Seven lakes, Seven Argentine retirees, and me

I stayed for a couple of days in the charming village of San Martin de los Andes. The reason I went there in the first place is a bit odd. A few weeks before I took a flight within Argentina. The inflight magazine had an interview with someone that seems to be a famous Argentine magician. One of the questions they asked him was what is the one place in Argentina that he would recommend for visitors. His reply was San Martin de los Andes. So, I jotted it down. It, like Bariloche, and El Bolson, the towns I previously visited, is in the lake district of Argentina. There is a route that goes between Bariloche and San Martin that passes by seven lakes. I signed up for a tour and the minivan picked me up at the guesthouse. Daniela, an Argentine woman staying at the guesthouse was on a different company's van but the same tour. My van featured the driver, Graciela, the guide, and seven Argentine retirees. They were all quite sweet and asked my name and included me in conversation, etc. I took LOTS of pictures for them/of them in front of pretty lakes. And, it was nice having the tour in Spanish instead of also being translated to English. It was a long day, good tour, great views, amazing lakes, snowy mountains, loads of flowers,etc. It is really a stunning area. It was the first day in 2 weeks that the weather was not perfect. It wasn't bad but was a bit cloudy and colder than it had been. The previous week or two featured sunny 75º days, blue skies, slight breeze. It wasn't bad weather, I'd just become accostomed to the perfect weather. Yesterday afternoon I went to the bus station for my long bus ride to Buenos Aires and I saw 4 of the retires there. They called my name and ran over to give me kisses. One of the couples was on my bus for part of my ride. The buses here are quite nice. They have large, first class airplane style seats. Much like the airplane, they serve hot meals, drinks etc. I had wine with dinner but declined the post meal champagne that they brought around. The ride was about 20 hours but turned out to be okay. I slept some...the seats recline nearly to a horizontal position.
And now I am in Buenos Aires. I love big cities but for the last month or so I've been in pretty small villages so it is a bit overwhelming. It is also hot! It was 86 today and it seemed very warm to me. I did a walking tour of the center of town which is where I am staying. It's a very lively place...loads of people out milling around (shopping, eating, walking) on a Wednesday afternoon. Tomorrow I will visit some of the other neighborhoods and hope to meet up with Ian and Stefan who I met on the Antarctica trip. It will be fun to see them again. I still miss everything about the Antarctica trip and enjoy my frequent e-mails from the boat crowd.
I guess I am ready to come home. I didn't visit any of the north of Argentina at all so I guess I'll have to come back some other time to do that.