It was bound to happen...

We've had such an amazing trip with a great run of luck for the last 3 weeks that we were bound to hit a bump in the road sometime. January 4th it all came to a head! More on that in a minute! Our time spent in Sierra de la Ventana was just great, but there were a few early signs that our luck was running low.

On the 2nd, when transportation and stores opened up again, we headed out on the local bus line to the national park, Cerro Ventana, to go hiking. This is the mountain that the whole region is named for as it has a window (ventana) in the top of it. Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late in the morning to hike to the top of it, but instead did a few other shorter hikes--it was a very hot day and these smaller hikes all were near water, which was nice. On the second hike (to yet another waterfall!), we saw a tarantula! A first for all of us! It definately changed the way Cailin was scampering all over the rocks we were on! After we were done, we knew we had a little wait for the bus as the driver told us he came back at 4:30. We wiled away the hour and a half playing "eye-spy" and "twenty questions" until we came to the realization that no bus was coming! As we were about 30 km from the town, our choices were to wait until 7:30, when the ranger said the next bus should come or take the situation into our own hands. In a place where only sub-compact cars are seen, and those are usually filled to the hilt, hitch-hiking for 4 seemed pretty unlikely! A kind family did take pitty on us, however, and put their son in the front with them and the 4 of us piled into the tiny backseat. The 10 year old boy was taking English in school so he could translate for his parents. We were very grateful!

After jumping into the pool to cool down, we headed out for our much-looked-forward-to meal of a Parilla Libre--an all you can eat grill. We had been craving meat and looking forward to the wonderful Argentine beef we'd all heard so much about. They brought out grill out, and it is a pile of beef and pork in a variety of ways--very few of which we recognized! After tasting, guessing and asking, it turns out our grill had ribs, roast, sweetbreads, kidneys, intestines, blood sausage and a few unknowns. We really didn't get our money's worth on the all you can eat part!

On the 3rd we headed out to Buenos Aires, as that is where all roads lead, but without the intent to stay there just yet. We took an overnight bus arriving at the largest bus station I have ever seen! The greater BA population is over 13 million and I think most were arriving in the city on the bus! It was hot and humid and we really didn't want to be there, except that everywhere we did want to be seemed to connect through the city. This is where our rough day began!

We had a really hard time getting tickets to anywhere. High season has begun and that is bad for us! We ended up not being able to go anywhere (after hours of waiting in lines, at travel agents and on the digusting bus station floor!) and were forced to stay a night in Buenos Aires at a hotel I really hope to forget soon. I bit it with my heavy pack on in the middle of a busy street (didn't see the hole) as we were walking to the hotel and now have a nice big scab on my knee. Finally the day was over and we had tickets out to Uruguay the next morning, we hoped we had a place to stay (Duncan called a random hostel and booked us all in Spanish)and we hopefully booked the rest of our trip so we didn't have another long day of lines and waiting. The girls managed very well--better than I!

Needless to say, Colonia, Uruguay (where we are now)has been great! It has been hot and sunny, our hostel reservations were there waiting for us, and we got to explore the whole town and historic district on scooters today! What fun!


From Duncan: Tonight the Three Wise Men came came cruising up main street in Colonia, Uruguay in the back of a beat up old pickup truck. Turns out tonight is the Twelfth day of Christmas. The kids waved and they threw candy, much like the Seafair pirates. Alia popped a sticky piece in her mouth and promptly discovered she had a loose molar. Having lost a tooth in Argentina, we mentioned it was too bad she wasn't going to lose this one in Uruguay so she could compare tooth fairies in foreign countries. Five minutes later she announced “Got it” and showed us the bloody molar in her hand. I guess we will see what the Uruguayan tooth fairy has to offer after all.



Buenos noches! (sorry photos wouldn't download!) Maybe next time!