The joys of bus travel and elections

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Day 9 - Thursday 20th October 2011
Due to us having to catch a bus at 1 in the afternoon and there not a lot to see in this city we thought we would be decadent and sleep in till 8.30. Went down for breakfast but opted to steer clear of the syrup dripping croissants and the sugar packed yoghurt and stick to toast with tea/coffee.
Back at our room we got stuck into packing and preparing for the day ahead. We still haven’t quite got our bags right, which is unusual for us by this stage of a trip. It was 10.30 by the time we hauled our bags down to the foyer where we left them whilst we got some cash. The ATM’s in the centre of town always seem to have huge queues to them and this morning was no exception. It took a good half an hour to get cash, which has thankful that we had given ourselves so much time. Picked up some supplies for the bus trip and when we got back to the hotel the manager decided to ring a taxi for us to get us to the bus terminal. After about ten minutes of ringing and standing out the front waiting he discovered that today all the taxis in town were on strike. The hotel jumped into action and one of the staff got her car and drove us to the bus station. When life makes you jaded, travelling can show you how nice people can be when you need help. Yesterday I had been thinking how bad the hotel was with its run down interior but today I realised what makes or breaks a hotel is the staff that run it, and this hotel comes up trumps.
We had a bit of a wait for the bus and this time we are trying a new bus line as the previous company did not go to Bahia Blanca. This new company we chose was “Rapido Argentina” which is not a good as the Empresasa from the last trip, but it is cheaper and you get what you pay for. The trip was very slow with lots of stops none of which were very long but it always took time to battle through the towns to the bus stations and then back out again to get on to the highway. The countryside is flat and filled with endless cattle ranches and fields of grain, and reminded me heaps of country Victoria; Argentina even has avenues of gum trees along the road to complete the similarity. Finally at 8.30pm we stumbled off the bus after and the first thing we did was buy tickets out of town for early Saturday morning and then grabbed a taxi into town.
Our driver was a maniac and was flying through intersections full tilt and had several cars braking and beeping him to avoid an accident, but he did get us to the hotel quick. Within the first minute of arriving at the hotel I realised that I had lost my wallet. I had it out to pay the driver and as I was holding a note pad and the camera bag with it in my right hand as I was hoisting my backpack on I must have dropped it. Of course by the time I realised and ran back outside it was gone. Thankfully I only used it to carry a small amount of cash around to pay for things like taxis so it was no great loss, but it was a good wake up call for me to be more careful especially when exiting taxis.
It made us also realise that we needed to sort our stuff out better so we weren’t carrying so much crap around with us, so we resolved that tomorrow should be the day to repack. After the surprise of losing our wallet we finished booking in and got our room in the Frienze Hotel. The guy running the place knew no English and unlike other Argentinians we have met who once they knew that we couldn’t understand Spanish and would talk slower to try and make us understand, this guy would speak faster and endlessly without a break. Booking in was perhaps the longest most difficult conversation we have had so far, and again it has made us realised we need to learn the language quicker.
The hotel is a converted old building that has been partially renovated, but still has the air of an old time hotel caught somewhere between 1896 and 1974. I swear the bedspread they must have stolen from my bed in 1976. Anyway we dropped off our bags and went into town looking for a place to eat. Found a great place where Shelley got Ravioli and I had an amazingly good chicken stir fry. Had a couple of beers and wandered back to our hotel around midnight.
Day 10 - Friday 21st October 2011
Woke around dawn to the sound of pouring rain and just knew that today wasn’t going to be much of a day so we slept in a bit longer. Around 8.30 we wandered downstairs to the small foyer/dining room and had a great feed of croissants and coffee and unlike the guy running the place last night who didn’t know a word of English the girl we got this morning could at least understand us a bit. We too are starting to pick up words a bit better so we were able to organise to get some laundry done.
Because of the rain we didn’t get a chance to leave the hotel till 10. We spent the morning looking around the shops and managed to pick up a new wallet as well as supplies for our bus trip tomorrow. Had lunch at a café, where Shelley got her first Coffee in Argentina, (she just refuses to drink instant coffee), before heading back to the hotel to re pack our bags.
It was a bit decadent spending a couple hours during the day to pack our bags but there really isn’t a lot to do in this town, it was still raining occasionally, a lot of shops tend to close in the early afternoon and most importantly we just had to do it. Cleared out some junk and packed things a bit smarter and we both felt happier that we had our crap a bit better organised.
We went for a walk to the plaza as there was meant to be markets, not sure 4 small stalls make a market, but the rain had cleared and the city’s dogs were still sleeping in every nook and cranny waiting to take over the night. We sat for a while to take in the fact that we are in Argentina, (something that is only now starting to sink in), then went in search of a bar, not with much luck. Apparently they are a couple of kilometres from where we are, and being a sailors town we decided it was not worth it. Luckily all the cafes sell alcoholic drinks if not always food; go figure between 3 to 9pm it is cake time, you need to wait till later for dinner. We had brought food supplies for the next day’s bus trip because we are not sure if there will be any stops.
Dinner was from a local empanada shop, which instead of 2 chicken and 2 ham & cheese, we got 4 ham & cheese; our Spanish does not always work for food but we can order beers. Early to bed early to rise, well late to bed about 11.30pm but still early to rise 4.00am.

Day 11 - Saturday 22nd October 2011
The man on the front desk arranged a taxi which arrived within 2 minutes, and off to the bus station which all seem fairly modern. It got to 5.30am and there was no sign of the bus, but these are long haul buses so it was running late. It arrived at 6.00am and loaded up then we went around the corner for petrol where the bus had to reverse into a big shed with other buses and then a real drama to get the bus back out with the staff all screaming directions so we did not hit anything. Finally on our way only 1 hour late with another bus company Condor Estrella, (we are slowly working our way through every bus company in Argentina). This bus has lots of room and is comfortable for a bus, three hours into the trip we stopped for a complimentary breakfast (Argentinian breakfast is croissants and coffee or tea) a nice surprise. This is an 11 hours bus journey and after 5 hours we are going stir crazy, we finally arrived at Trelew and buy our next tickets to leave on Monday. We have decided to stay in Gaiman which is about half hour taxi ride from the bus station, hoping we can find accommodation. Gaiman is an Argentinian Welsh town of about 5,000, there were Welsh people who worked on pushing the railway through this area. Today about 20% of the people in the local area have Welsh blood but this is quickly dwindling. We have chosen a B&B Yr Hen Ffordd it has got to be a Welsh name with all those extra letters. We were hoping to stay two nights, but only one is available it is now that we should mention that tomorrow is election day so we are concerned nothing will be open.
We decide on one night and the room is very nice and the lady running it is very friendly but has no English and I suspect no Welsh. We walked around town all 10 blocks and nothing is open, except you guessed it a bar/internet café run by two old men. This place is a classic and the pool table has duct tape holding the felt together and a cast iron soccer table game, the table and chairs were old and worn and the bar could have been in any Australian outback pub. I was the only woman in there and possibly the only women ever to be in there, the locals (average age 70 years old) were friendly saying hola and chau as they came and went all 6 or 7 of them. We had finally found a place that felt really authentic Argentinian , and as we left we shouted out “chau” and got an instant “chau” back like we belonged here.
We had dinner at the only place opened in town, which was about 9.30pm and was steak. We decided to have some red wine and were told that they could not serve alcohol: we think it is because of the election tomorrow. For a restaurant that had only just opened and had racks of wine on show and an extensive wine and alcohol menu, these things still remain a mystery.

Day 10 - Friday 21st October 2011
Breakfast is at 8.00am which included scones and jam, we packed up and asked if we could leave our bags till 2.00pm and hit the town or should I say the Ghost Town there is nothing opened and that must be why the B&B lady gave us a funny look when we said 2, even at the polling area there was only about 30 people. We visited all the sites of town, one train tunnel without a train and for that matter only 10 metres of track, and then to the only café opened for a quick snack, oh that is right we crossed a wooden suspension bridge (several times) and the now defunct Parque El Desafio. A park built out of recycled bottles & cans which was in the Guiness Book of Records in 1998 as the largest recycled park, unfortunately it is closed and the old man who built it for his grandchildren has passed away and everything is falling apart and the land is up for sale. Then we sat in the park for a couple of hours. By this stage we were guessing that the Spanish word for Closed was “Gaiman” and the only thing moving in town was the small stream that ran through the park, and I am sure that if it had a choice it wouldn’t have been. We had hoped to leave earlier but the B&B was closed and we could not leave Dodge till 2.00pm. As the day went on the dry hot wind picked up and the dust blew through town, it was like an old western movie we kept waiting for the tumbleweeds to roll through town. Don’t get us wrong it is a great little town, but very sleepy with the highlights being our comfortable room, the old boys bar and the friendly locals.
We got back to the B&B about 1.50pm it is only a 2 minute walk from the park and waited for the lady to return, we grabbed our backpacks and back to the park where the taxis are and headed back to Trelew with a population of about 95,000. We are very concerned as we enter town nothing is opened and we hope the hotel we have chosen has a room, which yes it did.

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Comments

[Sue]

pics
that new camera is working out well for you guys; your pics are wonderful! You guys write so beautifully too. I love reading a new post from you. Hope your family back in Aus are on the mend

[Margaret Darlington]

Jealous
Oh what an adventure, you make me worry then laugh, as you know my son in law is Argentinian so I do know and understand most of what you are saying, this site is margellous that we can watch youyr travels, don't stop all our love from Sanctuary Point MAD xx

[Col Large]

Looks like bus travel is far more exciting than I imagined
Hi Scott (see I have mastered some English) Looks like your having fun and enjoying the trip, too much to consider an early return?? We all miss you around here especially me as now I am the only one who changes the Water Bottle. Keep on having fun and keep on blogging Col

[Charter Bus Trip]

inurl:blog intitle:bus trip
Great post.Thanks for sharing such a useful information with us.

[Albury Accommodation]

Albury Accommodation
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