Off the gringo trail

Trip Start Oct 16, 2008
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Trip End Apr 16, 2009


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Flag of Argentina  ,
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Another overnight bus trip.  Ugh.  This one was through the Chaco on a virtually straight road for 13 hours, with only a couple of towns showing up on any map.  So much for maps, we stopped about every hour and the driver turned on the lights every time.  For most of the trip there were extra seats and we were happy we had taken the gamble and not bought a ticket for Patrick (you can do that until they are five, but if the bus is full, they have to sit on a lap).  At about 3am however, in god-knows-where, it filled up completely and then some, a few people didn't have seats.  I felt a little bit guilty that Patrick was taking up a spot without paying, but he was sleeping and nobody else seemed to notice, so I certainly wasn't going to bring it to their attention.  Naughty.

We arrived in Resistencia at 5.15am and it was already about 30 degrees.  The mosquitoes hadn't started to come out yet but I lathered on the bug spray anyway.  We had a disastrous coffee at the bus station, but the guy who served it to us redeemed himself by being very helpful about how to get into town.  As dawn broke we got on the local bus and headed for the centre to find (please!) a hotel that would let us in at this ungodly hour.  The first couple places, which were Lonely Planet joints, were expecting an influx of convention attendees later that day, and we thought we might be going straight back to the bus station.  But what was dubbed in the guidebook as "the best place to stay in town" (and was actually cheaper than another dive we checked out), graciously let us check in before 8am and we headed straight for, wait for it, the pool!

Never mind that the pool itself was filthy (I couldn't even bear to go in), Patrick still enjoyed himself and is coming along in strides with his swimming.  Blair is a very good teacher.  After swimming we went ALL THE WAY across the street (well, it was raining!) to a gossipy-old-men type cafe for breakfast/lunch, then straight back to the hotel for a really long nap.  When we finally dragged ourselves out of the air-conditioned hotel room it was dinner time .... still raining, but we managed to get at least three blocks away this time.  Dinner was a bit posh for our budget, but Resistencia seems to cater for business travellers (I've no idea what business they have in the Chaco) rather than backpackers, so that's to be expected I guess.  It was very good though.

The next day, after the boys had another dip in the swamp, I mean pool, we lingered at the hotel until forced to check out at noon.  Then it was time for the much-looked-forward-to Statue Hunt!  Resistencia is famous for its plethora of public artwork, with some 500 sculptures scattered around the city.  There is even a red line painted on the sidewalk for you to follow to see the pick of the bunch.  We started in the main square, which is so enormous and packed with fountains that when you stand in the middle of it you can't hear the traffic surrounding you.  We followed the red line for an hour or so, took some photos of sculptures, realised from the attention we drew that we were definitely off the gringo trail (Patrick got even more que lindos than usual), until the heat of the day forced us to quit being tourists.  We went back to the gossipy-old-men cafe for late lunch in air-conditioned comfort, then across to the hotel again to their just-opened free internet room (literally, just opened, we were the first to use it).  The three of us settled down in front of a terminal each and enjoyed a few hours of internet time - me on the blog, Blair on hockey news, and Patrick on Starfall.  And before we knew it, it was time to go back to the bus station for, wait for it, another overnight bus trip .... oh joy, oh bliss.
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