The Deluxe Bus to Bariloche

Argentina is such an easy country to travel in. I arrived this morning in Bariloche, Argentina via a 20-hour overnight bus ride from Buenos Aires that has to be hands down the most luxurious bus ride I´ve ever been on. This was definitely no Guatemalan chicken bus, hardseat Chinese train, or late Egyptian ferry.  This was amazing.  The seats were full-on business class reclining seats that reclined to almost horizontal and foot rests. And they kept feeding us- snack, candy, dinner, cookies, tea/coffee, breakfast.  The food admittedly was not great, but I almost fell out of my seat, when after dinner the attendant asked me, "Whiskey or champagne?¨

"Uh, champagne.¨ Of course! So there I was sitting cozily on the top of the double decker bus, sipping champagne out of a plastic flute. Not everything was perfect though. Maybe it was the champagne, but I just couldn´t stop laughing when the movie came on because it was clearly an American movie, but somehow it was dubbed into Japanese with Spanish subtitles!

So I managed to get a very good night´s sleep, falling asleep to Thich Naht Hanh yet again, and arriving in Bariloche energized for a day of hiking in Llao Llao Municipal Park.

I paid for two nights at the hostel in Bariloche after I checked in, but after chatting with the folks at Club Andino and the National Parks office, decided to cancel my second night. This changing my mind at the spur of the moment is becoming a habit. Instead, I´ll head into the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi and hike14km to Laguna Negra and stay at Refugio Italia overnight.  A refugio is a basic cabin that provides a mattress for you to dump a sleeping bag on and meals/kitchen facilities. I´m looking forward to a nice long hike that just exhausts my whole body.

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