Yesterday we took an almost 9 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa which is in the Pampa area of Argentina. We left Bueno Aires at 1pm and got to Santa Rosa at around 9:20pm. They kept us comfy on that bus, serving us sandwiches and snacks periodically. Santa Rosa is the city where the Aeolian Research Conference is being held that Jason and his advisor are attending. Jason is doing a poster presentation on Friday. Jason and his advisor (and many other conference attendees) actually left on the 10am bus - theirs was a special charter bus - and they got to Santa Rosa earlier than we did. So, by the time WE got into town, Jason was already at a reception for the conference.
Once we were in Santa Rosa, we had a taxi take us to our hotel, which is not the hotel that most of the conference participants are staying in (Jason is staying at our hotel, though), but not being in that OTHER hotel has turned out to be a good thing. Our hotel is really nice and we are so glad to be staying at this one. After checking in, we walked across the street to a wonderful little parrilla, La Colonia, where we had absolutely delicious steak, fries, empanadas and salad. By the time we got back from our dinner, Jason showed up a few minutes later and he told us how his bus trip went and we told him how we wished he could have joined us for dinner.
Today, we woke up to Rebeca knocking on our door at what we thought was surely like 7am or earlier, but it turned out it was already 8am and we were shocked. It was still dark outside!!!!! So, we dressed quickly and joined her for breakfast in the lobby. The conference participants all had already left. Outside it is cold and rainy. It is really weird to think that back at home, it is the EXACT opposite season.
After breakfast, we took a taxi into town - stopping first at the bus station to buy tickets for our bus ride back to Buenos Aires on Friday. Then we looked around in a few artesan shops, and Guillermo even took off the horse-hair belt that his brother Alfred made him and showed it to one shopkeeper, who summoned another person in the shop who summoned who we guessed was the owner. They all looked over that belt and were so impressed that the owner even took several pictures of it!! They did say, though, that the belt was so valuable that it probably would never sell there in Santa Rosa. But they sure wished they could sell something like that in their stores!
For dinner we went to a little restaurant across from the Santa Rosa bus station - and it WOULD have been a very enjoyable meal EXCEPT for the wine I got. When I took the first litttle sip, it tasted a little smoky, but figured this was just a different kind of wine, but wondered how I was ever going to finish that glass. It sure tasted weird. Then, while sitting there, I saw something in the glass so I stuck my fork in and pulled out a USED CIGARETTE BUTT!!!!!!!!! Talk about disgusting. We were all just so totally shocked. From that point on, all I wanted to do was leave the restaurant, but we had the meal to get through, which wasn't too bad, but it was just the thought of what was in that glass that kind of wrecked the evening.
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