10.4. - 12.4. Buenos Aires - Puerto Mardyn

After a very sweet breakfast with, of course, Dulce de Leche, we tried again to establish contact with the BA people we wanted to meet. Somehow it was a bit difficult. Nicolas did not answer our emails and Fabricios phone number did not work. We sent a message to him suggesting meeting at the obelisk at 2 pm. We walked to the MAMBA - the museum of modern art of Buenos Aires. It was nice and we started walking downtown. We had a coffee and empanadas in a place in San Telmo where a lot of people got sandwiches for their lunch break. We went on to the obelisk but noone was there we gave it a last chance and went to a telephone and internet shop. The telephone number sudenly worked and Fabricio told us that he was comming but a little late. A bit later we met him and his wife Fer and daughter Renata It was again quite a challenge as they speak very little English. We went to have a coffee together and spend some time together. It was nice! When they left we went on to the Retiro bus terminal and got bus tickets for the next day to Puerto Madryn. The prices unfortunately also rised in Argentina dramatially, more than double of that three years ago. Thus we booked the cheapest bus we found, already expecting that it would be a bit run down. The ticket was 86 Euros each for the 20h ride. We took the Subte (subway) back to the hostel and descided to contact Guillermo for some evening program. When I reached him on his phone he seemed confused but I should call him back and he'd figure something out. Later he still was not sure what to do and I suggested to simply go for dinner. He wanted to come to us by taxi but must have fallen asleep as he did not show up. We were waiting for quite a while but had things to do anyways. At 23h we went for some nice steaks and a bottle of wine which is still affordable here and enjoyed a nice dinner. Soon after we went to bed.

After breakfast we again checked if there was any news from Nicolas. We took the Subte to Plaza de Majo and walked to the Coleccion de Arte Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat a really impressive art collection. After that we went downtown to the pedestrian streets to look for a Parilla place where we went three years ago. A bit lucky, but still, we found it and had a nice lomo and bife de chorizo there. Pretty full we walked to a shopping mall and art gallery "..." and had a look at the various exhibitions. Not so impressive but at least we had a cheap coffee in the basement. Everywhere else on the street a Espresso was 3 Euro and Icecream was almost 5 Euro! We walked back to Plaza de Mayo and took the Subte back to the hostel. We bought some food for our bus journey and got our bags from the hostel. We also checked emails and finally got notice from Nicolas that he had just returned from his Easter vacation. Unfortunately a bit too late. We went to the bus terminal by Subte and got on the bus at 20h. The bus was infact very run down but we still thought it was ok as it saved us 24 Euro each for just a newer bus in the same class. We had a bottle of red wine and went to bed soon.

The night wasn't bad and we got some good sleep. It was a long drive through endless Pampas on roads leading straight towards the horizon. Very few settlements and sometimes herds of cattle. We got to talk to a nice guy from the Netherlands who just started his South America trip with a 55h bus ride to Ushuaia. So he will be on the bus for some more time. Next to us was a Japanese couple who was listening to annoying music, without headphones. When the guy did that at 6 am I asked him to stop it, so he did, but later I did not bother to ask him every time again. I plugged myself some nice music in. Later we had a big burger when we had a stop and police was checking for drugs and meet - which does not seem to be allowed to bring either. We had some Mate and except for that not much happened on the bus. Well we had enough time to catch up with our diaries! :) ....

with Fabricio, Fer and Renata