day 3: huelgas and coffee splurges

this day dawned brilliantly. no, really. i set my alarm extra early so i could get up and run before we had to check out of the hostel (10am). the schedule we had tentatively laid out was like this: we would spend pretty much another full day in puerto madryn, catch a bus to río gallegos at 7pm, get to río gallegos the next afternoon around 1pm, then find a bus to el calafate, HOPEFULLY getting us to calafate around 5 or 6pm on saturday.

so anyways. the day seemed great. i went running barefoot on the beach as the sun was rising which was a great way to start the day. i even saw a whale swimming not far from shore. i tried to run all the way down the coast, but then some birds started following me as i got really far away from the main beach. they were really scary and kept following me and i was afraid of them pooping on me, so i took this as a sign to turn around. we checked out of our hostel and explored puerto madryn a little bit for the morning part. i guess in the summer there is a lot that goes on, but because we were there in the winter/spring, it was basically dead. there was just not a lot to do. so we chilled on the muelle, or pier, that stretches 500 meters out into the gulf and sat on the beach. we also had more poor people food aka tuna with tomato sauce, more paltas, and crackers. because we assumed that we would be getting food on the bus.

view from the end of the pier

great sea glass, thanks to all the beer the argentinos drink

this picture of an andes mar bus actually has a meaning. at first, i took the picture, because we had such a wonderful experience on our way down to puerto madryn. however, the picture and the meaning go so much deeper than that. more to come on that one.

we decided to "splurge" and spend time at a cafe because there was nothing to do in the afternoon. this is also where we decided we were on a strict budget.

we also met this dog

puerto madryn at low tide

so the andes mar story: we returned to the hostel around 4:30pm, thinking that we could take advantage of their computers and bathrooms before we headed to the bus terminal. i logged onto facebook and saw a bunch of statuses from other ifsa kids about some huelga with the bus company andes mar. after we looked up the word "huelga" and found out it meant strike, we went into panic mode. andes mar is one of the biggest bus companies in argentina; they are known to have bus lines all across the country. just so happens that our afternoon bus to río gallegos was through andes mar. so we rush over to the hostel owner, who had no idea about the strike. we grabbed our stuff and ran to the station, where, yes, the andes mar bus drivers had indeed gone on strike. this sucked for two reasons: 1. the other ifsa kids were still in mendoza when this happened. so they got to sleep at home for another night. 2. the other girls from ifsa that left early were already in bariloche, their final destination. cat, bri, and i were the only ifsa kids going to patagonia. we weren't in mendoza, and we definitely weren't in the patagonia that we wanted to be in- we had just spent the entire day wasting time to get on this bus! and here's the kicker: because we ordered our (rather expensive) tickets online, the andes mar man behind the desk told us that we had to call the andes mar office and explain to them that we wanted a refund. i cannot even explain how frustrating it was to hear that... we were in limbo with our traveling and needed to quickly buy other tickets. on top of that, having to speak on the phone in spanish is so difficult! calling a taxi is hard enough, and the three of us combined don't have the vocabulary (or the patience) to call andes mar on our cheap cell phones, which actually had no service in patagonia. bri hopped over into the other line at another bus company to get us tickets while cat and i waited for the andes mar man to get us the toll-free number.

THANKFULLY, we were able to switch onto another bus, that left at the same time. we hung around outside the terminal with an english girl and 2 irish guys that were in the same predicament. around 7pm, a bus pulls in, and the sign on the front says "río gallegos". finally, we were able to relax, knowing that we would get down to calafate by tomorrow, somehow. at least we had a bus, and we figured we would sort out the refund details when we got to el calafate.

HOWEVER, this bus ride was the worst thing that ever happened to me in argentina. i am not kidding. it was close to being as bad as getting lost in godoy cruz on the bus. buses just aren't my thing. first of all, it was a close to 19 hour bus ride. second of all, it was in semi-cama. aka regular bus seats. third of all, it smelled so gross. fourth of all, i sat next to some creepy teenager. fifth, "dinner", which we had been semi-looking forward to (because andes mar does a decent travel bus dinner, but whaddaya know, we weren't on andes mar) consisted of chicken that literally dissolved in my mouth and mayonnaise. that's it. i basically didn't have dinner. my creepy friend next to me asked if i was going to eat the prehistoric looking brownie that was also a part of dinner. i said no, and offered it to him. he said no thanks. that was the end of our relationship. after not sleeping because there were another 35 people squished into this smelly bus, breakfast was passed around. the attendant had a box of alfajores that he doled out. i love alfajores (duh), but at 6am..? so no breakfast. or snack. and did i say the bus smelled because there was a baby that i'm pretty sure had a dirty diaper the whole 19 hours sitting next to bri?

so finally we get to freaking río gallegos, which is an oil town. real pretty. not. the bus terminal had stray dogs and a carrefour next to it. carrefours are like price choppers but more expensive. so we stumble off this awful bus, looking really nice, obvs. we make our way to the carrefour where i almost passed out in the yogurt aisle because i hadn't eaten in 24 hours. the carrefour lady wouldn't let us sit in the carrefour cafe, so, again, HOMELESS PEOPLE-like, we walk back to the terminal and eat in the gross bus station.

then we board a bus to el chaltén, which is a 4 hour drive. next post. because life gets better.