Now on our way from Comodoro Rivadavia to Puerto Madryn. The forced March continues. Sometimes with this journey you're simply covering miles. If we stopped at every location and explored all that it had to offer, we'd never make it around the planet. The bus rolls on.

It’s 12:04 PM, about 68° and the bano is ocupado so don’t open the door on anyone attempting to relieve themselves.

I wait, surveying what was once a dumbwaiter/minibar that provided drinks and snacks for passengers. But those days, I can see, are long gone. Our seats are on the second story of the double-decker bus and the swaying it does in the high winds remind me of the Drake. Cyn and I look at one another and say out loud what we always say when we're getting cranky: "It's ALL about the experience."

Two hours later the bus arrives. We emerge into blistering heat — 93°! What happened to the beautiful falling snowflakes of Antarctica and the cool breezes of Tierra Del Fuego?

The good news is the equator is slowly moving our way. We have now covered roughly 1000 miles. Halfway there and then Montevideo and the ship that will take us to Lisbon and eventually Northern Europe and the Arctic.

We drag our bags and selves past the town’s old train station and a park that commemorates local firefighters. That's about all I manage to take pictures of. A half mile haul takes us sweating to the very nice Tolosa Hotel (named for Toulouse Latrec) that Cyndy found; an oasis! Once booked we spread out on the big, cool bed feeling like a couple of basking leopard seals. For now we’re enjoying having a working toilet and hot water and sleep that’s not on a bus.