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Published: September 27th 2012
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Fiona was overly excited today as we were taking our first trip on an overnight bus. There wasn't any real reason for her excitement but she was like a kid in a Bariloche chocolate store. We had bought the tickets a couple of days ago down at the bus terminal so we knew exactly where we were going. We also knew exactly which seats we were in, the front row on the upper deck. We had seats known as cama, which meant they reclined but not flat. Unfortunately there were no flat seats on this route.
We left the apartment mid afternoon and the landlady was pleasantly surprised at how clean we had left it. She hadn't realised that neat freak Toby was staying! Toby and Harriet dropped Fiona at the bus stop with the bags and then returned to town to drop off the car.
The bus terminal is just out of town. There are loads of ticket offices inside with a couple of cafes and toilets. Outside the buses pull in to platforms at 45 degrees to the kerb. There are no set platforms for each departure. The buses pull in to whichever platform is free. In
Bariloche there are only a handful of platforms so it was easy to spot our bus pulling in. A porter tagged our bags with a colour coded label for our destination and stowed them in the hold. Then we climbed on board.
The seats were more comfortable than we thought they would be. We had been imagining airline seats, but they were wider and softer than Qantas seats - even business. We had great views through the front and no one could recline their seats on us. There was room overhead for hand luggage and so we put our bags and jackets above our heads. We kept our valuables on us though, as we had heard of things going missing during the night. Whether or not the stories were true, it is a bit silly to leave your valuables anywhere anyway.
We hadn't gone far when the bus steward came up stairs and announced that we would be playing bingo for a bottle of wine. We giggled between ourselves as we always considered this a past time of grannies with blue rinses and we knew the calls were going to be in Spanish. The steward was sat just
behind Toby and as he called each number he showed them to Fiona, so we were able to play along. Somehow, miraculously Toby managed to get a line before anyone else and the wine was ours.
After the bingo we had time to enjoy the view. The roads were long and straight and seemed to go on forever. It looked to us like a set straight from a Western. Then we were given a snack which was actually quite nice. To keep us occupied they played movies with Spanish subtitles. The screen was just above us and although you could hear the sound it was best if you plugged your headphones in above your head. They didn't provide headphones, but we all had our own. It was a pity that the movies were mediocre at best and we were glad we had books and music with us.
Every now and then the bus would stop. A couple of times it was for people who looked like staff to get on or off and then there were the police stops. It seemed to be random if we were waved through or stopped and we had no idea what they
were for. By
10.30pm we were starving. We had expected to be fed but now we began to wonder if the snack we had eaten earlier was actually dinner. It hadn't seemed enough or at the right time and we were very confused. Toby gave up waiting and went to sleep. At about
11pm we arrived in Nequen and after stopping at the bus terminal we made another stop where dinner was brought on board. We should have been there at about
9pm and we worked out that at least one of the police stops had been to divert us. The diversion had obviously been a much longer route. Harriet and Fiona had dinner which again was surprisingly nice and included wine. We were pretty full when the steward came back with the hot food. By this time it was almost midnight so we gave it a miss and went to sleep.
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