7 hours to kill before we head to the airport..... We had some great plans to walk around in BA today (we're currently homeless) but the one thunder storm of the past 2 months decided to hit the city on our last day. It's pouring out so we're just hanging out at a cafe since going outside isn't an option. Nothing else to do but write my final blog entry. After the first impression of Cordoba I wasn't so sure about the city but after 2 days I've completely changed my view. In Argentina, Cordoba has a great reputation. It's said [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ok, we made it to Cordoba. Barely. After a pretty much sleepless overnight bus ride we got to the station at 7am but obviously I'd been up since 5. Charlie had booked our hostel for the night but when we got to the taxi he realized he'd given the paper with the address on it to Chris yesterday. He knew the street and the general area so we figured we'd walk around and see the sign, no problem, go in and take a nap. Wrongggg. It's Sunday morning at 8am and everything is closed, I mean everything except for a few [View Full Entry]

---

---

Yesterday was another one of the best days I've had on this trip and probably in my life. Originally we tried to sign up for a wine bike tour through our hostel but it filled up quickly so we decided to do it on our own. Mendoza has a ton of wine districts that are about 20-40 minutes outside the city. One of the most popular is Maipu where people go to rent bikes and follow the wine bike route, which is about 20k and brings you past nine or so different bodegas. Most of the places are wineries but there's [View Full Entry]

---

---

Got into Mendoza this morning at 9:30. Rough sleep on the bus per usual but still nothing compares to the first ride from Ushuaia to Calafate. Scott and Charlie enjoyed the 20 hour ride with half a handle of whiskey and a box of 4 peso wine (1 dollar, and by box I mean carton). Pretty entertaining. Mendoza is nice, it's called the land of sun and wine for a reason. I can't believe we were almost in Antarctica a week ago, it was 60 or more here today and gorgeous out. The climate is drastically different too, much more dry [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sometimes when I teach swim lessons I am so tempted to just throw the little kids in the water and yell, "sink or swim!". I've always thought that you can learn to do something under pressure if you have to in order to survive. My belief was reinforced yesterday when Darash, Patrick, Charlie, Scott and I decided to rent a car knowing that none of us had ever driven stick besides when we each did the usual 16-year old parking lot adventure before we learned the joy of automatic cars. Tired from the night before, we got off to a late [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bariloche is pretty famous for its nightlife and we planned on checking out this well known Irish pub called Wilkenney's but ended up hanging out at the hostel instead. Free dinner was sausage, vegetables and potatoes. Nothing gourmet but for being included in the room price no one was complaining. The hostel has done an excellent job of recreating the feel of a real ski lodge type bar/restaurant with pool tables, a sitting area and a full bar. Of course, the house mix was blasting all night, which is now an ongoing joke because every single hostel in Patagonia plays the [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's been a few days since I posted last. I think that must have been right before we left Calafate for a fun filled 36 hours of buses, bus stations and not showering. The trip was broken up into 3 parts. First, 5 hours from Calafate to Rio Gallegos. Second, 12 to Comodoro Rivadavia and then lastly an overnight 17 hours or so to Bariloche. We booked our tickets through our last hostel and ended up getting some wrong information. Our tickets had the wrong departure time from Rio Gallegos on them so we missed our bus and had to pay [View Full Entry]

---

---

To everyone from BA reading this, you'll appreciate it more. I seriously don't understand how you boys survive out there in the world. I've officially become the new Ann for our little trio. Whenever a decision needs to be made Scott and Charlie ask me where were going, what were doing, if I made the reservations, should we cook or go out to eat, etc etc. I might kill them by the end of this trip. To be fair, I'd say they make decisions 3% of the time. Today I woke them up at 8, Scott was especially cranky having only [View Full Entry]

---

---

First full day in Calafate today and it was one of the best I've had so far on this trip. We got up at 9 but missed the shuttle to the glacier, Perito Moreno, so instead we came up with our own agenda. The town is really cute with a nice main street and views comparable to Ushuaia's (but, in my opinion not as good). My favorite part was the Borges Libro-Bar, which was recommended by the hostel. It's the coolest place I've ever seen. Everything is wooden, feels almost like a treehouse, there are comfortable couches and tables and of [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's Friday the 10th and we're having some cafe en el Hostel America del Sur, a similar experience to the Freestyle family home. I can't even believe we're here after 21 hours of the worst day of travel I've ever experienced in my life. Homeless, we stashed our backpacks at Freestyle and joined everyone at Dublin where we stayed until 4:30 a.m when our bus to Rio Gallegos left the port. The 5 French guys and our 2 friends Spencer and Kyle from Texas who we'd been staying with at Freestyle were in the same boat so we all hung out [View Full Entry]

---

---