August 29, 2007

Buenos Aires and Pampas

As I mentioned before, today I was going to take a bus to Rawson. As mentioned before, it first seemed like a mistake to book a ticket to Rawson, but now I’m excited for it. The ride is 23 hours south. Argentina is so massive, that even in 23 hours, I’ll only cover a fraction of the length of the country.

Because I had a 23 hour ride ahead of me, I decided to stay out late (I could sleep on the bus). I met 2 American guys from Roswell, GA. They reminded me of the typical Carlson students and had just graduated with accounting degrees. These two had just both moved to Argentina where they plan on starting a service of taking Americans out to the clubs. One of the reasons they picked Buenos Aires was because they like the women here. They also recommended a good book about the slang used in Buenos Aires. I actually bought this book today.

Eventually the Roswell boys went out, and I ran into Francene again. Because I was going to sleep the next day, I made her stay up too late. She eventually got too tired, but I was very happy to have another great multi-hour conversation with her in Spanish.

This morning I had a big breakfast and walked to the bus station. At first, the bus station is very intimidating. There are over 100 gates and it is apparently very rate if your bus leaves from its scheduled gate. Luckily, I got on my bus and am very impressed by the value. For about $50, I have a luxurious 23 hour ride. The bus is a double decker with windows 360 degrees around and fully reclining seats. I am very lucky and am sitting arriba (on the top deck), in the front row. I have an elevated, 270 degree view of the drive.

The first two hours were spent just getting out of Buenos Aires. I bought two books but didn’t read a page because it was so fun to be elevated and to have such a great view in the middle of 10 lanes of traffic on the craziest streets I’ve seen yet in my life.

Eventually, we left the city and moved to the Pampa. The Pampa is a romanticized prairie worked by gauchos (Argentinean Cowboys). It reminds a lot of western Montana, but with much higher grass and with clumps of trees. As I write this, I have been traveling south for 6 hours and the sun is beginning to set over the Pampa. There are few cars even though I am on the main artery (2 lane highway 3).

Photo Info:
1. Cristina Kirchner sign for President (she is the president's wife and insanely popular)
2. Looking east on Pampas right before sunset
3. Typical view of Pampa