On saturday Mark and I took a twenty hour bus to Bariloche. That may sound like a long time, but it was no problem! That's because they know how to roll here.
The bus was a double decker, complete with bathroom, steward, and oversized reclining seats with footrests. You have a choice of buses. Semi-cama (cama means bed), which is similar to buses that we're used to in the states. Then you have cama, which reclines further back, has a ton of legroom, and has good footrests. Finally, there is executive cama, which allows your seat to transform into a bed. We took the cama option.
Activities in the bus seemed to be on a methodical schedule, likely designed to make you go to sleep at certain times. When we started the ride, they showed rap videos with the volume turned up so loud you couldn't talk to the person next to you. When that ended, they showed infomercials about several sandwich, coffee, mate, and jelly companies. Why these companies? Because this is the food they served on the bus.
When the informercials were done, they served us tostados mixtos (ham and cheese sandwiches) and drinks, which I assume were laced with some sleeping agent, because within half an hour, the entire bus was asleep. A break for the steward.
We were all woken up to horrible 80s rock videos, blaring, followed by Ocean's 13. Then more sleep, followed by dinner, followed by the Illusionist with Ed Norton. Then more sleep.
The stars were amazing! This was the first time I'd left the city of BA and had actually been able to see the night sky. I really don't know much about how the stars 'work', but apparently all the stars down here are totally different than what we see in the Northern Hemisphere. I'm on the lookout for something called the Southern Cross. Go ahead, laugh at my naivete.
Bariloche is in the 'Northern Lake District' which, surprisingly, contains a lot of lakes. The land looks golden, like the burned grass of NoCal in the summer, and the land around Bariloche looks like a cross between Lucerne and the Sierra Nevadas.
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glad to hear your first bus ride went well. They only get worse as you keep doing them, and as you leave nice luxurious countries like Argentina and Chile.
If I remember right, the bus sandwiches are kind of bizarre -- super dainty, on tiny white bread, with no crusts, so that it just melts in your mouth. Also, if you get a chance, sit in the front of the second level of the bus, so that you are looking out the window of the entire time -- it's amazing.
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