I’ve heard so many good things about Bariloche, but I am most excited about the downhill mountain biking they have at the ski resort Cerro Cathedral. But first I have to conquer the longest bus ride of the trip. We load up in the bus at 10:30pm and are promptly handed what I soon find out is our only meal of the trip consisting of a white bread and cheese sandwich and some other funky looking pastries. The bus companies to Bariloche from El Chalten didn’t offer the cama bus (first-class bus), so we had to settle for the semi-cama (second class bus). I realized within the first 30 minutes of the trip how long of a journey this was going to be.
I spend the night chasing dreams, reading and mostly listening to my ipod. The bus is taking the famous route 40. Paul and I are very confused why route 40 is famous; it is just an endless dirt road that the bus kept having to slow to a crawl to avoid one of the many potholes. It was laughable for the first 10 hours, and then it was just obnoxious.
I am surprised to wake up to a beautiful sunrise and get excited when the bus comes to a stop and lets everyone out. I thought we were taking a picture break until I noticed one of the bus driver’s walking out of sight down the road. I walk to the back of the bus and look into the engine to see that we lost a driving belt . . . hijo de punta! A few cars pass and stop to see if they can help, I go back to my seat and try to get some more sleep while the bus isn’t shaking around on the dirt road.
Two hours later, we are back on the road. We stop in small ghost towns with little to no options for food, only sugary snacks. I go into a meditative state looking out the window, counting down the hours until our arrival. The bus’s air circulating system seemed not to work; it was either way too hot or ice cold. I thanked the heavens as we finally pulled into the bus station in Bariloche 30 hours later at 4am. A quick taxi ride to our hostel Marco Polo and then it was straight to sleep.
The next day we met a couple of Argentineans traveling from the Buenos Aires area and spend the day with them practicing our Spanish and exploring the area. We spend a good amount of time searching down a restaurant with the right price and good eats. Maxi and Ale (our new friends) insist on treating us to lunch. After lunch we head to Cerro Cathedral ski resort to check in on some mountain biking. I am very disappointed to find out they are closed for the season and even worse, no one else in town rents out full suspension bikes for downhill mountain biking. I shake off my disappointment and we head up to a rotating restaurant over looking the many lakes surrounding Bariloche. This time, Paul and I treat our new friends to desert and coffee.
We indulge in a couple of beers during our free dinner at our hostel and my Spanish improves rapidly. We sit around the table for hours translating jokes and practicing our secondary languages. I am constantly amazed about how patient and helpful people can be when it comes to helping me with my Spanish. We go to sleep planning on getting up in a couple hours to check out a discotheque but all of us are exhausted and sleep through the night.
In the morning we say goodbye to our new friends and exchange information (Facebook names). This has become common practice while traveling; meet cool people from all around the world, get to know each other and then say goodbye likely to never see that person again. Having grown up in Santa Cruz where I am still close friends with people from pre-school, grade school and high school, it is strange to have so many people come and go from my life, but the connections I am making all over the world give me more reasons to travel in the future.
All the people I meet not only get to know about me, but about my hometown as well. I am proud of where I come from and I still haven’t found a place in the world that comes close to the Santa Cruz. I have been giving out open-ended invitations to new friends to come visit me in Santa Cruz with promises of a place to stay and a local guide to show them all the secret spots. I hope at least a couple of the people I have met take me up on my offer, but visiting the U.S. isn’t the most affordable travel destination.
Paul and I strike out on the weather in Bariloche with rain and wind, but it doesn’t stop us from renting bikes and taking a ride around the lakes in Bariloche. High season just passed at the end of February in Argentina and Chile so we can expect fewer people, hopefully cheaper prices and a little worse weather. Our bike ride puts us in a better mood after being cooped up in the hostel with bad weather and we spend the rest of the day tracking down bus tickets to our next destination of Pucon.
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