Beautiful Bariloche

Bariloche is in western Argentina, more specifically in Patagonia. There are many, many mountains and many, many lakes. We tried to drive the seven lakes tour from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes but found the driving a bit too rough. One main road wasn't paved, and construction workers were busy making sure the mountains weren't going to fall on us in the future. (They weren't paving the road though.) We drove instead the Circuito Grande, which took us by plenty of beautiful lakes.




I took this photo from a ridge near El Bolson, a cute little town south of Bariloche.



The view from our b&b, in a secluded part of Bariloche. Unfortunately for the rest of you, the b&b will be reverting back to being a tea house in the spring.



Still working on a few things. Nothing like trying to get a copy of your own medical records to remind you how much you hate this IF shit.

Blogger Will Not Defeat Me--A Few Photos

A few photos from Iguazu Falls, near the border of Brazil. We flew there from Buenos Aires. (Argentina is huge, and we ended up taking five domestic flights. I would have preferred to take a train, but Argentina doesn't really have any long-distance trains. The buses are very nice from what I saw, but a one-way trip from Bs As to Iguazu would have been 18 hours. Driving a rental car would have posed additional problems.)




A strong inducement to stay on the trail:

Plan Z

I am still working on posting the pictures. Blogger is causing me some problems, and I can't for the life of me remember my goo.gle password so I can't upload the pics to a web album. Well, I have uploaded them to my personal page, but that's got my real name all over it, and I'm still hoping that I've got some semblance of privacy here.

We are actively considering a new plan, and it probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out what it is. I do really need some help with this latest plan, the one I have labeled plan Z, as in I feel like we've already run through A to Y.

But I would like some more privacy for this one. I think the easiest solution is to make this blog for invited readers only. I could start a new one or start over someplace else, but this just seems the way to go. Starting over in a new place would somehow imply that I've made progress, and I haven't.

If you are interested, (and I must admit, there are a few areas where I would love some information), please email me at zanity.search at gmail.com, (Replace the at with @.) or leave your email address in the comments.

Until then, here's the latest challenge: Since March or so, my endo and more importantly the pain associated with it, has come back with a vengeance. The pain is worse than it has ever been, even if it isn't every cycle. (I can't say month, because my cycle is still averaging about 22 days.) Fortunately, the pain wasn't too bad in Argentina, and if I take enough ibu.profen prophylactically, I can hold the pain at bay.

But the other night, I forgot. I fell asleep while watching a movie (Miss Potter, a little slow, but a woman without children, so it was a plus for me) and forgot to dose up before bed.

Bad idea. A few hours later I woke up in some of the worst pain in my life. Two A.leve and three ibu.profen and forty-five minutes later, I still had no relief. I went searching through the medicine cabinet and found the last vic.odin from my one and only retrieval in February 2006.

I almost threw up from the vic, and then remembered I did throw up the last time I took it. The label said to eat a small meal if I had stomach upset so I found a piece of cold pizza and that seemed to help.

The pain was still not going away. I asked the husband to find the heating pad. The combination of drugs and the heating pad finally worked.

But now, I can't really proceed with Plan Z until I address the endo. And the problem I have now is where do I go? Back to RE#1, who performed the first lap, but whom I have not seen in two years? RE#2, #3, #4? I had asked #4 about the pain, and he said he could recommend a very good endo specialist in his area, a 3.5 hour drive.

I certainly won't be going to my ob/gyn, whom I haven't even met. I chose her quickly because I needed a new one and because everyone I know had used her, and surely I would soon need her services as an ob. That was three years ago.

I think I am down to finding a endo specialist here, or going back to RE#1 and the fertility clinic that was the site of more than a few failures.

But once again I am pissed at my body, because I really have to address this before we move on. And even if I am able to get an appointment soon, will I be able to schedule a lap soon? And soon interferes with T-day and Christmas, and my plans to run a 5k in December.

If I can't get an appointment soon, Plan Z is pushed out even farther.

Argh.

Don't Cry for Me, I've Been to Argentina

Thank you all for the commiseration about the birthday and the other stuff. Your kind words and two weeks of beef eating have really restored my soul or at least my winter layer of fat.

I'm slowly making my way through the 1200+ photos I took and will post a few but even with the fancy new digital SLR the husband gave me and the fancy new VR lens my mother bought me, the pictures still don't do justice to this amazingly beautiful country.

(Wait a minute, the lens my mother bought me? What, you didn't know that online shopping had reached the nether regions? If it's heaven, then she is shopping online with a much higher speed connection that she had ever had while she was alive. Actually, the gift is one of the benefits of an aging memory. I ordered it online and when checking out was asked if I wanted to include a gift message, so I did, wishing myself a happy birthday and good travels. When the lens arrived, I had completely forgotten about the note and for a very brief second, I really did wonder how my mother could have sent it to me.)

I've traveled a fair amount and have been lucky to see some very beautiful places, but my goodness, Argentina was just ridiculously spectacular. We traveled to Buenos Aires, Iguazu falls, Bariloche in the lake district, and El Calafate, where the Perito Moreno glacier is located.

The latter two places in particular will take your breath away. The country is huge, and we've already come up with an itinerary for the next trip.

The Argentinians were wonderfully welcoming people and were quite forgiving of our limited Spanish. The food was great, even if we did eat more beef, lamb, chicken, chorizo, wild boar, and rabbit in two weeks than we would normally eat in a year, or ever. And we, or rather my husband, did also inadvertently eat some awful offal.

So do start planning your trip there. (Millie, I've got plenty of information, if you are interested.)

Just remember a few things:

Argentinians eat dinner at a ridiculously late hour: 10 pm is early.

You can only get 300 pesos, about $100, out of the ATM at one time, but you can make multiple withdrawals back to back.

Argentinians pronounce the double l sound as a j; so yo becomes jo, llaves becomes javes.

You must choose a team: either Boca Jrs. or River Plate. Not both.

The seasons are reversed so if you want to see an amazing assortment of flowers in bloom go in October.

And if you want to avoid Mother's Day in the United States, go to Argentina in May, because the third Sunday in October, the day after I turned 40, is the day that Argentinians celebrate la Dia de la madre.