Unlike last week when we were somewhat active this week we mostly sat on the bus. We travelled 2,641km which took us together 44 hours! So inevitably this week’s blog will be dedicated to the bus travel.
Route 40
The first and the slowest was the overnight journey from El Calafate to Perito Moreno. 621km would have taken us 14 hours on mostly unpaved (apparently famous) route 40 if the bus wouldn’t break some 2 hours before destination. It added extra 1.5h to the already turtle like ride. The bus drivers clearly struggled with the repair and needless to say there was no mobile coverage at all. Fortunately the bus was full (like always) with Israeli backpackers, one of whom managed to fix the problem with the help of a duct tape. I guess it was Israeli backpackers’ redemption after adding 1h to our journey to Punta Arenas because of illegal fruit smuggling. Still they need to do much more to redeem themselves after burning Torres. There is no much going on outside the bus window on the route 40. Really nothing, sometimes occasional guanaco would make an appearance or a livestock from the surrounding estancias. That’s it. The landscape got a little bit more varied on our next stretch from Perito Moreno to Bariloche travelling through the Lake District and Andean valleys. Luckily so because this time it was a 12 hours (800km) journey during the day. Both trips were on special bus services for tourist or as it may seem for Israeli backpackers and occasional Polish or Irish. There are almost no local passengers travelling on route 40. I guess they have no business going from El Calafate to Bariloche overland, not to mention that there is not enough of them to make any sensible demand! Even for the tourists in high season the buses are scarce, El ChaltenTravel goes every other day and Marga/Taqsa only once every four days. So, if you do not plan and buy the tickets in advance you might be really stuck!
Very sweet bus
From Bariloche we went to Mendoza on normal scheduled service and on a fully paved road. We made 1,220km in 18hours mostly overnight with an hour stopover in Neuquén. And what a bus it was! Seats and leg space more comfortable than any business class I have flown. The seats stretched to almost a flat bed. But the ‘thing’ on this bus journey were the meals. There was tea in the afternoon; the sweetest meal I have ever had with 3 types of cookies with dulce de leche, cookies with jam and crackers with dulce de leche and jam on the side in case you haven’t had enough. I did not think I needed coffee at first but then ordered one just do swallow all that sweetness, yet the coffee came sweetened too! Later there was diner service with wine (of course) preceded by dulche de leche snack and followed by digestive liquors. I skipped the breakfast but as one can expect it was also full of dulche de leche!
Bus entertainment
We decided to visit Cueva de Las Manos, a Unesco World Heritage site with the paintings of mostly left hands (and also some guanacos, some other animals, hunting scenes, moons and some abstracts) made by indigenous inhabitants some 9000 years ago located in the Pinturas Canyon. Very impressive, almost hard to believe that it is not some modern graffiti! The closest town in the area to make a visit to the cave is Perito Moreno, very sleepy where everything or rather nothing happens on the main street San Martin. The main entertainment in town seemed to have been an afternoon dice gambling in highly overpriced hotel Belgrano, where we had to stay because of lack of alternatives.
Bariloche is the hub for seeing the wonderful scenery of the Lake District when it is not covered by the ash clouds from the erupting (since 4 May 2011) Chilean volcano Puyehue, which makes everything look rather grey. The Icelandic volcanic ash in Europe in 2010 was nothing compared to this! The ash clouds have cleared up slightly when we were hanging out in town resting after the bus journey but then it went back to grey when we cycled Circuito Chico up in the lakes. The sitting and nibbling on the bus must have taken its toll on our fitness; we have really struggled to cycle undulating 32 km. It took us a disgraceful 7 hours with the long lunch break on the lake, ice cream in the Swiss village and a slight detour among barking dogs! But it was a good and rewarding cycle and in our time and budget probably the best way to get a glimpse of the Lake District.
To Mendoza we travelled of course for wineries and Argentinian Malbec tasting, unfortunately not for summiting Aconcagua like my fellow polish explorers; no fitness, time or money for this. But wine is coming next week. We just booked our first wine tour for Monday!
Route 40
The first and the slowest was the overnight journey from El Calafate to Perito Moreno. 621km would have taken us 14 hours on mostly unpaved (apparently famous) route 40 if the bus wouldn’t break some 2 hours before destination. It added extra 1.5h to the already turtle like ride. The bus drivers clearly struggled with the repair and needless to say there was no mobile coverage at all. Fortunately the bus was full (like always) with Israeli backpackers, one of whom managed to fix the problem with the help of a duct tape. I guess it was Israeli backpackers’ redemption after adding 1h to our journey to Punta Arenas because of illegal fruit smuggling. Still they need to do much more to redeem themselves after burning Torres. There is no much going on outside the bus window on the route 40. Really nothing, sometimes occasional guanaco would make an appearance or a livestock from the surrounding estancias. That’s it. The landscape got a little bit more varied on our next stretch from Perito Moreno to Bariloche travelling through the Lake District and Andean valleys. Luckily so because this time it was a 12 hours (800km) journey during the day. Both trips were on special bus services for tourist or as it may seem for Israeli backpackers and occasional Polish or Irish. There are almost no local passengers travelling on route 40. I guess they have no business going from El Calafate to Bariloche overland, not to mention that there is not enough of them to make any sensible demand! Even for the tourists in high season the buses are scarce, El ChaltenTravel goes every other day and Marga/Taqsa only once every four days. So, if you do not plan and buy the tickets in advance you might be really stuck! Very sweet bus
From Bariloche we went to Mendoza on normal scheduled service and on a fully paved road. We made 1,220km in 18hours mostly overnight with an hour stopover in Neuquén. And what a bus it was! Seats and leg space more comfortable than any business class I have flown. The seats stretched to almost a flat bed. But the ‘thing’ on this bus journey were the meals. There was tea in the afternoon; the sweetest meal I have ever had with 3 types of cookies with dulce de leche, cookies with jam and crackers with dulce de leche and jam on the side in case you haven’t had enough. I did not think I needed coffee at first but then ordered one just do swallow all that sweetness, yet the coffee came sweetened too! Later there was diner service with wine (of course) preceded by dulche de leche snack and followed by digestive liquors. I skipped the breakfast but as one can expect it was also full of dulche de leche!
Bus entertainment
The description of the bus journey would not be complete if I would not mention how entertainment provided by the service operators helps survive the long hours. It is all about really bad movies carefully selected from the big DVD library by the bus attendant. First I thought that the movies come in two categories: bad SF or worst of American comedies. SF I skipped except for one with Justin Timberlake titled ‘In Time’ but I watched ‘Hangover 2’ and ‘I pronounce you Chuck and Larry’ even though I never watch any movies with Adam Sandler. Then, however the very sweet bus surprised us with some film for children with Bill Murray and with action movie ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’. Yet for me the best way to pass time on the long bus journey was my ipod listening to the Argentinian diva Mercedes Sosa, or Andres Calamaro. Both their music goes well with the Patagonian landscape. I discovered also my new favourite tango 'Naranjo en Flor' that I replayed probably a 100 times this week.
I guess I have to explain why we ‘suffered’ all these hours, sweet food and bad movies on the bus.
We decided to visit Cueva de Las Manos, a Unesco World Heritage site with the paintings of mostly left hands (and also some guanacos, some other animals, hunting scenes, moons and some abstracts) made by indigenous inhabitants some 9000 years ago located in the Pinturas Canyon. Very impressive, almost hard to believe that it is not some modern graffiti! The closest town in the area to make a visit to the cave is Perito Moreno, very sleepy where everything or rather nothing happens on the main street San Martin. The main entertainment in town seemed to have been an afternoon dice gambling in highly overpriced hotel Belgrano, where we had to stay because of lack of alternatives.
Bariloche is the hub for seeing the wonderful scenery of the Lake District when it is not covered by the ash clouds from the erupting (since 4 May 2011) Chilean volcano Puyehue, which makes everything look rather grey. The Icelandic volcanic ash in Europe in 2010 was nothing compared to this! The ash clouds have cleared up slightly when we were hanging out in town resting after the bus journey but then it went back to grey when we cycled Circuito Chico up in the lakes. The sitting and nibbling on the bus must have taken its toll on our fitness; we have really struggled to cycle undulating 32 km. It took us a disgraceful 7 hours with the long lunch break on the lake, ice cream in the Swiss village and a slight detour among barking dogs! But it was a good and rewarding cycle and in our time and budget probably the best way to get a glimpse of the Lake District.To Mendoza we travelled of course for wineries and Argentinian Malbec tasting, unfortunately not for summiting Aconcagua like my fellow polish explorers; no fitness, time or money for this. But wine is coming next week. We just booked our first wine tour for Monday!
No comments:
Post a Comment