Dynargh dhe'n Blogofrob

Wednesday 9th February 2011

Despite its beautiful and remote location, after 4 days I was ready to leave Ushuaia, probably something to do with being sick for a day in a pokey little bedroom, with "The Big Bang Theory" and "How I Met Your Mother" being the only English language proramming on the telly.

Our bus left the town at 5am and started its long journey off the Tierra Del Fuego island. We passed into Chile, and as day properly broke, through landscape that would define the next 36 hours or so of travelling: flat scrubland, as far as the eye could see, either side of the bus. Above, a million miles of sky. For hours and hours, apart from the road, there was no sign of man, just his domesticated animals. Horses and llamas roamed and Patagonian ostriches strutted around grazing cows and sheep. At one point the plain was broken into by the Magellan Straits, upon which we enjoyed a choppy crossing courtesy of a little car ferry.

In the late afternoon we crossed back into Argentina, and eventually rolled into Rio Gallegos, a small town, capital of Santa Cruz province. We stayed at the cheap Hotel Paris, on the main street. It was functional enough, although the proprietor was a true Basilito Fawlteron, far too busy counting his $5 notes to give us much attention (at one point we actually had to nip behind the counter ourselves to collect our bags). We spent the next day mooching around Rio Gallegos. George didn´t like it much, and decided it was quite like Swindon. After having wandered up the riverfront and cooed appreciatively at the tiny corrugated iron cathedral, we holed up in a cafe until our next bus, which left the bus station at 6pm and was scheduled to arrive at our next destination at 12.15pm the following day.

The bus journey was our first seriously long distance, overnight one, and it was generally pleasant. We got food, our seats were really comfortable and we both got some sleep. Unfortunately, it wasn´t all plain sailing. At one point, about 4 hours into the journey, I got up to find the loo. I pulled open the door, and was faced by a rather overweight lady, of advanced years, pants round her ankles, frock hitched up, bundles of loo paper gripped in her hand. She grunted. I don´t know whether it was at me or not. I closed the door and returned to my seat. I was still debating whether to poke my eyes out with the arms of my sunglasses when the bus steward announced that the toilet was suddenly out of order - and so it seemed to remain for the remaining 14 hours of the journey. Luckily frequent stops were built into the schedule to account for my heavy friend´s handiwork. Despite this, we reached Puerto Madryn dead on time. In Ushuaia and Rio Gallegos it was all jackets and woolly hats, but here the weather is gorgeous.

136 - posted at 23:21:40
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Comments

Rob, I'm so enjoying reading your blog, if that's the right word. I especially liked your trip to the loo in the coach and read it out to the boys who were in the room at the time. They enjoyed it as well! It sounds as if you're both having a wonderful trip and I'm glad the weather's got warmer.

1: Caroline Groves - 08:58:34 on Thursday 10th February 2011 (permalink)

Glad you are enjoying it - hope you´re seeing the photos too. The weather has been sunnier the further north we get, although we´re currently listening to a thunderstorm in Mendoza!

2: rob - 01:40:58 on Monday 14th February 2011 (permalink)

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