Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Today was our scheduled work & school day. Unfortunately, the internet signal is practically nonexistent in our rental airbnb. Andi talked to the property manager, and she suggested he go to the one restaurant in town with a decent internet connection — Jauya — so that’s where he went today. He took my iPhone with him in case he’d be able to hot spot to it.

View of the mountains outside our rental airbnb:

The kids and I don’t need an internet connection to do their school work; I brought their Math & Language Arts books with me on this trip. They were a little bummed that they couldn’t stream episodes of their favorite shows on Netflix after their school work was finished, but that’s the way it goes sometimes when traveling.

Today, it warmed my heart to see Tory and Aden getting along so well. I don’t know what the difference is (I suppose just being outside their usual comfort zone, or only having each other as company), but they are such great friends when we’re traveling. After school today, they sat on the bed together and played Minecraft. Then, all three of us played cards and a few dice games at the table. Honestly, that would never happen at home. The amount of quality family time we spend together increases tenfold when we’re on the road.

After Andi finished working around 6:30pm, we were all ready to do something fun. The four of us walked a few blocks into downtown El Bolson. There were all kinds of things happening around the town square. We saw a children’s band playing in the courtyard and some sort of 1970’s street performance happening by the lagoon. Church bells rang out at 7:00pm announcing the start of the Ash Wednesday service. The weather was cloudy, but comfortable. Twinkling lights sparkled overhead restaurant patios. It was a really nice evening to walk around outside.

Andi picked a restaurant called A Gusto for dinner. We went there at 7:45pm to be seated, and picked a table on their covered outside patio. Of course, we were the first people there again. We’ve found our perfect timing for dinner in Argentina to be 8:00pm - 9:30pm. We’re the restaurant’s first customers, so we get our food right away. Then, just when the restaurant starts to get busy, we request our check and make our departure. We feel a little like senior citizens eating so early on “local time,” and maybe we are … we just can’t stay up so late to eat!

For dinner tonight, we decided on a plate of grilled chicken and French fries, three chorizo sausages, and a variety of grilled vegetables. It was the perfect amount of food for the four of us to share.

Evident in this photo, the clock is about to strike Midnight (or, really, 9:30pm) and Aden is ready to go home. It’s bedtime for the Americans.

The worst thing about this airbnb is the wafting smells of asado (or grilling) drifting into our bedroom window all night long. Nothing makes you want to gag more than the smell of charcoaled meat as you’re falling asleep.

Tomorrow morning, we’re moving onto new lodging in El Bolson. Andi and I decided against traveling farther south to the Patagonian towns of Esquel or Trevelin. If we did, that would mean we’d have a four-hour drive back to Bariloche on Sunday morning before catching our next flight. And there’s only one flight a week from Bariloche to El Calafate, so we can’t miss it.

Sometimes when we’re traveling, I feel like we’re always chasing after the “next great location” but in reality, El Bolson is a really great town and we’ve barely scratched the surface completing activities in this area. So, we decided to stay closer to El Bolson for our last three days in northern Patagonia.

Tomorrow, we’ll check out of this airbnb and drive about 30 minutes north of El Bolson to stay at a mountain lodge in the countryside.