Patagonia or Bust

Argentina is huge. It takes 40 hours in a bus alone to get from Ushuaia, the southern most point of the country, to Buenos Aires, which isnt even the northern most point of the country(see map below). Since internal air travel is still absurdly expensive, buses have become the main method of travel for pretty much everyone in Argentina. At first when we were figuring out how we wanted to do our South American portion of the trip, the idea of spending so many hours on a bus sounded completely wretched. In fact, I believe there was a lot whining involved.



As I've learned since being here though, bus travel really isnt that bad when its not done in a Greyhound bus with no shocks or on a school bus when your friends stick a pen in your mouth if you sleep with your mouth open. Bus travel here is much more comfortable and enjoyable, since it has become a such an important method of transportation around this ginormous country. Depending on what bus company you decide to ride with, the buses have various levels of seating, ranging from normal bus seats to full out air-travel 1st class bed units. There is a waiter that serves meals, snacks, hot drinks, and adult beverages. You get all of this plus movies and a blanket for an extremely reasonable cost. It also becomes your hotel when you are going on overnight bus routes, which makes it even more affordable for a traveler. Since you cant beat that deal with a stick, the Shustrins will be busing around South America over the next 3 weeks:

Buenos Aires to San Carlos de Bariloche = 19 hours
San Carlos de Bariloche to Mendoza = 17 hours
Mendoza to Valparaiso, Chile = 8 hours
Valparaiso to Santiago, Chile = 2 hours

Our first bus ride.

It was pretty awesome. Bus left at *exactly* 3pm from Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires and pulled in about 45 minutes early to the Bariloche bus terminal. We decided to spring for the full 1st class sleeper units, (since realistically we'll prob never get to find 1st class units on an airplane for less than an arm and a leg) which were super comfy for the 9 hours of sleep we got on the trip.



There was plenty of wine, champagne, whiskey, and mate, which made the trip a bit more fun. The food though, was not the best. Our welcome snack was massive amounts of dulce de leche(aka sugar), and ham and cheese. Dinner was some weird unidentified hot stuff, with some ham and crackers and flan. Breakfast was toast and medialunas(mini croissants)with jam. So basically, ham and sugar. Our waiter must have known the food was bad since he was a serious grumpy bunny. At one point, he reached across both of us, mid conversation, to angrily close our shades. He also feverishly waved his hand in front of our ipod screen when we were watching Jersey Shore Deleted Scenes to get our attention when it was dinner time.


There were personal TV screens too. It seemed exciting upon arrival on the bus, until we learned that our TVs were the only 2 TVs on the whole bus that refused to play more than about 5-15 mins of each movie before freezing and restarting. We saw the beginning of alot of movies but the middle and end of none. Maybe on the next bus they will work, but frankly, it didnt matter in the slightest. Because when we werent talking or eating, or drinking, or sleeping, we were looking at this:

And This:
And This:

Dialogue from passing through the Andes:
Matt: Dude, this is awesome.
Annie: Dude.

So overall, I give the bus trip an A-. It was comfy, it went quickly, and we saw some amazing landscapes. And now, we are in Bariloche in northern Patagonia to snowboard at Cerro Catedral. We'll also hang out in the town and check out El Bolson. Its pretty cold since its winter, but Im ok with that since we'll be on the mountain soon enough.