Hasta Luego, Buenos Aires

I am now writing from Puerto Madryn, a town in the north west of Patagonia famous for penguins and whales. We are hear to early for the whales, but there is still lots of exploring to do. But so as not to skip stuff:

Our last night in BA:
Our last night in BA was magical. We did it all. We danced in Casa Cochobamba, we drank beer in the plaza, we talked about nothing and about the important stuff. We threw frisbees in the street and climbed onto the upper-upper-upper roof.
Our last night in BA was filled with mediocre pizza, awesome empanadas, wine, beer, chocotorta, chips and dip. Our last night in BA was filled with confessions, hugs, a few tears, and songs. Most importantly, our last night in BA was filled with freinds.

On the bus:
I'd been on the bus for well over ten hours when I decided to start writing. We left BA at 3:45. First we said goodbye to Gabi, PJ and Stef. I watched them from the cab window with my hand pressed against the glass. So strange to be on that side of it. I knew exactly how they felt, watching another person they love being driven off with everything they own in that black and yellow taxi. It felt too surreal to be the one in the cab with everything I own in the trunk. Uli and Santi met us at the Bus Terminal. I started to cry when I said goodbye to Uli, and I told Santi that this had been the best year of my life too.
The bus ride was fine. They kept playing these music DVD's where the video changes every 30 sec. The first was reggatone, and the second was 90's Dance Party. I really wished Stef had been there for that. I could imagine her face every time the song changed and another one of her favorites came on.
We've never headed South farther than Buenos Aires. When the sun set the landscape was the same sprawling grass plains I've seen from the bus on every trip. Farms, lush grasses made even lusher by the constant rains.
When I woke up everything had changed except for the two lane highway which remained straight and never ending. The surrounding were now craggly. Prickly looking bushes and blue grasses growing in sand that stretch on and on until the land rises into small mountains in the distance.
I was filled with excitement when I saw it. We are on the road!! The last month was an intense mix of denial, regret, twisting knowledge that I'd made a big decision that would change everything. That forced me to leave a family I didn't care to leave.
I had this overwhelming feeling of just not wanted to go, even as I grew a little more excited with every purchase we made for the trip. Boots, cooking stuff, sleeping bags, stakes for the tent...
And as I fit everything into my backpack my normal feeling of clam that wahses over me before something like this arrived and I felt like I was kind of on auto pilot.
When I awoke to this new desert I was filled with only one emotion. Excitement maybe is cliché to say, but I'm filled with it and only that. To be on the road, for three months, its unlike anything I've ever done.