To Puerto Madryn

After the tour of the El Chocon and the highlight visit to the paleontological lab, I was dropped off in the Neuquen bus station with a few hours to spare but no where to take a shower, though I did use the bathroom to change into pajamas (overnight bus trips are so much more enjoyable if you aren't wearing jeans). While I was waiting for the bus I met a girl going home from visiting her parents (she was going to Rio Gallegos, on the same route as Puerto Madryn), and we started talking. When I told her I was traveling, she lit up and started telling me about every town in Patagonia and why I need to visit. She sat behind me on the bus and we spent the first half hour of the ride brainstorming travel ideas. She told me I had to go to San Martin de Los Andes and do the Ruta de Siete Lagos, I had to visit Villa la Angostura and see the Bosqe de Los Arraynes, I needed to make my way to El Bolson and taste some of the best microbrewery beer in the country, I had to stop off in Esquel to see the Viejo Expreso Patagonico, etc. At some point though, exhaustion caught up with the both of us (she said "mis neuronas tienen sueno"), I turned back around, and we both fell asleep; I slept all the way to Puerto Madryn (and almost missed the stop; my friend behind me woke me up just in time).