whales, luxury, engagements

so puerto madryn was cool, although we were there a little bit after the season where you purportedly definitely see orcas, we managed to have fun. months of traveling have taught us to sniff out a place where there is one thing to do, do it, and get out. so, we got into puerto madryn, relaxed, went on a tour the next day, and left the next. the town was kind of dead, being that the tourism season is over, and since we didnt overstay, we liked it. our hostel was cool. hostel viajeros, or something. the only thing was that they made us rent towels, which was just sneaky. but, the rooms had cable and there was a kitchen.

the tour we went on was also good. it was just us and one other guy. ther ewas a lot fo driving around in proportion to how much out of the car time we spent, but it is patagonia - it is big and barren. durin gthe driving, however, we saw lots of guanacos, sheep (which dont count), we saw a fox, these weird ostrich-like birds that ran fast, giant rabbits, and armadillos. when we did stop we saw sea lions, sea elephants, penguins and even a franco-austral whale jumping around in the distance. apparently we were lucky to have seen these.

we were out of bs as for 2 weeks and 4 of those nights were spent on busses. so, for the final bus, we decided to go all out. that sleeping at a 35 degree angle, though loads better than the 90 degree angle provided by good ol' greyhound, we were still not satisfied. so we went for it. we spent the extra 10 bux and got the 180 degree seats. the fat leather seats build for rhinocerii the fold back and extend to a full bed. we got a special section of the bus, sectioned off by a curtain that snapped shut so that we souldnt have to see or smell the other people on the bus - the poor slobs who toiled in anonymity in their inferior seating arrangements. we got asked what kind of food we wanted. we chose steak. we got steak. and, unlimited wine (thats an exaggeration) throughout the dinner portion of the evening. and, we arrived back in buenos aires well rested and without the creeky bones that often accompnay a morning after a night bus. then, we immidiately joined the local gym. then, i lifted weights and tor every muscle in my chest and havent lifted my arms in 5 days. then, it rained tempest style and the rain came into our apartment because we were out and the windows blew open and the rain ruined my charles darwin book i was reading. boo hoo.

but, the interesting news, that which the 4 people who read this blog might be interested to know, is that anna and i got engaged. finally. a couple people know that ive been carrying the ring around with me ever since new york. well, it finally went onto her finger last night. we were coming back from cafe tortoni, which is the fanciest cafe in buenos aires, but the coffee is only 30 cents more than everywhere else. it is more like a theater where they have tango shows. the cafe itself is build of marble and has pillars with ornately carved designes in the molding. the waiters wear suits. anyway, we were walking back and stopped in the middle of july 9th street which is the widest street in the world and has a lit-up obelisk at its center (ok, we werent in the middle of the street but the street is broken up into 3 streets with 3 pedestrian walkways running parallel. we were on one of those.) we sat on a bench-like thing. i asked her, she said yes, and then we went and ate steak and drank wine (for a change) to celebrate. refer to annas blog soon for more girly/romantic-like details, but it will have to suffice to say here that i am happy and i hope she is too!