The long drive to El Califate and off to BA

April 5. According to the itinerary we were supposed to sleep in since Chris was able to get the transporation delayed by an hour, then drive for 3.5 hours to the El Califante airport.

Stupidly I forgot this and got up at 7 to finish packing and get to breakfast. At 8:25, when I said I would go and do last minute items for our exit at 8:30, he told me that we weren't due to leave until 9:30. So I screwed up our last morning lie-in.

Here is Chris not forgiving me at breakfast. Breakfast was a cheese omelet and the wonderful cheese breads and buttery small savory rolls made of pastry.

Our trip was further delayed when we found out Xemina and Raffy were going with us and we ended up not leaving until just before 10am. Not a big issue since our flight wasn't until 3:30, but meant we could have even slept/relaxed later. Ugh.

Our wonderful big sendoff was the fabulous rainbow and leaf colors in the morning light.

Anyway, we finally hit the road and saw several bunnies who came out to wish us bon voyage and a safe trip. We basically covered the same territory as when we came.

The town of El Chalten was deserted and the police were checking cars coming/leaving the town. Not sure what that was all about, but we didn't have any problems leaving. The questioning was really minor, just asking the driver, who the policeman knew socially, when he planned to return.

So, off we went and said goodbye as we left the Glacier National Park signs.

As for wildlife, we saw two Male Condors, Cara cara sitting on the fence posts and a falcon. We saw again the big lake and the guanacos. This time they were actually on the road as we turned right.

We stopped one more time at the Interstate 40 rest stop again. This time a calico cat came to say hi and made friends with Chris for a bit of his/our empanada.

On further to the airport. We never did enter the town of El Califate.

The airport was tiny with nothing to do and we were really glad to have been able to delay our drive for several hours. We only had about 45 minutes from the time we passed through security to when the called the flight, just enough time for a cup of coffee.

They called the flight really early and we were group 4, but, thankfully there was plenty of room for our carry on luggage. Here's our plane.

The flight was uneventful except that it left about 20 minutes early. It was a beautiful day for flying and we were able to get some last pictures of Fitzroy and Cerro Torre.

We landed early and, after some confusion about where to meet, we connected with our Uber to the Marriott Park Tower Hotel where we stayed on our last visit in 2016. The room was an upgrade and very nice, but the last time we stayed here they upgraded us to a several room suite, so was fun to remember that:)

We changed and went to El Vetrano for dinner. After a few uncertainties about where we were going, as my Spanish isn't great, we ended up at the right place. It seems there are several El Vetranos in close proximity. Only one takes reservations.

This restaurant has very big portions. Chris had ribs which he ate using the surgical gloves provided by the restaurant. I had chorizo steak with blue cheese.

We shared french fries, a salad with hearts of palm, avocado and tomato.

I actually had red wine while Chris had beer.

We connected with our Uber and got back to the hotel without incident where we fell into bed