This afternoon, we journeyed around Lago Nahuel Huapi on the “Cau Cau.” The boat was scheduled to leave Puerto Pañuelo at 2:00 p.m., with a return at 7:00 p.m.

When we arrived at Port Pañuelo at 1:30, there was only one boat in port and we thought, “what have we gotten ourselves into?”

But, soon our real boat came into port, the relatively new “Cau Cau,” which means Big Seagull in the indigenous indian language (“cau” means seagull and the repetition, “cau cau,” makes it a big seagull).

We’re not really sure how many passengers the Cau Cau carried, but it looked to be around 350. The boat was really packed.

But we had read that it was worth it to pay the extra $20 (US) to sit up top on the VIP deck and even though that meant that we were sitting in the “Gringo” section instead of mixing with locals, it was well worth it (plus, it included lunch and beverages)! And, the other passengers weren’t really locals, anyway; they were all tourists like us, but from other parts of Argentina and South America.

Here’s Dale in the VIP lounge:

It was very relaxing, motoring past Isla Victoria to the peninsula now designated Parque Nacional Bosque de Arrayanes (Arrayanes Forest).

We went back to the transom to take a self-portrait.

The trip to the Arrayanes Forest took about 45 minutes.

All ashore that’s goin’ ashore!

We’ll wait for you all to clear the gangplank.