Day...41?

Ok yeah its been a while. So I left off in Rio....Rio to Foz do Iguacu 18hrs, by bus. Ok first I just have to say that there are two kinds of busses for long distance travel. Cama, and Semi-Cama. Cama is very nice, large leather seats that recline almost all the way, and sometimes meals are in cluded. Semi cama is slightly better than an airplane. Meals are not included. So anyway Rio to Foz 18hrs. Semi-Cama. HELL.....Iguacu Falls....Amazing. Probably the single coolest natural attraction I have seen. To truly grasp its imensity you have to do both the Brazil side and Argentina. The Brazil side is the panoramic view of all the falls (over 275 total.) And the Argentina side is walking the trails that go over the falls. While we were admiring the falls we noticed some guides/park officials looking down in the water with binoculars. I asked what they were looking at and they pointed out the body of woman who jumped to her death three days prior. We were morbidly intrigued. We eventually found out that this was common and that the falls were a suicide hotspot. It was a german woman about 47yrs old. The photographers on the Argentina side, at the devil´s throat witnessed the woman jump. Apparently she just climed up on the railing and leap off. As different as it was to see a dead woman floating around in the water there is still nothing quite as beautiful as Iguazu falls. I would return any day to see them again. Foz to Buenos Aires 20hrs, Cama Bus...Very nice. Free meal at a resturant, free wine, free beer, free champagne, need I say more. Buenos Aires has to be the coolest city after Rio. Its like someone took Europe and South America threw them in a blender and poured it into one big city. Its sweet. There are statues of weird looking people with strange mustaches about every half a block. The architecture is very nice. The people are almost as beautiful as in Rio and the food isn´t half bad. There are lots of nice resturants and lots of cool bars. They have probably the most amazing cemetary filled with giant mausolems and giant statues, no graves, just tombs. Emaculate, Elaborate, Extravagant. If ever I should die I think I would need one of these. Oh and for every ten mausolems there is a cat. Cats everywhere. Out of all Buenos Aires there are only two spots which you will see hundreds of cats, the masuolems and a small botanical park near the zoo. That reminds me of another cool thing in BA, the zoo. Its nothing spectacular but its pretty sweet. They have some fairly exotic animals. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, a giraffe, big cats, a reptile exibit, and more. The only problem with the zoo was that the snakes were way over fed and the big cats were malnurished. We also attended a Boca jr. Soccer game. That was pretty cool. High score... Boca 6 Tigre 2. A bit sketchy though. We sat in the wrong spot and almost got our asses kicked/stabbed just for that reason. After that all was good and we had alot of fun. While in BA I spoke to a couple different people about finding Megalodon shark teeth. ( Prehistoric shark that was bigger than a school bus and could swallow a rhino whole. About 20 million years old.) I was told by these people that they could be found in Argentina and that Las Grutas was a good place to look. So.... 16hours later BA to Las Grutas via Cama bus. We arrived at Las Grutas to find nothing. Not even people. This is a town suited for probably about 50 thouand and we saw maybe 50. There are streets empty with maybe the exception of a lone biker. Huge hotels, empty. Apparently this town only happens in the summer. We spent about half a day combing the beach for fossils and decided it was best to move along. So 5hrs, Semi-Cama Puerto Madryn. Puerto Madryn is a very nice little city in a bay filled with whales. As soon as we started rolling into town we spotted whales everywhere. We took a taxi to a rocky beach about 10km outside of town and were amazed to see huge Southern Right Whales less than 40ft. from shore. We were so close we could have swam to them in about 10 secs. They are beautiful creatures. They come here every year this time becasue it is a safe harbour for their young calfs. We also saw sea lions in a small cove to the south. They are here year round and in the fall they attract huge Orcas or Killer Whales. We saw a poster in the bus station that had the names of the orcas that come to the bay. They are recognized by their unique dorsal fin. e.g. Shamu. The city also has really huge "rave-like" bars and parties that usually start around 2 or 3 am. and last til about 7 or 8 am. It was fun. Now this brings me up to date. Today sucked. Well the last 40 hours. anyway. We hoped on a bus from Puerto Madryn to Rio Gallegos. At the station we were told it would be an 18hr bus ride. So we departed and headed towards Rio Gallegos. We make it about 2hrs and have to stop for 3hrs because of snow. We didn´t quite understand this since there was no snow anywhere. After 3hrs we traveled some more, stopped some more, traveled again and then hit snow. Not a big deal. Maybe 2 or 3 inches. Even people not used to snow usually don´t have this much trouble. We did. We got stuck on level ground in about an inch of snow. Maybe snow is like water where you can drown in less than an inch. I don´t know. Long story short, short ride long. 18hrs turned into 31hrs. and now we are about to get another 4hr bus (13hrs) to El Califate to see one of the last moving glaciers in the world. Wish us luck. We will have fun. I hope.