Argentina: Summer In Winter - Spring 2019: Day 9 - Bird Reserve and back to Buenos Aires

[Melbatb]

Our last morning in Patagonia!

Our flight was mid-afternoon and the bus was coming to pick us up at 12.30am so we had the morning free.

I was awake at about 6.30am and O was about an hour later. After showers we went for breakfast. Both of us had scrambled eggs again!

Back at the room I finished the packing and we checked out - leaving our cases with Juan.

We decided to walk to the bird reserve. It was a beautiful day again! The walk took about 20 minutes so not so far! We chatted about life in general and O's future university life (a common subject all week!)

The reserve is situated on the banks of the Lago Argentino. It was 500 pesos for both of us - a reduction over normal. We couldn't work out why!

I was hoping to see flamingos most of all!

It was a stunning vista yet again. We saw lots of smaller birds including ducks and black headed swans.

There was a route onto the beach - the colour of the water continued to amaze me! You could imagine though that the water was cold.

We thought we could see some flamingos in the distance, but we couldn't be sure.

The walk took just over an hour and was a nice way to enjoy the scenery and see some birds!

We then went into town to try to find some sandwiches but everything had ham in it! O managed to sneak in an ice cream though!

The bus was on time and we were at the airport by 12.45pm. We were quickly checked in (well bag dropped - I had checked in online and moved our seats to two aisle seats!)

We got a sandwich each from the cafeteria. Not great but filled a hole.

Security was again very light...

We sat down and spent some time looking at the map. I hadn't really appreciated how far south El Calafate was. It is over 2700km from BA!

O also gave me his useless fact of the day - Brazil borders every South American country except Equador and Chile!

The flight originated in Ushuaia. There was an interesting boarding concept - three lines - one for the window seats, one for the middle seats and one for the aisle. I wondered how it would work with kids though ...

We boarded - but for a moment I thought I had the two seats next to me free. Then a bolshy lady came to me and effectively told me I should swap seats with her and her husband - who were next to me otherwise her husband would force me to get up a lot. I politely declined her kind offer and said I didn't mind getting up (he only got up twice in fact!) Very strange though.

The flight took 3 hours - we got a drink and crisps again.

The luggage took ages - was a lot quicker getting the bags at 2am

We took a taxi to our hotel in the Palermo district - Hotel Vitrim.

We had a balcony which was nice! The view was nothing to shout about but nice to gave the door open and a breeze coming through.

We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. I had a felafel Buddha bowl and O had a pan fried salmon and fries. Both were very nice.

O also has a chocolate fondant that he hoovered down!

We went for a walk around the area - it certainly is a vibrant part of town at night. It certainly had a lively atmosphere.

We were in bed by 10 and asleep not long after!