Despite the early start, we were quite happy to hit the road north to Esquel. The good news was that this leg of the trip was mostly paved, and a good 4 hours shorter. The sun was rising steadily ahead of us as we barreled east back to Perito Moreno to pick up the bulk of the passengers heading north to Esquel and then Bariloche.
Pickup completed, we enjoyed a bit of asphalt—making for nice dozing—and then hit the only hour of dirt road. This leg seems luxurious—there is a bathroom on board the bus, for starters—and the scheduled stops all include bona fide bathrooms. It also comes with a “guide”, in our case the rather entertaining Fabian, whose job appeared to be encouraging passengers to stay in “his” hostel or hotel in Bariloche. A good sort. While he rambled in Spanish and then in elementary English, I entertained myself taking pictures of the route, trying to capture the shadow of the bus on the dusty road….
First stop is Rio Mayo, a forlorn little town in the middle of nowhere, known around Argentina as the hub of sheep-shearing. We missed that particular festival(National Sheep Shearing) by a couple of days(but later caught snippets of it on TV). Just a very rural, quiet town, with the random gaucho sauntering by. Not a sheep to be seen, mind you. The street signs had the only sheep we saw. Nevertheless, a small oasis in the middle of Patagonian nothingness.
Onwards for a number of hours, having passed the requisite guanacos and a handful of bright pink flamingoes, until we arrived at Gobernador Costa, another dusty oasis to break the endless disappearing road carved into the dry Patagonian steppes. We stop at an eating establishment where we park ourselves at tables and inhale our various lunches. A few people order the dubious looking “pizza”, while the drivers are served the standard meat, potatoes and salad by the owner. This meal is not on offer for the mere bus passenger. We wander the streets for another 30 minutes, walking the shady side of the streets in this sun-baked town. Nothing of real note to register here.
Back through the parched and scrubby plains with about two and a half hours til we reach Esquel, or more properly, some sort of roundabout lying about 10 km outside town. Fabian assures the 12 or so of us who get off here that he has called a first taxi to meet us, and that it should be arriving soon. With that he hops back on the departing bus, and we are left waiting, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, although we know the town is close. It’s blazing hot and no shade to be had anywhere. To our collective relief the first cab turns up and three of us hop in and head to town, asking the driver for a recommendation on a place to stay.
We end up at the simple but impeccably clean Hosteria Tulipanes, at the edge of the center of town, and leave our Spanish co-passenger to find his lodging. He had booked something but couldn’t remember the name…
We’ll be continuing north on Ruta 40 later in the trip, but these last two legs are amongst the more notorious ones. Nice to have left them behind in their collective dust.
What's you evaluation thus far with the tent, sleeping bags and other travel/camping gear?
ReplyDeleteHow about the calzoncillo andres?????