The Final Post - Bariloche

 I had a four-day pre-cruise extension trip to Bariloche in the Argentine lake district.  This pre-cruise trip was great - the lake district is beautiful, and it gave me a chance to bond with a smaller group before getting on the ship.

So first, I want to pay tribute to our fearless leaders - Amy and Debbie - who were the folks who made the trip great.  Amy was the tour director from Ponant, and Debbie was the local guide. Debbie brought a personal touch to her guiding.  In addition to taking care of us, they also participated *with* us. It was sad saying good-bye to Debbie when we left Bariloche. Amy continued on with us to the cruise ship.

Our travels were mostly somewhere along the 40-mile Circuito Chico, which is the yellow loop in the lower left corner, but our 2nd day, we went to Isla Victoria, which is the island in the upper left corner, although to get to Isla Victoria we took a catamaran from Puerto Pañuelo which is on the loop.  Our hotel was in Bariloche, which is in the lower right corner.  So days typically were boarding a small bus in Bariloche, driving to whichever destination was in the loop, and hiking there.

 

 

The first day we drove around the loop, and because Bariloche is an Argentine craft beer hub, we stopped at the Patagonia brewery for a tour and lunch.  Can you find me in this picture?

Then we took a chairlift in the Llao Llao Reserve to a short hike.  My niece told me I had to take a picture of myself in the Patagonia wearing the Patagonia brand.  So here it is - Patagonia in Patagonia. This is looking out at Lake Nahuel Huapi, the Andes Mountains, and Isla Victoria where we would go the next day.

 

This is the trip down in the chairlift.

 

 

And back to the hotel in Bariloche.  Of course Snoopy had to check out the view.

 

For those that have not been following this whole trip blog, let me summarize.  I bought an expensive camera just for the trip, including a long lens.  The lens is *heavy*, so I didn't take it out on hikes.  And I was having trouble figuring out how to use it.  So I decided to practice with it at the hotel. My camera died on the first day in Antarctica.  Jim Preston, the photography SME on the ship, used the same equipment as me, and kindly offered the use of one of his backup camera bodies on the last two days in Antarctica.  But one of the things I found out when trying to use the long lens is that it is too easy to damage the mount on the camera with an oversized lens. So no way I was going to use the long lens on Jim's camera.  So for the money I spent on the long lens, the only shots I got with it on this whole trip are pigeons.  A mighty fine picture of a pigeon indeed.

 

Next day we got on the Catamaran, making a stop first at the Arrayanes Forest which is on Isla Victoria.  The arrayán tree is native to the region, has a thin and unusally colored bark, and is cold to the touch. The flower of the tree is the fuzzy white popcorn-like stuff. This forest is the last natural habitat for the arrayán tree.

We got back on the Catamaran for a second stop on Isla Victoria and a longer hike.  I am going to probably botch this history, but this is the main gist. Lakes and the islands in those lakes are public property, but at some point, this island ended up owned by a wealthy Argentine with a big ego. He wanted to show off the arrayán tree, so he removed other species of tree, and that didn't go well because the arrayán is a symbiotic species. So other species got brought back. Then he worked with Teddy Roosevelt to bring all kinds of species from the world over to this island, including California Sequoias. The Isla Victoria, which is back to being public land, is now a seed repository for the world. After the wildfires in Australia, Isla Victoria reached out to offer repatriation of a number of Australian species.  Pretty cool.

At then end of our hike, we ended up at a beach on the Nahuel Haupi lake. It is said if you put your face in the cold water at Nahuel Haupi lake, you will have eternal youth, or something like that.  I had to try it. The water was cold, but not that cold

 

 

Debbie got these pictures, and she caught me in a moment of pure joy. I think this is a perfect place to end this blog - pure joy.

Return to Ushuaia

 All good things must come to an end.  Approach to Ushuaia.

And docked.

Before heading the airport, we had a little bit of touring in Tierra del Fuego National Park where we got to see the END OF THE ROAD as well as some pretty scenery.

The question I am asked most frequently was what made the greatest impression on me.  Of course, the penguins.  But the two things that struck me the most was the kindness of Jim Preston in loaning me a camera and the first day when we had a very close encounter with a leopard seal.

Jim's camera is an older version of mine, so the night he loaned it to me, I went around the ship to try it out and get used to the slightly different controls. Turns out I had one control set completely wrong, and so I ended up with a lot of black photos.  Fortunately, I figured this out before I set out the next day. But I did get this rather cool photo.

Remember the leopard seal that jumped up on our zodiac and we were told to get off the side and kneel on the floor of the zodiac and pull our hands in.  That seal jumped up RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.  Here's the out-of-focus picture I had to take quickly, just to give you a sense of how close.

In addition to Jim the photographer subject matter expert, Ponant hires its own professional photographer and videographer.  Here is the picture they got just as the seal went back into the water. You can see the disturbed water in front of me.

There will be one more post after this one covering my first two days in Bariloche. But this is it for Antarctica posts.  Hope you've enjoyed them!