March 2- Bariloche & March 3 - Mendoza

Hi: I got a day behind, so I combine two days and try to catch up.  Besides, this is sort of one huge long day.

Our last day in Bariloche.  We have until about 1 pm, when we have to make our way to the bus depot for the overnight (yecch) bus to Mendoza.

After settling up with the hostel, we headed downtown to do a bit of gawking and shopping.

We noticed this - they were unloading groceries for one of the local small supermarkets.  Check out how they deliver the carcasses to the local restaurants - I bet that wouldn't make "Foodsafe."  Who cares, it tastes great when we eat it. 

This shot is beside the cathedral.  As I look out at the perfect day I am reminded of your snowfall warning.  (I should be tarred and feathered for this attitude, eh?)

High on the list of shopping and gawking chores was to do a bunch of research on chocolate factories in Bariloche, since Julie put in a specific request for a hunk of chocolate after her research on 'yarn-bombing.' You know, Julie is a school teacher, and they work on the principle of reward for effort, so I guess we'd better give Julie a reward. This is a picture of the window display of one of the chocolate factories.

Yes, we did some research and it was yummy.

The other item of interest is “Matè,” in particular Matè cups in this photo. As I understand it (and I may be corrected), matè is made from the Yerba Matè plant.  The ground up leaves are placed into the cup, hot water is added, and the 'tea' is drunk by sipping on the straw.  More hot water is added for more tea and the cup is often passed around.  On a couple of our bus trips the guide had a thermos of hot water and the matè was passed back and forth between the guide and the driver.  I understand the matè is high in caffeine.  I tried it - it's good and, to be honest, is not far off of the 'Philosopher's Brew tea I make.  

I've shown you some pictures of some pretty rickety looking construction I've seen down here.  To balance that out, here is the view of a small shopping mall.  You enter from the far end and there are 3 floors of very modern construction.  This would not be out of place anywhere.










After a bit of shopping we hit the 'Centro,' the local name for the main square.  A lot of people there, just hanging out and enjoying themselves - it's noon on a Sunday.

In the "entrepreneurship" category, here's a lady with two St. Bernard's.  People pose with the dogs (how cute is a St. Bernard puppy?) and they pay her for the privilege.  I don't know if this was private or in aid of a cause.  It must be working, as there were 3 sets of St.B adults and pups doing this in the square.  We didn't pose, as we know Kye would be jealous.

Still in the entrepreneurship category, this is a barbecue - the lid is away from us (you can see the hinges on top).  The fellow who owns it sets up shop on the street and he's in business.  No fees or permits here.  His prices are good:  Chorizo - $22, Hamburger - $20, and a carne (bbq'ed meat - $28.  I don't know how well he does (I didn't see him drive up in a Caddy).  

There is a lot of this down here, both in Argentina and Chile.  I guess its a combination of (apparently) not a lot of rules about street selling, and the need to make a living any way possible.

It's  later now and we've headed to the bus depot and are waiting.  I slip over to the nearby railway station for a look.  Nice building, but very quiet.  I see a sign for one passenger train every two days and freight, so it looks like this section of railway is dying a slow death.









And here's our bus; a double decker with a fancy graphic depicting the 2014 South American
Dakar race.  We can still see out the windows, but taking a photo through the graphic is nearly impossible.

Our seats are on the top deck near the front.  Too bad, as the really posh seats are down below.
They were sold out before I booked our tickets.

Good things about overnight buses:
1. Nicer seats than an aircraft.  Ours recline to more than 45 degrees from vertical.
2.  Food - more correctly, sort of food.  Dinner kept the wolves away, but the coffee is sad.
3.  Cheaper than flying.

The number one bad thing about the bus (overnight or otherwise) is the overspeed alarm.  Highway buses are limited to 100 km/hr in Chile and 90 km /hr in Arg.  There is a little sign with a noisy horn in the passenger compartment that flashes and sounds when the speed is exceeded.  Even if the driver is coasting downhill it blares.  I assume that the government makes the companies do this.

 Inside the bus.

 Some nice scenery a short distance out of Bariloche.  The screen of the graphic on the windows drives the camera's autofocus crazy.

I managed to get this one, sort of.  It got dark, we ate and tried to sleep, with marginal success.

Next morning, approaching Mendoza.  The screen problem is obvious, but I wanted to include this shot.  The Andes near here are much higher and contain the highest mountain in the southern and western hemisphere, Aconcagua.  This may be him - I'm not sure.

I don't know if I really like this overnight b us thing.  I suppose it's better than spending all day on a bus and losing the day, but we lost a fair part of it anyway.  Saved a night of hostel costs (big deal, they're cheap, especially where the peso is now).

We finished our bus trip, unloaded and got to the hotel without incident.  After a rest to catch up on a bit of sleep we headed out.  I ducked into a MacDonald's to use the john. I noticed this sign.  Check the second menu panel carefully.  Yes it is a bottle of Malbec!  I might have to take back some of the bad things I've said about Mickey D's.

I'm sorry that this is my first picture of Mendoza, but what the heck.

Part of the Plaza de Independencia, the main plaza.  Mendoza has a number of other, smaller plazas in the central town area.  Many of the streets are tree lined and shaded by large deciduous trees.







One of the tree lined streets.  Lots of trees but check out the rain gutter.  Its huge and deep - big enough to swallow small kids, dogs or short females (that's Laura on the right).  The trees are planted right in the gutter and are watered as a result.

More pictures to come, but that's enough for today.

One more travel adventure for you today:  This afternoon we decided out next leg of this journey would be to La Serena via Vina del Mar.  

I jumped into a cab and went back to the bus depot to buy the tickets.  I waited in line, got to the front, arranged the details and was just about finished when the ticket agent asked for Laura's passport (it's an international bus trip).  Oh, poop, although that's not what I said.  (Kathy, does Scott know any Spanish words applicable to this situation?)

Oh well, jump into another taxi, back to the hostel, hold the taxi for 2 minutes, run back out and back to the bus depot.  After that things went smoothly.  An extra half hour of time and 4 taxi rides instead of 2 (each ride cost about $2.75 Cdn).  If that's my biggest problem, then I don't have any.

We're off to the Andes tomorrow to, among other things, view Aconcagua.  The bus ride last night is catching up to me so it's time to say good night.