La Morada Neuquen

... it on a bus! Our guidebook said that there was a
paleontological museum in town with fossils from the excavation sites
in the region. We spent a while hunting for this before some nice
people told us that unfortunately the museum doesn't exist any more.
By this point it was about 4pm so too late to head to the nearest
fossil site, 70km from town. We were a bit disappointed to miss out on
seeing the fossils.

We did however have a truly ...

... bus picked us up and delivered us to the bus station at Neuquen. Unfortunately, the luggage was still on the stranded bus. The vehicle sent to collect the luggage broke down and another was dispatched, so finally after a 3 hour wait our backpacks finally arrived. In the interim I had used the time wisely and booked all my bus tickets to the places I wanted to visit in the next few days and my ticket onto Mendoza.. Steffi ...

... home. they gave us a traditional argentinian asado. que rico! i even tried blood sausage. they all asked if i liked it and told me if i didn´t, i didn´t have to eat it. it was actually very tasty, i was just getting full. they were amazed at how little i ate, they kept trying to give me more food. the next day sylvana´s boyfriend, miguel, took us and her son to visit some bodegas in the area. it was actually the first time he´d ever gone ...

... uncle´s initials, like you do in Hollywood. But it was better. The ¨swimming pool¨ they hads was fantastic, albeit a little dangerous. The good part of the day, amazingly, was still to come. Dad had also given me the names of a few of his mates who I should look up. Richard Sylvester, and Ruli Cervera. Richard wasn´t home, but when we arrived at the house of Ruli, it was like I was the best mate. Ruli took me in, eager to introduce me to his ...

... the Atlantic. By now there was a howling gale outside, and half of the centre of Neuquén consisting of a dusty park (ignore the green pictures in the brochures), we found ourselves in the worst duststorm we have suffered for at least 30 years at home. So on to the Fine Arts museum. This had a very nice, but very small, collection of European art and Argentinian art. There was also what we call modern rubbish, and weird sculptures. For example, a flat slab of granite ...

... we finally arrived on the shores of a lake where a few small sheds were clustered. We got to handle real fossils and to watch people at work excavating them (a team from the discovery channel was there and remarked on how rare a sight this last thing was). Once exposed, the fossils are coated in a thick plaster cast, reinforced with wire mesh or steel for larger bones, and once thus supported it is carefully freed from the rock underneath and can be ...

... around two more oil wells to access the site! We had a guided tour there, it was really cool. More than that in fact: seeing the fossils half out of the rock, was something magic: (ex)life trapped in the mineral, and there once you take it out you have this huge femur. Incredible. For once I wrote comments on the pictures, check it out. After the visit I asked about the volunteering opportunities. In fact tourists are welcome to participate ...

... rivalities between localities, museums, etc...) so I worked as a translator and touristic guide, and I talked about renting a car cause that was the thing to do, but they took too much time making up their mind, and my bus arrived so I jumped in. The bus broke down. I eventually arrived in Neuquen, took another bus to CutralCo. There I struggled a bit to find a room. I could have gone to Jessica's friend, but I did not know her, and Jess was not in town ...

... indicated me the "city center" where I might find a bed. I was walking in rows of houses, small with big windows, all of them exactly the same. Families were eating inside. I was walking in small alleys, in an over-watered kind of little common garden. I was really wondering where I had landed, it looked like an experimental place where they brainwash people or carry out radioactive experiments on children... The town kids were ...

... of shopping on the Sabbath, and thus we were forced into whatever 'Cultural Activities' there were in order to pass the time. Ali: Lugging our bags around in the darkness of early morning, we eventually found a hotel over-priced enough to have a spare room. Of course, though, we couldn't check in until a good 3 hours later, so settled down in the breakfast room for the longest cup of tea in history. The looks of disgust at our ...