Dinosaur Country

Dec 12th

We got an early start and woke up at 9:30am this morning. I was quite tired after a long night at the bars. We left Bariloche at 11:30am and were on the road headed for home. I quickly fell asleep in the car because I was still so tired but Ruben stopped at all of the scenic spots and make sure I got some good pictures, even if I do look half asleep in all of them. Our first scenic stop was at a rock formation called the Figures of God. I got many pictures of the mountains and several lakes that we came across. Since Ruben likes to fish he know all of the names of the different rivers as well as the fish that can be found in each river, I thought that was pretty cool.

 

After about three hours we got to Chorcon which is dinosaur country! We went to a dinosaur museum and saw the bones of the world’s largest meat eating dinosaur as well as some other large dinosaurs and fossils. The town has several great dinosaurs’ signs and huge dinosaur statues so we got some great pictures. Chorcon is also home to a huge dam, which we drove and got to see. Research shows that in prehistoric times there was water in this area and when the drought started to hit Argentina many dinosaurs came to this area because it had water. When the water supply completely ran out the dinosaurs died together there, which is why its such a popular archeological site. The dam is huge, the lake is approximately 50 miles in width and the dam gates are opened once daily which floors an area and produces energy that powers a large portion of Argentina. Many people from Neuquén have summer houses on the man-made lake and the Garcia’s come to BBQ and visit sometimes when we want a retreat close to home. I thought it was a really nice area but don’t think that I’d want to live so close to a huge power plant.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived back at the Garcia’s house in Neuquén at around 7pm. After unloading the car we relaxed. I started to look through my paper working and get organized for my next leg of the trip; I can’t believe how quickly my time in Argentina flew by! At around 10pm everyone was getting hungry so we decided to order pizza and empanadas. Ruben, Maria and I drove downtown to order the food and drove around while they cooked. It really is a lively town with many people outside gathering late at night. We got the food and brought it back to the house and enjoyed it!

Maria and I spent the rest of the evening sharing music and pictures. I organized and packed my backpack so it would be ready for the morning since we have an early morning flight. I stayed up way later than I wanted to get myself organized for the next leg of the trip. I am getting a little bit nervous to travel alone. It’s not being by myself that scares me, it’s more so the unknown part. I get nervous that my alarm clock won’t go off and that I’ll miss my flight and it will be my first time staying at a hostel by myself. It will be interesting to say the least. I always seem to be able to make friends easily and am pretty easy going, but I get nervous before I meet groups of people, especially when people within the group know each other and I don‘t know anyone. I am curious and anxious for this leg of the trip. Along with reading all of the fine print I realized that I won’t be able to shower on my Machu Picchu hike and that there might not be bathrooms available in which case the staff will dug a hole and put a tent over it for us to use. In the mornings we will be provided with a bowl of hot water to wash up with. I’m scared to death. I really have never camped before and this is ROUGHING it. According to the documents as a single traveler I will be paired with a person of the same sex in a tent. The whole experience will be nothing less than an adventure that’s for sure. I also found out that there is a 6KG weight limit for the bags which the porters can carry for us and since mine weights 15KG I need to do some serious downsizing. I’m sure it will be a great time I just hope that the group that I travel with on both the Amazon trip and the Machu Picchu trip is similarly aged and a fun inclusive group. Keep your fingers crossed for me; I’m going to need luck to not only make the 30 mile up hill hike, but also to survive in the wild with strangers!

After reading for a few hours and getting myself thinking about a thousand different things related to the trip I was laid down and down and couldn’t sleep. I finally was able to clear my head and get some sleep at 4am.

Bye for now.
Love,
Katie