Dinosaurs! (There will be dinos this time, I promise.)

In one of the few tour agencies left open, I sat with their representative and tried to find an available tour to one of the local dinosaur sites, but after many phone calls to numerous guides, we found out that whatever guides were not already occupied in giving tours were booked at some medical conference in the local conference center. They told me that is anything came up they would call me, so I left my phone number by the office and left to walk around the town, not very hopeful about my prospects of seeing dinosaurs. I strolled through the small park in the center of town, passing by its Islas Malvinas memorial, to the only museum (art), planning to spend a few hours there. It was Monday, so it was closed. I was, however, able to (finally) find a phone card, so I was able to recharge my cell. It was a good thing too, because, unexpectedly, my phone started ringing. The tour office found one guide who was free, and who was willing to take me on a private tour of El Chocon. The price was a bit steep (being on my own), but I was able to bring it down a bit, and I decided that, being on vacation, and having one opportunity in my life to see real fossils in a non-museum environment, money would be no object (and in all honesty it wasn't a break-the-bank sum). I sat down at the Islas Malvinas memorial and ate my lunch while I waited for the tour guide to come pick me up in her 4x4.
The guide was this rugged local lady who spoke a decent English, and all the way out to the first site (a 45 minute drive) we spoke Argentine politics (that is, she spoke and I asked questions; Argentines hate their government, which, it seem, could give certainly Israeli officials a lesson in corruption). When we got to the paleontological lab (that's right, I got to go to a lab!) we stepped out of the car and I immediately got a taste of the Patagonian wind. Anything that wasn't firmly attached to our bodies were blown off, and I had to chase after my kippah and put it in my pocket for the duration of the trip. The surrounding were gorgeous; the town, the museum, and the lab were right near a man-made lake (they dammed the river) of the deepest and richest blue I have ever seen, surrounded by red-rocked cliffs. Check out the pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083221&id=43906579&l=41d09e5357
Anyway, back to the lab...
I got to go into a paleontological lab with my guide and two real live paleontologists, where there were shelves full of fossils, tagged and IDed, and a WHOLE ABELOSAURUS SKELETON that they just excavated. We must have spent an hour in their while the paleontologists explained everything in an excellent command of English. I was like a kid in a candy shop.
After the lab we went to the Museum, which was neat, and we drive down to the lake and dam, where Iguanodon footprints are usually visible through the water, but the wind was very strong a disturbed too much sediment to get a view. At that point, however, I couldn't care. I got to go into an active paleontological lab and handle real fossils. I could have died happy.
The guide drove me back to the bus station, where I picked up my stuff and got on the bus to Puerto Madryn.