Bus Riding

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So, the Argentinean bus rides.....

If you are ever travelling through Argentina, don't ever think about flying....Argentinean buses are excellent. Nothing like the rest of South America, these Argentines sure know how to travel....

Pulling out of the BA Retiro Station.... (might I add, on a differently named bus than the company we bought out ticket from). We were meant to be traveling with “Via Bariloche” and our ticket said to be waiting at least 20 min before departure time. About 30 min before our scheduled departure time, we noticed there was another bus called “Tigre Iguazu” also leaving at the same time to the same place we were going - Puerto Iguazu. Not really thinking much of it, we decided to move our mountain of luggage from the waiting area, out to where the buses departed from (thinking if the bus turned up late, they wouldn't want to mess around). With less than 5 min remaining until our departure, I thought I would act like an ignorant gringo and pretend I thought my ticket was for the bus that was waiting there, just to try and work out what was going on. With a flurry of animated conversation from the driver (way better than my spanish vocabulary), I suddenly realised that bus was the one we were meant to be on! Racing back to grab Jase and our bags, the bus driver and porter hurriedly threw our luggage on board and good-naturedly berated us for being late. We futiley questioned how were we meant to know this was our bus, when we bought out ticket from Via Bariloche and our ticket clearly stated Via Bariloche and not Tigre Iguazu? The answer simply was “mismo compania” - the same company. Still bewildered, we were ushered up to our seats (front row of the top deck of the double-decker bus - excellent panoramic views!), wondering if psychic studies and not Spanish language was something we should have studied before leaving Australia.

Settling into our 160 degree reclinable seats, we relaxed and had a snooze. Around 9ish that night, the waiter (yes, waiter) came around and asked us what we would like to drink. We ordered two vino tintos which were then followed by our hot dinner (salad entree, hot meat and veg main and then a sweet, creamy dessert). After our meal, the waiter asked if we wanted another drink (I had a champagne, which accordingly to Dr Munro is an essential ingredient when travelling). A delicious chocolate rounded out the meal.

The meal, to be honest, wasn't quite as good as we remembered when we last travelled in Argentina a few years ago, but let's face it, compared to every other bus ride in the world, it was still pretty sweet.

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Photos

bus1
Kersnovske napped out in comfort

bus2
Whole bus to ourselves = rancho relaxo for 20hr bus rides

Comments

[robert wagner]

what was the movie?
Sure, you may have had luxurious seats, three course and vino tinto to go with your smuggness but was there a movie? I quite like Blazing Saddles when bussing for a distance and in Spanish it would be an absolute riot! Miss you. Keep posting and I'll keep replying with my usual brand of rubbish.