Winter break so far

Dan: So we survived the 36-hour busride, and it wasn´t that bad. Well, it was bad but it wasn´t horrible. Lou, our friend Aya, and traveled to Iguazu falls, on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Due to some visa issues and fees to cross borders, we never lleft the country though. And that was fine because I don´t know how the view of the falls could be any better form the Brazilian side. We spent two full days checking them out. I can´t even describe what it was like. You'll have to wait until we post some pictures later. We stayed in a hostel and did the tourist thing with, seemingly, the rest of Argentina. You see, it is winter break right now for us and everyone from our region. The government has wiselt staggered school breaks for different regions of the country so everyone doesn´t converge on places like Iguazu all at once. This way tourist areas get a winter high season that lasts over a month. We had a pretty rainy and cold stay, but it was worth it.

We spent a few days at Puerto Iguazu, then bussed back and stopped at Presidencia Roque Saenz Peña, were we enjoyed hot springs and spa-like activity. The hot springs there are located in a municipally run, hospital-like facility. Over the two days we soaked in mineral baths, took saunas, and each got a massage, erasing any damage caused by bus seats. It wasn´t a very touristy town, so it was a nice change.

All in all we've probably spent over 50 hours on buses in the last week and a half, and we still have an 18-hour ride to get back home. Right now Lou and I are in Salta, a cute town of half a million, in the Andean northwest. It is actually warm here, in the 70s. It is so nice to put on sunblock. We didn´t even bring shorts, since it never occurred to us that it might be warm enough. We arrived at 2 AM the other night and have been wandering around town, taking pictures of more churches and ascending yet another hill by gondola. Tomorrow we are doing an all-day excursion into the mountains. We wanted to do the "train to the clouds", which goes from here almost up to Chile and back, but the lasy at the travle agency said we´d have to wait a year til they fixed it. So we´re taking much of the same route, and a little more, by car with a guide.

Sorry we've been a bit slack on the blog updates. There was only one 24-hour period that really felt like vacation; the spa, drinking beer, eating ice cream, going out to eat. We've been going, going, going for almost the whole time. I promise we'll post tons of pictures when we get back.