With the prohibitive costs of internal flights in Argentina, the best choices are the long-distance buses (trains are not an option!). The huge Retiro bus terminal in Buenos Aires has about 200 platforms or more with a myriad of companies reaching to every part of this vast country. Often, there are many companies going to the same destinations but with different qualities of vehicles, service and varying routes and schedules. Most long-distance buses travel overnight to make better time and have two drivers. They are classified as camas or super-camas, depending on how far the seats recline. One can reserve your exact seat, with the desirable ones being on the upper deck and ‘singles’ on the side.
Except for the capital and approaches to the larger cities, “highways” are only single lane in each direction though well-paved for the most part. Therefore, delays are not uncommon if there is a slow-moving vehicle ahead.
The trip to Bariloche, the famous international resort in Northern Patagonia took some twenty hours and included three meals, one a hot dinner with wine served by a uniformed waiter. In the morning, after rolling through the pampas, the bus reached the province of Rio Negro and the beginning of the Seven Lakes district with spectacular nature vistas on the way to Bariloche. There were many videos to watch or not watch and this was an opportunity to meet the locals, at least those who could afford to travel. On the return, the brilliant slow sunset and dusk over the desert up until nine in the evening was a beautiful sight.
Back in Buenos Aires, the buses are numerous but overcrowded and “iffy” so the best way to travel is by “subte” – the metro or underground with five lines intersecting and with excellent service and reasonable fares. The oldest line (“A”) goes back to the early 20th century. However, one must go by bus from the centre to get to the famous area known as “La Boca” at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata where the city and the Tango had their roots. The Café La Perla is over 110 years old and looks it, but what style and what colours painted outside!
Anyhow, back on the buses for a shorter 15-hour trip to Mendoza and wine country. This one was not as glamorous a bus as the one to Patagonia but comfortable and very friendly and it got me there safely. The drivers in Argentina do not seem to take so many wild risks as in other Latin American countries, both in the cities and on the highways.
Mendoza was a laid-back, dreamy kind of city with beautiful peaks of the high Andes nearby. This was to be my last long bus ride, from Mendoza over the highest desolate peaks of the Aconcagua range, at over 20,000 feet. This last bus carried mainly workers “commuting” between both countries and they gave you a pair of socks to welcome you to the bus (a novel idea!). This was definitely the most scenic ride of all. Even having to wait over one hour for formalities at the high frontier post, X-raying of luggage, and spraying of the bus – with anti-anthrax I presume (this was after September 11th!) – was not a chore. The bus descended a series of switchback roads on the Chilean side called Los Caracoles that wound down to vineyards and warmer temperatures from the Pacific Ocean as we neared Santiago de Chile.
During all these rides, I was the only tourist and foreigner on board and was able to communicate with people in Spanish. Being from the southern end of the Americas, they were quite interested to talk to someone from the northern end.