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The bus from hell -- I kid you not
Entry 61 of 94 | show all | print this entry |
First off, HAPPY BELATED VALENTINES DAY to all.
Now let me tell you how I spent mine...
Aaron and I had enjoyed several days in and around Puerto Madryn, and it was time to move on. We were going to head back to La Pampa to pay a last visit to my friends and family there and then head on to Buenos Aires (yes, we still have to pick up our new passports!). The only bus available left mid-day (not overnight, like we generally prefer) and we decided to opt for semi-cama instead of coche cama seats. This option is cheaper, though less comfortable, but we decided that we weren´t going to be trying to sleep any way, so we´d save a little dinero and go budget.
The thing with traveling the most cheaply possible, though, is that you often end up with less-than-desirable bus mates. That was certainly the case on this 10 hour extravaganza. First off, everyone smelled of stale cigarettes -- which I suspect they were illegally smoking in the on-board bathroom. Now, if that had been the only inconvenience, we would have been golden... but it was just the icing on the proverbial cake. Aaron and I had the pleasure of sitting on the bus-from-hell behind the family-from-hell.
The five of them took up the row on both sides of the aisle in front of us. To paint you a picture, the family was made up of two young-ish parents, the grandparents and the son-from-hell. Apparently they had only bought four seats and decided to mash the toddler in with them (or let him run rampant down up and down the length of the bus) for 10 hours. The parents then filled him to the brim with sugary treats, promptly fell asleep and didn´t notice (or didn´t care) when he went off-the-walls crazy and started slapping and punching his grandmother when the juice ran out. Nor did they notice that he had DEFINITELY soiled himself and was wafting an unnervingly offensive odour for the final three hours of the trip.... I think I had preferred the stale ciggy smell.
So that was our romantic day. We arrived late in Santa Rosa (the capital of La Pampa) and couldn´t get a bus to Pico until the morning. Luckily the Information people at the terminal were fabulous and found us a cheap hotel that was seconds from the bus depot and we were able to crash there for the evening.
We´re now in General Pico and have lots to say about that too, but I think I´ll leave that to Aaron when he wakes up. Again, happy belated Valentines and be glad you weren´t in on our day.
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