San Juan, Argentina

Then from Cordoba we took another 10 hour bus ride to San Juan (B to C in the map here).

The scenery looked strangely familiar; very arid and similar to Australia... but note the town store that says ¨San Jorge¨ - probably not what you´ld find in the middle of the ´Australian Bush´. 

You´ll also note us looking very shiny and ´baring ourselves´... The air-conditioning on this particular bus didn´t work. and as i said, 40·+...

We were met in San Juan by an exquisite Baha´i family full of such love and demonstrating such a hospitality that within a day we truly did feel like old, old family friends! Below, Susana, her youngest son Bruno, and then another of her children, Paola, with her brood of 3 and a 1/2: Julieta, Jamal and Bahiyyeh. Together with them and the some members of this very alive Bahaí community, we spent the sunday afternoon 1st Nov sharing music and theatre games and discussing junior youth education programs.  Susana recently lost her dear husband and is bearing it with such grace and understanding.  She really looked after us, giving us her room and bed, taking us to visit the fossils in the local museum, preparing exquisite breakfasts, sharing lots of great stories, etc.

Checking out a dinosaur fossil more than 200 million years old in the province`s natural science museum.  The fossils come from Ischigualasto (Valle de la Luna), an area of exposed Triassic sedimentary formations that are world famous for having some of the earliest dinosaur remnants. This was part of a personalised tour we were allowed despite the closed doors, and highly delicate archaeological work that was going on inside, ¨because we were foreigners¨. Being a tourist sometimes has its benefits.

At about 6pm on Tuesday 3rd, Susana, Paola and Paola´s kids took us to catch our bus to Mendoza.  Just as we pulled in to the terminal, we saw our bus leaving so decided to follow it!  We promptly lost sight of the bus so then went off on a drive trying to track it down.  We finally gave up and as we were at risk of missing the next bus started heading back to the terminal.  However on our way back we sighted our bus coming towards us so all hopped out of the car and flagged it down.  Needless to say we managed to get on and got to Mendoza ok.