We have a busy day ahead of us with a number of activities. The group goes their separate ways and Paolo joins us for a boat ride on the lake. We have our breakfast at 8 AM and head out to the bus stop shortly before 9 AM. The bus arrives on time shortly after 9 and we head to the port in the opposite direction of town.
We are there early, so after buying our tickets we check out the coffee shop (but the coffee machine is broken, however their toilets worked) and wander around to look at the view from the other edge of the pier. We board the boat around 10:30 AM and head out in the catamaran into Lago Nahuel Huapi. It is a great day with blue skies and warm breezes. We are followed by the birds the whole way, with the children (and some of the parents) feeding them snacks as we cruise along.
Our first stop is at Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes, where we go ashore for a short walk around the peninsula. The whole place is covered with these tall trees that do not seem to have bark. They have a light color and are very smooth. Once back on the boat we head back down, retracing our steps.
We arrive at Isla Victoria, a large island in the middle of the lake, around 1:30 PM. We are starving, so we head right up to the snack shop. We did not bring much food with us, so we are worried that we will be gouged, but we are pleasantly surprised. Despite having a clear monopoly, the food is good and reasonably priced. We decide to go for the local sausage - it is so good that both Paolo and Lars decide to get a second one.
After that we are so stuffed that we decide to be lazy and take the chairlift the short way up to the top of the island. It is a very pleasant ride. It goes quite slowly, so we have the opportunity to enjoy the view along the way.
At the top we have a breathtaking view around the lake and the surrounding mountains. The colors are fantastic, with the deep blue sky and lake contrasting with the white of the clouds and snow and the dark mountains and trees. We hang around for a while and then wander down through the forest back to the boat pier.
We still have some time until the boat comes back and picks us up, so we go for a short walk around the other way to the rock paintings and another beach. The 500 year old Indian rock paintings are nothing special (could not really see anything), but the beach was nice to walk along and we dipped our feet in the water.
The boat ride back was relaxing and enjoyable. Paolo and Jacqui had another espresso along the way. Back at the mainland, we decided to go for a short walk in some forests near the pier. It was a bit of a long walk along the road before we came to the forest, so we did not have to much time in the actual forest, but it was very nice natural place.
We were able to just catch a bus back to the hostel, where we had a shower before getting ready to go out for a group meal. It is Melissa's birthday, so we have to have a bit of a celebration. We have about a 1½ km walk to a carnivore's heaven. The main item on the menu was beef. As we did not understand what the menu said, we went into the kitchen and they showed us the various cuts of steak. We made our selection and headed back to the table.
It was a very good meal and we all had a great time. The steak was excellent. At the end of the evening, a birthday cake was brought out and Melissa was asked to blow out the candles (sorry, forgot to count how many were on the cake). Well, they were trick candles and it took her about 15 minutes to finally get them all out. It was good cake.