Los Antiguos to El Chaltén by Bus (Sat 3/6)

 

This was the longest bus ride in the history of our 15 year marriage.  It started at 9am and ended at roughly 10:15pm.  It was long.  The scenery was barren.  The route headed down Ruta 40 through Argentina.  Believe it or not, some people choose to cycle this rather than the Carretera Austral.  It is completely dry and unchanging.  There are no mountains, canyons, walls, rock croppings --- nothing.  In fact, during the entire trip, we saw no more than five or six ranches and fewer than 20 cows or sheep.  We did see huge herds of guanacos.  I believe they are members in the llama and alpaca family.  We also saw lots of rhea birds.  They look like a leftover from the time of the dinosaurs and are the size of an ostrich.  

One of the men on the bus had a "medical condition" that required him to urinate every hour.  The bus did not have a bathroom.  So, there were MANY stops along the road that added to the length of the ride.  While our bus ride to Pucon included movies, this bus had no televisions, no airconditioning, no windows that opened, and did I mention no bathroom!?!?

When we arrived, we pulled the bikes out of the storage container under the bus.  It was difficult to tell they were orange as the layer of dust was so thick.

Despite 13+ hours on a bus, the day had some spectacular highlights.  You are going to be SHOCKED --- we arrived at 10:30pm and checked into an awesome room!  For $70 per night, it is a huge change from the last three weeks.  It is a super king sized bed.  Everything is NEW and CLEAN and roach free!  And, then it got BETTER!  At 10:45pm, we headed to dinner and ate an awesome meal!  The salad was super fresh and the steak was fantastic.  While we love Chile and the Chilean people, we both agree -- the food and the cooking is better in Argentina!  It helps that we have landed in a total tourist town.  El Chaltén is the town near the base of Fitz Roy (more on that tomorrow).  It was a long day, but a great ending.