Southern Argentina

After leaving Torres del Paine we stayed in Puerto Natales, Chile for a day it was beautiful, because it had just snowed a bunch and the town was blanketed. When we left the next morning we had a huge problem with the bus. The heater did not work!! It was at least 25 degrees outside, freezing, I could not feel my feet about 40 mins into the ride we got off while bus got gas and all of us riders stood in the station. We then made about 3 more stops where we all had to get off the bus, because it was so cold. There was a women on the bus that I thought for sure she was going to die from th cold; she was about 75, had at least four layers of clothes on and two blankets and was still shivering. Finally, a new bus came to pick us up, the heater worked!!!! We eventually made our way to Rio Gallegos, Argentina. That bus ride should have only taken 6 hours but it took 10!

When we arrived in Rio Gallegos (RG) we made the mistake of not exchanging our Chilean pesos into Argentinian pesos; we had to go to the Carefour (which is like Walmart) and withdrawl money at an ATM. We did not want to stay in RG, because I read the city was ugly and there is nothing to do. We took an overnight bus to Puerto Madryn. This bus was supposed to be 15 hours, but because of bad weather and other road delays the bus ride took 23 hours!

We were also discrimated against as were boarding the bus in RG. I had bought two tickets for the bottom seats, which are the nicer and more expenisve seats for Jason and I, because there was promotion and it was going to be a long a ride. As we boarded the bus the ticket-taker told me there were no seats on the bottom left for us; that we would have to sit on the top of the bus in the back (oh, the buses in Chile and Argentina are almost always double decker buses). So, Jason and I go upstairs and take our seats. I keep thinking what am I going to say I paid for bottom seats and I wanted my seat. About 30 minutes later on of the drivers comes up top and says due to road delays we will not be leaving until 11pm it was 9pm. The bus was supposed to leave at 8pm, but it was late arriving to the terminal and then we sat in the parking lot or two hours.
So, at this point I was very upset. I went downstairs and asked the guy, Can you please help me understand why I bought tickets for the downstairs seats, but I am sitting upstairs. There are seats available downstairs, I see them. (Remember this is all in Spanish) He poked his head in where the other drivers were had some words with them and then told me it would be fine if I sat in my original seat downstairs. I couldn´t believe it; it was so strange, one guy said no you have to sit upstairs even though I bought the more expensive seats and then 30 minutes later I got what I paid for:)

We eventually made it safe to Puerto Madryn around 7pm the next day. We found a hostel and stayed for two days. The next day we exchanged out Chilean pesos for Argentinean pesos and sat on the beach and watched five wright whales play with each other. Right off the coast it was so cool!!! During different times of the year there are many different animals in the bay. Anything from killer whales, wright whales, penguins, dolphins and lots of birds. From there we went to Viedma only for a day and a half we traveled there to catch the train to Bariloche.
Bariloche was very pretty! The people there were a bit stuck up, but we stayed in a really nice hostel thanks to my Mom and Dad who traded in a timeshare. Unfortunately, we were unable to go snowboarding due to bad weather, the mountain was closed the entire week we were there :(

After Bariloche we went to Neuquen where we were supposed to see dinos!! But I got the days confused, it was Sunday and not Monday the museums were further away then I thought and the bus ran at a different time. This lead to us staying in the bus terminal for over 12 hours waiting to get the one and only bus that day to Mendoza. Mendoza was a great city. We went on the bike wine tour. We ended up getting super drunk and being out at the winerys until 6pm. We needed to have the bikes back by 6:30pm. The bike rental shop is across the street from the police station so the bike people sent two motorcycle cops after us, mostly to make sure us and their bikes were ok. We then got a police escort back to the bike rental place. It was so funny!! I told them no it is ok we don´t need help we know how to get back and the cop said to me, No it is my job, don´t worry about it. We were successfully escorted by two Argentinian police man, great night!