Waiting for the bus.
Decided to walk a bit further today and stretch out the skin around John’s stitches! Went to find the bus station (about 3km out of town) and explore the old railway line which passes through the back of the bus station and used to continue on to the town centre. The gauge was huge (6’) and the adjacent station, although looking redundant, was still in use and welcomed passengers from Viedma near the Atlantic coast. Grasses and flowers grew between the rails and student backpackers sat on their front and backpacks drinking mate between tracks. Wandered back and admired the extremely still waters of Lago Nahuel Huapi (must be a rare site) and watched a stray collie doing lengths up and down parallel to the shore just for the fun of it! We visited the local cathedral (completed in 1946) which was made out of a concrete frame which was filled with dressed stone. It was cool inside which was a pleasant respite from the heat outside….it was amazing to think that the weather was so cold, wet and windy when we arrived. Discovered an amazing restaurant opposite the cathedral (l latina) with a outside deck, wi-fi and amazing food. We went in for a coffee and ending spending over 2 hours there eating the best food since Buenos Aires. At 4.00 we wandered back to the hotel (Hosteria Puike) where the owners had kindly allowed us to use their garage to store our bikes and luggage whilst we waited for the bus. John cycled very gingerly the 3km to the bus station where we unhooked all our panniers, packed them into our foldable holdalls and waited. We were told the ‘Mar y Val’ bus would arrive a bay 9. We waited near bay 9 whilst checking the other bays for the Mar y Val bus. To cut a long story short a ‘Don Otto’ bus arrived at Bay 2…John spotted a small hand written sign in the front window to say that actually it was the Mar y Val bus. We staggered through the crowds with our bikes and 2 huge bags and had an interesting conversation at the luggage hold where the driver said 'no bikes'. We just decided that we needed to put the bikes in ourselves and managed to coerce a man, who was tagging the luggage, to help us get them on. A few bits of cardboard were quickly proffered and we stuck a bit around the back wheels just in time to see the driver come round the corner and admonish our accomplice and suggest that they shouldn’t be on at all. We smiled and thanked him and about 30 seconds after we found our seat the bus set off. They were waiting for us. This bus was nothing like the previous super posh ‘Tur’ bus we had taken from Valparaiso. Our quiet seats at the back were opposite the only toilet, it was v. dirty, directly opposite was a food preparation area (which resembled a kitchen area in an old VW camper van) with a sink which spluttered water out of its plug hole into Johns lap and an overhead cupboards which constantly sprang open and ejected their contents into John’s moist lap. A combination of dried milk and coffee sticks well to damp clothes! About an hour later various passengers would wander down and queue outside the toilet which constantly showed an occupied sign despite there being nobody inside…we would then have to tell them that they could go in and on the way back they would pick up various containers from the exploding cupboards and put them next to the sink. The grumpy driver appeared a little later (whilst the bus was still moving!) and proceeded to ‘wash’ 38 trays with a grey floor cloth. The smell from the toilet had started to develop by this time so we tried to turn on the overhead vents to redirect the air only to have the nozzle fall out. About ½ hour later there was a sudden jolt and a v. v. loud scraping sound which reached a crescendo when we travelled around left bends…the bus continued to bowl along. Just as I was about to get up and remove the earphones from the driver the bus slowed and bumped along onto a gravel layby. The grumpy driver and his co-driver wandered out, opened a hatch directly below my seat and start tugging at something using the side of the bus to brace their legs against. A combined effort suddenly released a 4’ long metal bar which had a right angle bend near one end. The driver sheepishly glanced up to see if anyone was looking (I met his gaze and returned an expression of surprise and horror) and disappeared behind the bus where I saw his shadow furtively disposing of the evidence. We never did find out what it was…but the bus kept on going! At 11.00 it was meal time and the dreaded trays came out with an interesting combination of ingredients. In one section was a mix of cubed spam, cubed cheese on a bed of lettuce, a stale bread roll and red jelly. Once we had finished a foil tray was presented which had tepid meatballs and mash inside. The best bit was a drink of cold coke. At 12.00 the queue for the toilet developed which meant we only had to tell the first person the toilet was free…we rammed our earplugs in and tried to sleep. Half an hour later we had to stop at a police road block and watched uniformed officers search the bus with torches held at head height ( like Scully and Molder from the X files)….I think we got off lightly as I watched car passengers have the torches shone directly into their faces!! The night was bumpy and long!
Bariloche station
Morning constitutional
Afternoon constitutional
Evening diabolical
