would be no need to negotiate how to manage climate change. It would just get done. Period.
There was something like this on an earlier post but it's just so cool:
http://gosouthamerica.about.com/library/blArgspacepix3f.htm
The Titanic Never Had A Chance
We took an all day boat trip through the lakes to see some other glaciers. Perhaps I covered this already but one of the reasons Perito Moreno is so famous - beyond its general awesomeness - is that you can get there by land. The other fab glaciers in the area are reachable only by boat. So that's what we did.
It really was all day. Like 10 hours or more but we got to see lots of super cool icebergs and three more glaciers.
I took hundreds of photos of icebergs alone. They were amazing. And they get bigger and bigger the closer you get to these gigantic glaciers. Seriously, now I understand why the Titanic sank. I always was sorta like, really, it hit an iceberg? How does it sink a huge ship? This is how:
Scale isn't obvious from this image but you could
park several cars on these. Plus look at the
background! Come on! Is there anything prettier?
Blueberry snowcone!
This reminds me of one of those aluminum doggie
bags that are made into weird animal shapes.
OK, now we are getting serious. This thing was HUGE.
You could drive a bus through that hole. This was
bigger than a house. This was half a block or more.
And stories high. I looked on the captain's radar and
you could see how big it was under the water. Only
10-15% of an iceberg is above water. This whole thing
must be 20 stories high or more.
The other side of the same iceberg. This was the
other boat we travelled with. (For safety they travel
in pairs in case there is a Titanic moment.) Granted
the iceberg is in the foreground but still, it's gigantic.
Nothing prepared my brain for the scale of things in Argentina. Everything was huge. It felt prehistoric to me, evolution hadn't come to the landscape yet. Everything was still dinosaur-sized.
It really was all day. Like 10 hours or more but we got to see lots of super cool icebergs and three more glaciers.
I took hundreds of photos of icebergs alone. They were amazing. And they get bigger and bigger the closer you get to these gigantic glaciers. Seriously, now I understand why the Titanic sank. I always was sorta like, really, it hit an iceberg? How does it sink a huge ship? This is how:
Scale isn't obvious from this image but you could
park several cars on these. Plus look at the
background! Come on! Is there anything prettier?
Blueberry snowcone!
This reminds me of one of those aluminum doggie
bags that are made into weird animal shapes.
OK, now we are getting serious. This thing was HUGE.
You could drive a bus through that hole. This was
bigger than a house. This was half a block or more.
And stories high. I looked on the captain's radar and
you could see how big it was under the water. Only
10-15% of an iceberg is above water. This whole thing
must be 20 stories high or more.
The other side of the same iceberg. This was the
other boat we travelled with. (For safety they travel
in pairs in case there is a Titanic moment.) Granted
the iceberg is in the foreground but still, it's gigantic.
Nothing prepared my brain for the scale of things in Argentina. Everything was huge. It felt prehistoric to me, evolution hadn't come to the landscape yet. Everything was still dinosaur-sized.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Los Notros
Los Notros, as mentioned previously, was our hotel by the glacier. It is the only hotel in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Everyone else has to drive in from El Calafate which is an hour or more away.
We flew into El Calafate. It's a small town, very frontier-y with a sort of Western feel. The airport is tiny and has one small runway. I can't say much about it since all we did was drive through a couple of times. But as soon as we landed you got the distinct feeling that you were very far away. From anything. It is remote to say the least.
Los Notros is a fabulous hotel. It's not super luxurious or swishy like a Four Seasons or the George V but it was better in pretty much every way I can think of. It doesn't have the elegance of a big expensive hotel but it also didn't have the stuffiness. It was extremely comfortable and casual. The decoration is very Western and frontier-y (you are going to hear that a lot from me). A lot of natural wood, exposed beams, rugs by local Indian tribes, cow hide-covered furniture, fire places, etc. It had huge plate glass windows all along the side facing the glacier. So whether we were in our room or eating in the dining room all you could do was admire Perito Moreno.
It was very expensive, not the kind of hotel we would normally stay in. But if you are schlepping yourself all the way down to southern Patagonia it would be sort of crazy not to spring for this place. I can't imagine commuting back and forth to El Calafate. Everything was included, all the food and the excursions. And everything was perfectly done.
The food was excellent. We got fat quick. We had three courses at every meal - I'm too full for dessert but we've already paid for it! The excursions were fabulous - cruises around icebergs and to other glaciers, glacier-trekking, etc. And the guides were very, very knowledgeable.
The staff was really excellent. (Yes, I need to expand my vocabulary.) They are all young and imported from other parts of the country. The hotel, because of the latitude / weather, is only open 8 or 9 months of the year and the staff all have contracts for that season. They all live in 'dorms' on the property though a couple of people commute from El Calafate. The hospitality industry is booming in Argentina and a lot of young, smart, articulate and very nice university graduates flock to this place. Not only was the service excellent in every way but they were all very excited to be there. They all knew it was a special place, too, and were delighted to share it with us.
We found this throughout the country. They weren't cocky about it like, say, the French (pardonnez-moi, citoyens). They were very humble (mais, oui, you luf Fraahhnce, why would you not?). When we told people that we were on our honeymoon they seemed shocked that we would pick Argentina and always wanted to know if we were enjoying ourselves. When we said that we loved it they were so excited but at the same time would say, it is very beautiful, isn't it? It was a lovely combination of gratitude and pride. It was very sweet to be around.
Our room wasn't terribly big but it had a gorgeous view. And the bathroom was behind the room and had a plate glass window that opened into the bedroom so you could see the glacier through that window. Make sense? It was cute.
The only alarming thing was that there were some rules you had to follow because it was in a national park. There was only limited sewage treatment so when you went to the loo you had to throw away - not flush - your toilet paper. No matter what. That was hard to get used to. And pretty gross. And all the water came from a local waterfall so the hotel had to close when the waterfall froze in the winter.
The weather was pretty temperate considering you were a few hundred yards from a giant block of ice and as close to Antarctica as I have ever been. It was maybe in the 50s? On - and close to - the glacier the temperature dropped a lot. And freezing wind would whip off that thing like I've never experienced. But every time we returned to the hotel there were fires going and it was so cozy.
I took so many photos of the glacier I didn't take
too many indoors. This gives you a tiny bit of flavor:
eating homemade cotton candy with indigenous
textiles hanging behind me. Notice the sunburn
from reflection off the glacier!
Los Notros, which is a kind of bush that grows in the area, was just awesome. Rustic comfort. Enh, now I want to go back.
We flew into El Calafate. It's a small town, very frontier-y with a sort of Western feel. The airport is tiny and has one small runway. I can't say much about it since all we did was drive through a couple of times. But as soon as we landed you got the distinct feeling that you were very far away. From anything. It is remote to say the least.
Los Notros is a fabulous hotel. It's not super luxurious or swishy like a Four Seasons or the George V but it was better in pretty much every way I can think of. It doesn't have the elegance of a big expensive hotel but it also didn't have the stuffiness. It was extremely comfortable and casual. The decoration is very Western and frontier-y (you are going to hear that a lot from me). A lot of natural wood, exposed beams, rugs by local Indian tribes, cow hide-covered furniture, fire places, etc. It had huge plate glass windows all along the side facing the glacier. So whether we were in our room or eating in the dining room all you could do was admire Perito Moreno.
It was very expensive, not the kind of hotel we would normally stay in. But if you are schlepping yourself all the way down to southern Patagonia it would be sort of crazy not to spring for this place. I can't imagine commuting back and forth to El Calafate. Everything was included, all the food and the excursions. And everything was perfectly done.
The food was excellent. We got fat quick. We had three courses at every meal - I'm too full for dessert but we've already paid for it! The excursions were fabulous - cruises around icebergs and to other glaciers, glacier-trekking, etc. And the guides were very, very knowledgeable.
The staff was really excellent. (Yes, I need to expand my vocabulary.) They are all young and imported from other parts of the country. The hotel, because of the latitude / weather, is only open 8 or 9 months of the year and the staff all have contracts for that season. They all live in 'dorms' on the property though a couple of people commute from El Calafate. The hospitality industry is booming in Argentina and a lot of young, smart, articulate and very nice university graduates flock to this place. Not only was the service excellent in every way but they were all very excited to be there. They all knew it was a special place, too, and were delighted to share it with us.
We found this throughout the country. They weren't cocky about it like, say, the French (pardonnez-moi, citoyens). They were very humble (mais, oui, you luf Fraahhnce, why would you not?). When we told people that we were on our honeymoon they seemed shocked that we would pick Argentina and always wanted to know if we were enjoying ourselves. When we said that we loved it they were so excited but at the same time would say, it is very beautiful, isn't it? It was a lovely combination of gratitude and pride. It was very sweet to be around.
Our room wasn't terribly big but it had a gorgeous view. And the bathroom was behind the room and had a plate glass window that opened into the bedroom so you could see the glacier through that window. Make sense? It was cute.
The only alarming thing was that there were some rules you had to follow because it was in a national park. There was only limited sewage treatment so when you went to the loo you had to throw away - not flush - your toilet paper. No matter what. That was hard to get used to. And pretty gross. And all the water came from a local waterfall so the hotel had to close when the waterfall froze in the winter.
The weather was pretty temperate considering you were a few hundred yards from a giant block of ice and as close to Antarctica as I have ever been. It was maybe in the 50s? On - and close to - the glacier the temperature dropped a lot. And freezing wind would whip off that thing like I've never experienced. But every time we returned to the hotel there were fires going and it was so cozy.
I took so many photos of the glacier I didn't take
too many indoors. This gives you a tiny bit of flavor:
eating homemade cotton candy with indigenous
textiles hanging behind me. Notice the sunburn
from reflection off the glacier!
Los Notros, which is a kind of bush that grows in the area, was just awesome. Rustic comfort. Enh, now I want to go back.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Glaciers
It's almost impossible to convey how amazing the glaciers were. Or I'll restate: it is impossible for me to convey. I'm not a very good writer (yet I have a blog!) but no one really reads this so I guess it doesn't matter too much.
I've never really seen another glacier (technically I have but it wasn't glacier-iffic. It just looked like snow.) so I have no basis for comparison. But my friends who have been to Alaska and Norway say that our pictures don't compare to what they have seen (as in what we saw was AWESOME). I've never been to the Himalayas and I don't know what their lake situation is so I could be lying here but I feel confident in saying that Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is like nothing else in the world.
The glaciers are huge, both in how wide their mouths are, and how high they are. They are all very fast moving, meaning it doesn't take long from when the snow falls on the top of the mountain to become the compacted ice that calves off into the lake. Perito Moreno, for example, is super fast - it takes about 400 years. Many glaciers take tens of thousands of years. That's how they find woolly mammoths.
Below are an assortment of photos since I think you can only see for yourself how majestic these glaciers are.
The view from our hotel. It's too foggy, but you
can see the glacier going up in different directions
toward the top of the mountains.
This image makes the glacier look small.
It's at least 150 feet high.
The mountain is enormous.
It's amazing how smooth the 'snout' looks.
This is probably a half a mile wide or more.
Probably closer to a mile.
This is the pressure of the ice buckling
as it hits land. A small peninsula juts
out into the lake and creates two 'snouts'
on the glacier. This is one mouth hitting
that peninsula.
Up close, the glacier looks like meringue.
Look how it goes on and on.
Hopefully this gives an idea of the scale.
The white-ish dots on the mountain, on the left,
is our hotel. The line of ants in foreground is another
group trekking on the glacier. Our hotel was the only
one in the park.
I've never really seen another glacier (technically I have but it wasn't glacier-iffic. It just looked like snow.) so I have no basis for comparison. But my friends who have been to Alaska and Norway say that our pictures don't compare to what they have seen (as in what we saw was AWESOME). I've never been to the Himalayas and I don't know what their lake situation is so I could be lying here but I feel confident in saying that Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is like nothing else in the world.
The glaciers are huge, both in how wide their mouths are, and how high they are. They are all very fast moving, meaning it doesn't take long from when the snow falls on the top of the mountain to become the compacted ice that calves off into the lake. Perito Moreno, for example, is super fast - it takes about 400 years. Many glaciers take tens of thousands of years. That's how they find woolly mammoths.
Below are an assortment of photos since I think you can only see for yourself how majestic these glaciers are.
The view from our hotel. It's too foggy, but you
can see the glacier going up in different directions
toward the top of the mountains.
This image makes the glacier look small.
It's at least 150 feet high.
The mountain is enormous.
It's amazing how smooth the 'snout' looks.
This is probably a half a mile wide or more.
Probably closer to a mile.
This is the pressure of the ice buckling
as it hits land. A small peninsula juts
out into the lake and creates two 'snouts'
on the glacier. This is one mouth hitting
that peninsula.
Up close, the glacier looks like meringue.
Look how it goes on and on.
Hopefully this gives an idea of the scale.
The white-ish dots on the mountain, on the left,
is our hotel. The line of ants in foreground is another
group trekking on the glacier. Our hotel was the only
one in the park.
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