We woke at Posada Pasos de los Patos to an even more dismal breakfast service before our six hour drive north to La Rioja.

Before leaving, we settled our account with the front desk. It turns out that all of the meals, including breakfasts, were not included in the package. We assumed that our Friday night supper would be extra, but not the breakfasts. Additionally, the cost was twice of what we had paid in our previous hotels.

Final thoughts about Posada Pasos de los Patos:

• Very pleasant hosts and staff. Alejandro was very helpful in using his back-channel with El Aleman to get us a dinner reservation on a fully booked night.

• Remote location, which is great for hikers, bikers, and nature lovers

• Don’t count on having functional WiFi or cellular service.

• Be prepared to pay twice the normal rate for disappointing meals (the breakfasts, not the dinner. The dinner was actually pretty good)

• New visitors are likely to get lost trying to find the entrance to the Inn from town

• The long driveway could be regarded as treacherous, over several irrigation canals with log bridges

• The location is about three hours away from San Juan’s bodegas, so if you expect a wine tour or to visit bodegas, don’t stay here. The city of San Juan, three hours to the east, is where the local wine region is.

Our six-hour drive to El Chiflón was uneventful. I had planned to stop at a restaurant at the half-way point but when we got there, all the restaurants were closed, despite showing ABIERTO on Google’s search results. Again, another failure for Google.

A lesson learned - If a road trip is to last more than three or four, bring a snack because there might not be opportunities to dine or to buy snacks along the way.

Part of the trip involved driving through Parque Provincial Ischigualasto, which involved a winding highway through the mountains, including several mountain tunnels. It reminded me of the drive through Zion National Park in Utah.

Crossing the regional border from San Juan province into La Rioja province, we arrived at our destination.

El Chiflón

The hotel sits right off of the highway and looks like a stereotypical “Motor Inn” in horror movies where drifters find their kills.

Despite the warning signs that compelled me to stay in the car and keep driving, I went in to inquire about our reservation. The couple manning the reception desk seemed accommodating enough but they appeared to lose patience with me when it took them more than once to explain the restaurant situation to me. Evidently, the restaurant didn’t open for orders until 2000 (8 pm), and you had to make reservations to send an order. Thirty minutes prior to your reservation, you can send your order by means of Whats App. It would have been difficult enough to figure that one out in English, even more so for me since neither of the pair spoke English.

The door to the room was steel, somewhat reminiscent of those in movies involving psych-ward security, but without the speakeasy window.

The room was small, but not the smallest we have ever seen (refer to the Sun Room at the Camellia Inn in our Sonoma 2021 mission report). Also,the overwhelming odor of perfume from cleaning supplies could not be vented, despite leaving the sliding back door open for hours. The following is a view of the highway from our back “patio”. You will notice the saguaro cacti in the photo; more on that in tomorrow's report.

When planning this adventure, I received many questions from those who were doing the planning. Some of these questions included the following:

• What is the maximum in hours that you want to be on the road between locations? My response was six hours max.

• If keeping under the max hours means an overnight stay at a location that isn’t a Bed & Breakfast, are you OK with that? My response was yes.

I thought that it was a hypothetical “what if “ in case something didn’t work out, but no. This was planned. El Chiflón was the location to which they were referring.

We received a welcome sheet upon checking in that included information, in both Spanish and in English, that guests needed to know. Quoted from the welcome sheet:

• A hot shower lasts approx. 10 minutes. Then, you must wait at least 20 min for the water heater to regain temperature and you can use it again.

• FORBIDDEN TO KILL TARANTULAS AND TOADS (maintains the ecological balance of the reserve and the control of pests. They are not dangerous)

At 30 minutes prior to our 8:00 PM reservation, we sent an order to the Whats App number, from which we received a “thumbs up” emoji, suggesting that our order had been received.

At our appointed reservation time, we wandered over to the restaurant (which had more of a cafeteria vibe than that of a restaurant) to receive our orders, as well as a bottle of La Rioja Malbec. The food was acceptable and we didn't get murdered. Mission accomplished.

Next up - Day 8: El Chiflón to Chañarmuyo

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