Back in the U.S.S.R.

Okay.  So it isn´t Soviet Russia.  It is Buenos Aires.  And I feel like this is home... kind of.

Since I last wrote, we spent an amazing afternoon at a dinosaur museum and palentological site.  The ride to the site was long, boring, dusty and BUMPY.  I could not imagine such a trip would be worthwhile.  Seriously.  I care almost nothing for dinosaurs but I loved this place.  It is an active excavation site where you can pay to dig amongst the dinosaur bones.  We decided not to dig, partly because we did not have a lot of time but also because I did not think I would be interested in it.  The site, museum, and excavation are surrounded by natural gas wells and nothing else.  The rock in this particular area is red, red, red.  I think I might still have some red dust on my shoes.  We took a guided one hour tour with Gastòn.  He knew his stuff.  I was entranced.  Dinosaurs are more interesting than I ever thought.  And the best part was that the entire tour was in Spanish.  I thought my comprehension was quite good until CG pointed out that most dinosaur words are Latin.... same in English as in Spanish.  Oh well.

After dinosaurs, we traveled on dirt roads to the lovely little town of Chos Malal.  We arrived late and it was cold.  I impressed on CG the need to stay in a hotel.  We ate goat at a tenedor libre (all you can eat buffet).  Yeah.  I ate a little goat... and I kind of liked it. 

The next day was rainy and gray.  I would have liked to sit in front of a crackling fire and read... but no such luck in a place like Chos Malal.  We endured and found the least helpful tourism office we have come across since arriving in Argentina.  The woman at the office basically discouraged us from traveling in the area.  Huh?  The roads are bad, she told us.  I might have snowed in the mountains, she warned us.  Finally CG suggested that we had already driven thousands of kilometers on bad dirt roads and that we could manage a little snow.  We pressed on into the mountains in search of hot springs.  We ascended and ascended, our little car worse for the wear.  We passed through some lovely little mountain villages-- so remote yet cheery.  We saw snaggletooths on the side of the road carrying their firewood on their backs.  It was kind of like I imagine the mountain villages in Nepal might be like.  The first set of hot springs included a rushing river of warmish water.  CG waited for the other tourists to leave and jumped in.  Out of fear for hypothermia, I stayed away.  Next to the steaming stream, we found a few geyers spraying into the air.  It was incredibly surreal.  We found hotter springs at another site higher up and cooked some hard boiled eggs inside of a little hole in the rocks-- 11 minutes until perfectly soft boiled.  And finally, we found some hot spring hot tubs where we relaxed before heading down the mountain and spending the night in a funny little village with a name I can't remember.  The day in the mountains amongst the strange "geothermal activity" was lonely and surreal and absolutely gorgeous.  I can't wait to show all of you the pictures.  (By the way, the "geothermal activity" stuff-- that's CG talking... not me.  I didn't know there was such a thing as geothermal activity until just recently.  Call me sheltered.)

The next day was a long day in the car.  Neither of us were very happy about sitting in the car and watching the flat countryside whizz past us....especially after hot springs!  We arrived in the bustling metropolis of San Rafael.  We stayed in a dirty campground with incessant dog barking.  It was a low point. 

Thursday was a new day and a new attitude.  We toured Canyon del Atuel which locals compare to the Grand Canyon.  The Grand Canyon it was not.  But the scenery was gorgeous and CG got a chance to kayak some rapids.  He even "went swimming" (aka the kayak flipped and he had to bail on the ride) and came back all jazzed about the experience.  I read my Kindle and watched some funny Argentines in their natural habitat.... call it the zoo, I guess.  We drove on to San Luis that evening and were surprised by mountains of traffic.  In retrospect, this was good preparation for arriving back in Buenos Aires.

Okay.  CG is getting bored watching me type.  To be continued at the next internet cafe.....