I shower by candlelight and as I’m getting dressed in the dark. Rex goes by and knocks at everyone’s door for our predawn photoshoot.
We see LOTS of guanacos chasing each other and making all sorts of incredible noises.
Several pose on rocky outcroppings for the photographers. We see meadow larks, black neck swans, and steamer ducks. We notice that there are no fences along the road. There have been great efforts to remove all fences on the estancia–400 miles of fences. All the livestock on the estancia was sold off within a few years after Conservation Patagonia purchased the property so there was no need for fencing. Employees of the clothing company, Patagonia, were able to take paid leave from their jobs to help in the fence removing efforts. (Buy Patagonia clothes–it is a great company!) The absence of fences has decreased the level of wildlife deaths. We get back to the lodge at 10am and are thirsty for coffee and hungry for breakfast. We have a great breakfast of eggs and potatoes from the night before. There’s also delicious granola that we pair with raspberry yogurt. We sample blueberry jam and honey produced on the estancia. As we are loading up we see a pair of ibises. We get a tour of the private residence and it is REALLY over-the-top! Howard notices $2,000 binoculars in the bedroom. It just reinforced our concerns about where the contributions are going. We make a stop not far from the lodge to look for chinchillas on a rocky outcropping. Alas, the little critters don’t come to greet us so we are off to Argentina!
We head east from Valle Chacabuco looking for wildlife. We see ostrich-type birds called Rheas. Unlike the guanacos, which pose for us, the Rheas will kill themselves to get away from us so we don’t get any photos. If there is a fence between a Rhea and freedom it will bang itself against the fence trying to get away. We see lots of guanacos in Argentina and joke that Scott will consider them new animals (from the Chile guanacos) and want to stop a million times to photograph them. Really, there is no shortage of guanacos. It’s like bison in Yellowstone; they get boring pretty quickly. It is a long drive to our destination, Lago Posada, where we will be staying at La Posada de La Posada. (Do I need to say that Scott held up the journey?!) Our vehicle gets to the hotel first so we have first pick of the rooms. Suzanna, the proprietress who is a 4′ 5″ Italian lady, takes us to all the rooms. From one room wafts the very strong smell of gas so we walk away quickly. Leave that room for Scott!! The rooms are VERY modest but just fine.
We have 4 single beds in our room–we could have fun with that! We visit the little market to search for wine–it’s cocktail time. The red wine we find was pretty good however the white wine was sugar-sweet. I think we’ll find good wine at dinner. Suzanna and her husband run the restaurant across the street. It’s a huge place for this little berg and we’re the only people there. Dinner was great: pumpkin soup, lamb and potatoes that had a nice crust on the bottom from the butter frying. Stuart talks about the gas-filled room that he and Scott are sharing. They had requested a new room. But Stuart said to me “I bet you’d hoped that Scott would be a victim of asphyxiation!” I whole-heartedly said “You bet.” Scott flipped me the bird and I confess that I felt a little bad about saying I wished he were dead–I don’t hope that he would die I just hope that he’ll be lost on the road. The restaurant has very pretty tile that depicts local pictographs. Rex says that we don’t have time to both visit the pictographs and go to the photography location. Scott is the first to bellow that we must take pictures and the decision appears to be made. I think that just Howard and I are interested in the pictographs but both Mari Ann and Ben say they would like to go. So I ask to re-open that discussion. Couldn’t Rex take the photographers and Jonathan take the pictographs? So we all get our way!