Day 67 Friday 30th November: St Andrew’s Day in a Welsh town

Frankie writes:

Last night we had another fantastic dinner (a pattern is developing here!) with excellent meat and a very relaxed, casual atmosphere in Alto el Fuego.

This was Lois’ first encounter with the full group and he quickly grasped the collective  essence when he perceptively asked if this was an all inclusive Club Med tour for old guys! The only comment that we could add is that perhaps “grumpy” was missing!

This morning it was bye bye Bariloche as we left our Colditz era hotel with some sadness as its personality and rugged comforts had grown on us over the two days, perhaps because we were permitted to take over bartending duties which improved both velocity and volume.

Our relatively short hop of 298 kms. started with some nice final vistas of lakes and mountains, but also the realisation when we got down from the car to capture them that the time of shorts and t-shirts on the tour was now over; the air was decidedly chilly. It should be noted that Mike is staging a stubborn rearguard action against this motion.

And so it was onwards on some arrow straight roads and vistas of plains and mountains. Still very beautiful and lots of saltire blue sky for St Andrew’s Day!

And also the obligatory stop to fill up with YPF diesel. Here we are enjoying a coffee with our stop.

We arrived in the small town of Esquel, established by Welsh sheep farmers nearly 200 years ago, in time for lunch but with a degree of trepidation regarding accommodation. Our worries were soon laid to rest as we saw out nice comfortable rooms and enjoyed a snack(!) lunch.

A true or false photoshoot was also staged as Craig debated his dietary discipline. You can make the call on which route he took.

We recovered from  lunch by taking a leisurely walk around town to assess dining opportunities, which seemed limited, but the Welsh influence on Visual Merchandising was clear to see.

It would also appear that Maria is either Scottish herself or married to one. She certainly has a sense of humour; please note the corner of the sign which says it was produced by Harry Plotter Carteles!

Tomorrow we progress further south down RN40 to our next stop in Perito Moreno, a leg of 537 kms.