We had to stay another obligatory day in Bariloche. Went back to customs on Monday for the zippers only to discover that they had probably arrived (on Feb. 6th) but that the bag where they must be in hadn’t been opened yet. It was only the 18th so…. The next bag would be opened the next day. All international mail must be opened and looked at by somebody from customs to see if taks needs to be payed. I could come back on Wednesday to check if it was there.
Well, we weren’t going to wait for that. Explained that we are cycling and couldn’t wait and stay any longer and also couldn’t come back to pick it up. Okay, than I could come back the next day around 11 am. We wanted to give it 1 more chance, so decided to wait 1 more day. If it wasn’t there on Tuesday we would go on without the zippers. It would be too bad then. We didn’t want to go back to the campground and make camp again, so we checked into a hotel for 1 night. That was kind of luxurious!
The weather had changed and it was sunny and warm, so we went for a cycling trip the rest of the day (afternoon). It was great cycling without all that luggage! We went to Llao Llao, a 65 kms (40 mile) trip. Llao Llao is the rich side/neighborhood of Bariloche and it was really beautiful there! Also beautiful and big houses and luxurious accommodations everywhere. The route was very nice, following the lake and through the forest.
In Llao Llao is Hotel Llao Llao, a very know hotel amongst the rich and famous of this world. Our soon to be King and Queen (Willem and Maxima) also stayed there at least once. Some say it’s one of the most beautiful hotels of the world, also because it’s situated beautifully. It’s on a hill, surrounded by mountains, forests and lakes. At one moment we arrived at a lookout from where we had a beautiful view (from above) on the hotel and surroundings.
We returned to the hotel at the end of the afternoon and after a shower we went out to eat. After the initial disappointment, it turned out to be a very nice day after all.
The next day we had a great breakfast at the hotel. There was coffee, tea, juice, cornflakes, bread, ham, cheese, sweet rolls, pieces of pie (with pudding), miniature brownies and who knows what else. It was great! After breakfast we went back to customs with good hopes. And yes, our package was there! But we could come get it on Friday…!! First it had to be seen by somebody from customs and apparently that had to take a couple of days. Explained again that we couldn’t wait for that and it was taken care of right there and then. We had our zippers!! Now all we had to do was try to get them in…