Having clocked up well over 100 hours of bus travel time I thought I might write a little about this place that I have spent as much time as anywhere outside of Buenos Aires. Truth be told I am currently writing this on a laptop whilst on the last leg of a 28 hour journey from El Calafate to Bariloche.
So why buses? Well there really isn't much choice. Going back to our old friend President Menem, the chap who privatised pretty much all of Argentina's public service, which in the case of the land travel had the knock-on effect of reducing Argentina's 40,000+ miles of train-tracks down to somewhere around 7,000. Buses are now pretty much the only way to get around.
Ok so really I mean coaches as although I wouldn't go so far as to describe them as plush, there is plenty of leg room, squishy (if a bit grotty) seats and they usually feed you something on the longer trips. I say 'something' and what I really mean is a dry cheese and ham roll, and of course since I am traveling with a veggie I have had a lot of ham rolls and Robin has had a lot of cheese rolls as we have been doing a regular rank-roll-filling swap.
I have also seen a crazy amount of terrible films. Usually they are a straight-to-video kinda thing with someone vaguely famous in it, being played dead loud. One of the best decisions I have made was to hang on to the earplugs that I got free on the plane over here. The other great thing is that I am one of the world's most adept sleepers and can actually drop off in pretty much any contortion that my seat allows and I would consider comfortable, which is most. Yey!
This trip I am on right now is actually taking me right back over to the east coast in order to get back round to the Andes on the west. This is because the direct route north would take me up the famous Ruta 40, of Che's Motorcycle Diaries fame. This road is still fairly untraveled and the road remains mostly unsurfaced meaning that to go direct would take somewhere along the lines of 37 very bumpy hours. Even on the surfaced roads I often find myself being ounced right out of my seat and the way in which the top of the bus rocks from side-to-side feels more than a little hairy.
The bonus of traveling by bus is of course the phenomenal views. Since on this particular journey I am traveling 'coche-cama' which means you pay a bit extra for bigger seats which recline a bit further and last night with the full moon and an ipod full of my favourite tunes and having had the foresight to buy a bottle of wiine for the trip I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening! This morning I have seen gauchos herding cattle in the middle of nowhere, not a building in sight for miles and miles. The landscape is outstanding generally however recent trips alongside the Andes have been particularly awesome.
With 50+ hours of bus travel left before I leave this country I think I will end this blog here, not wanting to bore myself on this subject as much as I may you.
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