Oh, the drama!

I will have to rewind another time to recap the rest of El Bolson, to give it the time it deserves. But, here is my dramatic recount of what happened after we left...

We get on our overnight bus at 8 PM (which reeks of gasoline), where we will be spending the next 11 and 1/2 hours, and start our journey to Puerto Madryn and the Peninsula Valdez, where we are hoping to scope out some Magellan penguins, sea lions, seals and if we are REALLY lucky, some Orcas. We were in contact with the hostel we booked for the following night, to make sure we would be able to attend the tour they do to the peninsula right upon arrival. Our bus was due to arrive at 7:10 AM, and we were planning to leave the following afternoon, so we really only had the one day to go on the tour (the whole reason we even came to Puerto Madryn). The hostel owner promised us he will book the tour and wait for us.

About 2 hours into the bus trip with our heads spinning from the gasoline smell, we hear the kid behind us hyperventilating. Concerned, we turn around to see if he is OK and discover he is holding a big bag of vomit that he proceeds to stuff into a hole between his seat and the one next to him. He recovers his breath, leans his char back and goes to sleep. Meanwhile, the A/C isn´t on, so it is very warm and stuffy in the bus and it is only a matter of moments until its starts to smell. I want to ask this kid´s mother to handle the situation but feel like it would be rude, both because I would embarrass Mr. Puker, and because I probably cant even communicate with his mother anyways (damn language barrier).

So, these luxury buses we are travelling on are pretty nice, with wide seats that recline to 160 degrees. They give you a blanket and a pillow and meals, according to the length of time you are on the bus. But when I try to lean my seat back, I get such an intense whiff of vomit, that I have to immediately lean my seat back up almost all the way until it is less intense and a little more manageable. Ab and I both put our seats back just a couple inches and stick one of the pillows between them to block out the smell even more. However, throughout the night we are both plagued by this smell and the heavy humidity of the bus, making it impossible to get any real sleep. We arrive in Puerto Madryn on time, but a lot more tired than we hoped to be.

We grab a taxi to the hostel, excited to get moving on our peninsula tour but when we get there, the front desk guy tells us we are not booked for the tour and that the tour is full (and then just stands there nerviously blinking at us). We almost have a heart attack and try to explain to him we only have one day. He finally says he will call around and finds us a tour that leaves a little later, so we agree and he books us on that one. It was extremely frustrating...why didn´t he just make that call before freaking us out so much? Or even better, why hadn´t they booked us on the tour they said they would book us on? Either way, we brushed our teeth, changed and caught the mini-bus tour to the peninsula.

The peninsula was amazing. Many details later.

So, we get back to the hostel and take a short nap. We are planning to go down and participate in the prawn asado (BBQ) they are having at 9 PM (that the front desk guy told us about this morning and I told him I would like to participate in) but its turns out the front desk guy never signed me up so there is not enough food. Ab and I head out to get a pizza. We find a spot that does a cool veggie pizza (called "the Boston"), but when it comes out it has practically raw onions and mushrooms on it, no sauce, no cheese and has basically no flavor. What a disappointment! Now I am sitting in this cafe, writing to you all, drinking a terrible coffee.

So many amazing things happened today, but not without so much stress. I think its time to go to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little smoother. I think we might even do some laundry because you might not believe it, but I have been wearing the same clothes for 6 days now. My hair is a frizzy mess (left the straightener at home) and I didn´t even wear makeup yesterday. Its true. Never thought we´d see that day... HA!

Thanks for listening to all my drama. :) XOXO