Took aout my Blackberry then put it away then took it out again...

Indecision...it is 743AM and we are sitting, reclining, fetal positioned, legs crossed, sideways, perched knees up, legs into isle, head and neck keeled over-you name it we've been in the position- on the bus making our way up to Mendoza...I turned on the phone (Blackberry) to see if there was any service and low and behold there was , three cool messages from Margie, Alvaro, and Guillermo...thank you guys...my first reaction was to put it away after reading the message because I wanted to keep watching the morning sunrise from these seats... See we have finally managed to get the front two seats of a long haul (15+ hrs) bus trip. See the buses down here in South America are really very cool because many times they are double decker, meaning that there are two levels, so if your lucky enough to get the top front two seats you can pretty much get 180 degree views of the entire trip, if you prefer the bottom level then you can almost fully extend the seat to a sleeping position (imagine a Virgin Atlantic 1st class seat...that's how cool) We chose the top so we're basically sitting about eight feet above the road with an unobstructed view of the winding two lane road, farm fresh carrying trucks that zoom by, trees and shrubs that dance in the wind, and the majestic sky that never ceases to amaze...

Don't have much else to say, except that we should be in Mendoza, wine country, later this morning...oh yeah besides watching three movies on the bus last night, we played 1 game of bingo with the whole bus, believe it or not I won the grand prize!!! A bottle of Romeral Malbec wine, unfortunately we weren't allowed to open it, so need to wait till later...

See ya...

Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

La mejor vista q hemos tenido

Hoy estamos saliendo de bariloche, el lugar donde pasamos 5 dias. Bariloche es una ciudad de deportes, tanto en invierno como en verano. Ese fue el problema ahora no es ni invierno ni verano, esta muy frio para los deportes de verano y todavia no ha caido la primera nevada para las actividades de invierno.

En fin hemos tenido muy buen tiempo porq en el hostel q estamos queda en el 10 piso de un edicifio, es el Penthouse con una vista preciosa al Lago Nabuel Huapi y en el fondo estan las montanas. Lo mejor fueron los atardeceres, una gama de rojos y amarillos. En el hostel la musica, los espacios el ambiente, nos gustaron mucho, tanto que solo salimos uno q otro dia a hacer actividades, de resto nos lo pasamos, leyendo, en el internet, mirando las vistas o simplemente disfutando de un vaso de vino.

Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Sunrise from one window : Sunset from the other

The town of Bariloche...always something going on...

walking around the town of Bariloche

Penthouse view...with a caddyshack price...

In Bariloche Argentina, a ski resort town with some of the most expansive lifts and trails in all of South America...the unfortunate part is that we came pre-winter season so the slopes are bare as bones...duhhhhhh!!!
Cool thing though is that we have a penthouse hostel with stunning views: to the right Lake Nahuel Huapi, to the left the Andes Mountains (a tiny subsection actually), beyond in the distance some privately owned pine-tree islands, and graciously making its presence, 10 stories directly below a neon lit, hot pink and seductively green, flickering sign of a seedy strip club-and in Argentina just about everything is legal in these places! (so we've heard)
Hmmmm...we thought to ourselves the day we arrived to this penthouse balcony in this one-of-a-kind community hostel...we'll just avoid the fact that the first floor of this 10-story building has a veeeery active strip club...but then last night we find out that in the basement below on the opposite end of the building is another strip club...and to top it off we find out from the clerk at the snack shop in the lobby that the building is overrun by the town's strippers and prostitutes....
Figures why such a great hostel on the penthouse of this tall, inconspicuous building is so unbelievably cheap!!! All in all our time here in Bariloche has been very laid back...we have pretty much stayed indoors over the past 4 days enjoying the huge sofas, monstrous sized kitchen, a wi-fi connection and a stellar view through the wrap around, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the town, mountains, lake, pine trees, and interesting characters that come in and out...
So...some sad news to report...at least sad for us...we have booked our flights back to NYC....major,major bummer...after a trip like this, the general feeling is that work and other city-life responsibilities are not real.......but they are... our apartment has been empty and the rent bill continues and just as important is the bank account that has not seen a nice fat paycheck in quite a while!!! AND to top things off the stock market has not been playing nice with us... :-(( BUT alas, the world goes on, our trip is nearing an end and the incessant drinking and hanging out has got to come to an end at some point!!
We'll be in NYC on Monday, June 23, so if anybody wants to take us out and pay for our dinner by all means!!!
We head to northern Argentina tomorrow and then onto the Bolivian salt flats after that, ultimately ending up in Peru for a flight to Colombia for a last hoorah then onto NYC.
Later guys.

Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile