An Update at Last!

So, I know its been a while since we've written a blog. We've gotten quite a few requests, so here it is. One jam packed blog of our last months adventures.

I guess I should start with, we finally managed to leave Buenos Aires. An amazing city but it feels even more amazing to be out of it and into some of the real Argentina we have heard so much about. Especially to see some of the stunning natural beauty that this country is blessed with. Mostly we have my long time friends Kelly and Alyssa to thank, as there two week visit forced us to explore other parts of Argentina. We ended up doing a whirl wind tour of Mendoza and Bariloche with them. Spending a wonderful couple of weeks or so traveling with two very funny, lovely people.

In Mendoza we took a bike tour of some wineries. The pictures pretty much say it all. We had a ton of fun biking from one winery to another tasting all the different types of Argentinian wine. Many of the ones we tasted aren't exported and don't even make it to Buenos Aires, but god they were good. We were pretty tipsy by the end of our touring. We also hired a car and took an overnight trip into the Andes that tower over Mendoza. We drove through some amazing scenery and even managed to get a glimpse of the tallest mountain in all of the Americas. It was really nice to have a car, having the freedom to stop wherever struck our fancy, for a little hike or a photo op. We spent the night in a little cabin, in the town the movie Seven Years in Tibet was filmed in.

After Mendoza we took a marathon bus ride to Bariloche (20 hrs). The beginning of Argentinian Patagonia. It was a shock to arrive in chilly, piney green Bariloche after the steaming desert climate of Mendoza, but also a relief. We spent our time in Bariloche doing as many outdoor activities as we could fit in the three days we had left. The highlight being the white water rafting down the Rio Manso, which means calm or tranquil. Despite this deceiving name there were a couple of class IV rapids! This was my first time white water rafting. And I have to admit that I had many trepidations, the main one being I didn't want the raft to tip on one of the big rapids. And somehow we managed to avoid this, despite jumbling up our rafting guides instructions horribly every time it really counted. It was a really fun experience though, and I would totally recommend anyone to try it.

Before we knew it, our time had run out and we needed to return to Buenos Aires so Kelly and Alyssa could catch their flight back to the states. We bought tickets with this expensive luxurious bus company. Thinking well we might as well live it up if we have to sit through another 20 hour bus ride. Unfortunately it was our worst bus ride in Argentina to date. Not only were we stuck all the way in the back where the air condition made the loudest most obnoxious noise imaginable, but our tire busted two hours out of Bariloche, and we got stuck in the desert for 4 hours, waiting for a new tire. Actually more accurately, our tire got shredded. I've never seen a tire in the state that our bus tire was in. When it happened we saw chunks of tire flying up past the bus (we were sitting on the second level of the bus, so pretty high up). The only down side of our tire being busted is that a 20 hour bus journey turned into a 23 hour bus journey. However, we eventually reached Buenos Aires, spent a last couple days there until Kelly and Alyssa flew out last Wed. Then Sam and I made our way further South to Puerto Madryn. Where we have been stuck for almost a week. Mainly because somewhere along the way I picked up a nasty throat infection and had to get treatment.

Tomorrow we head further south and hopefully by Thursday we will be in Ushuaia, the end of the world! We can't promise to keep the blog entries constant during this time, as Internet connection has begun to be a little more sketchy. This is the third attempt at writing this blog. The other two times the computers quit on us. But we will keep a written journals to be sure to update the blog when we get a chance.