Patagonia here we come!

A quick update on the past few days.   Our last night in Buenos Aires was really nice, we had an awesome asado (open flame grill) dinner, then walked along the marina for "un paseo" (casual walk usually after dinner, which is very late here!).  We saw a few funny/amazing things I wanted to share... There is a Peruvian flute band that is always playing in the main tourist area of Buenos Aires, the only song they play is "My Heart Will Go On and On (from Titanic)!  It is so painful, mostly because that damn song gets stuck in my head all day...and they actually own it!  The other amazing thing we saw was a transvestite posing in the streets, not a sophisticated fellow, but working at his new art/gig .  He does a little dance if you give him a Peso.  He and Matt went back and forth bantering for a few minutes, they had the crowd going!  After a rump shaker and a pose with the guitar, he gave a big point at Mateo and said "I like you man, I like you!"(in english, which was a little disturbing, but hey, we did give him a peso!)    I am going to try to post a pic of the dude, who was super awesome, but my internet connection may be too slow, so bare with me while I update the sketchy street "art".

The following day we flew to the Patagonia region of Argentina, the main city is Bariloche (it's in what's known as the Lakes District of Argentina and Chile).  We took a gondola up a crazzzy steep mountain.  I had a mild panic attack in the small inclosed gondola (cue the latin-american generic xanex) but other than that it was great.  At the top of the Mountain they had several "entertainment" options: having your picture taken with a St. Bernard, riding an inflated tube down a dry portion of the mountain covered in tarps, a tour of a really random/replica museum of Michael Angelo's works (apparently you haven't lived until you have seen a latin replica of "David" at 13,000 feet in the Argentine Andes, pictures to follow..), the last entertainment option was to eat at an overpriced rotating restaurant, altitude sickness, jet lag, argentine beef and rotating restaurant are not the best combination in a 12 hour window.  We opted just to hike around and take photos.  The views of the mountains and the lakes were breathtaking.  I learned about the history of the region, there are a lot of people who settled here from Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Spain.  This comes through in the architecture, food, and overall attitude of the people.  Matt filled me in on the fact that several Nazi and Italian war criminals have been hiding out here for decades, which if you know me is awesome because I love me some good shows like Locked up Abroad and History channel.

Anyway....

We ended the day with yummy Italian.  It seemed like the perfect day... Until 2:00 AM when we woke to the thumping of Latin/Techno/Pop, who know our hotel was right next to the biggest, most popular club in the area?...  We put ear plugs in, helped with the sound but not the base.  Needless to say we began our morning around 4 AM.  Had breakfast (green eggs and ham, literally), rented a car and moved hotels!  We had an amazing day driving around Patagonia.  We visited a small Swiss town, stopped at several lakes and rivers, walked around the Llao Llao hotel (ranked one of the top 100 in the world),  again I will try to post some pics of the interior, much like that of the Waldorf in Park City, Utah.  At dinner we met a cute retired couple from the States, it's been hard finding people from the USA.   We chatted for a while sharing stories and travel tips.  Tomorrow we are going rafting from Argentina to Chile.  Will try to post pics soon.  Love.