Day 10: A Day off after a Long Road Trip

At 3pm yesterday, I hopped on a bus from Bariloche to Buenos Aires. The scheduled duration is 20 hours and 30 mins, due to the Easter holiday, I guess everyone else and their mothers are coming back to Buenos Aires, so the traffic was particularly bad, at the end, we didn’t get to Buenos Aires until a little past 2pm, totally 23 hours. This got to be the longest bus ride I have ever taken!

The journey itself was ok actually, I almost had a cabin fever, but because it was in the middle of the night (mostly dark outside) and I was pretty exhausted, so I just slept most of the way (probably slept over 9-10 hours on and off). The seat was comfortable, its thickness was almost like a mattress. There were enough leg rooms that you could find a position that is comfortable enough to fall asleep with and not hurting your neck or your legs. I usually curl up to sleep anyway, so the position I was sleeping on the bus last night was like my usual position in a bed with 35 degree incline.

There was no wi-fi on my bus, that was pretty disappointing, and the headphone jack for the movie screen also didn’t work, which is not that big a deal for me. But what turned me off the most is the food, it included a hot meal and two snacks, each with beverage. You think the airplane meal was bad, try bus meal. I believe that was a totally overcooked breaded chicken on mashed potato. Perhaps it was reheated, the breaded skin became kind of moisturized. That was pretty disgusting.

I was seated next to a youngster, he was ok after all. I asked him to let me out to washroom quite a few times and he was fine with it, did not give me attitude or anything like that. I was more surprised by his 2 gallon bladder, in over 20 hours, he did not go to washroom once. In term of scenery, the landscapes were mostly flat between Bariloche and Buenos Aires, at least when there were light out, that was what I saw. I woke up by a beautiful sunrise outside of the window this morning which was nice. The bus is probably 2-3 times cheaper than flight, and the bus system has a good connection all across South America, especially to the small towns. But para mi, I think I would probably go with the flight next time, 1 day on bus is probably reaching darn close to my maximum patience level.

Instead of reminding me of New York, Buenos Aires, seeing it on the road, is more like Bangkok. The traffic was crazy, probably the Monday after Easter did not help neither. After I got off the bus, I hopped on a taxi to the Palermo area where my accommodation for the next 4 nights will be at. The taxi trip was a bitch, the driver wanted to add some surcharges for my backpack, he wanted to charge me a 100 peso right off the bet for the whole trip, I was told that it should only cost 50 or 60. And we started bargaining. At the end, I gave him 72 pesos. One reason I hate taking taxi, there are lots of dishonest drivers out there, once they figure out you don’t know the rules, they just create one for you. Anyway, got to meet Diego, a student here actually but apparently he owned a few properties in this building for renting out to travelers. He seemed to be a very very friendly and helpful guy, he let me use his phone card, transport card, have maps and all this information ready for me. Just a great host. I find this place on Airbnb again, even cheaper than the one in Bariloche, only US$39 a night here. Equally nice looking, modern, more homey in a way. There is no lake view, however. It is more of a Hitchcock’s Rear Window kind of apartment, I might turn into a voyeur tonight after the light goes off.

Have not done much other than walking a few blocks in the neighborhood, went into a chinese grocery store and bought some foods, ok I have cheated and have made a chinese instant noodles for dinner tonight, just not feeling it to explore a new city at night. I wanted to take a day off, to just stay in and recharge from the long road trip. Tomorrow, I think I will do a city tour, and also find my ferry ticket to Colonia in Uruguay. I don’t really have any fixed plan in Buenos Aires. Just see what the winds will bring me.