The Essentials

A word of advice – if you are going to take a long bus ride down ruta 40, a gravel highway that runs down through Argentine Patagonia, take extra food and water with you. Ruta 40 is a primitive road flanking the eastern side of the Andes and runs predominately through arid steppe land and is only dotted every few hundred kilometers by villages and towns. Why, you may ask, if I only have a 13 hour bus ride, would I want to take kilos of food and liters of water? A good question…

Let us look at a hypothetical situation: A young traveler departs from a town in Patagonia for another, more southerly Patagonian town on a thirteen hour bus ride with a reputable bus company. While he is on the bus he opens his bag, takes out some food and is swollen with pride (and a bit conceited, maybe) for thinking ahead and boiling potatoes and eggs for dinner on the bus. What a grand fellow he is. After dark, with a full belly, our vagabond traveler falls asleep content. Dreams of great adventures follow. Around 2am he notices the bus has stopped and people are outside talking, taking not much notice he falls back asleep. By three the bus is still not moving, a realization dawns that something more serious than a flat tire has occurred. The bus driver confronts the passengers, ‘uh, the, uh bus is broken. We can’t fix it. We’ll have to wait until the morning when, hopefully, the bus company will send another bus to get us. It should be here by 8 am’. Ok, our traveler is annoyed, but whatever, a few hours more of sleep and then we’ll be back on our way.

Yes! a car stops. They have a satellite phone! Bus driver calls his boss…but, something is wrong. Oh, he doesn’t have the right number. Car, with the phone speeds off into the night.

By 11 o’clock he realized that the bus driver had no clue when, or if another bus would come. The sun was hot, penetratingly hot. And dry. Even drier because our conceited traveler who had a three course meal last night only brought half a liter of water and gluttonously ate all the food last night. How the high and mighty fall. Damn the sun is hot; there is not even a tree in sight. If it wasn’t for the hills one might think they were in the middle of Australia.

Consultation with the bus driver produces the knowledge that hope is centered on vague hypothetical possibilities. Hopefully the bus company at our destination will realize, when we didn’t show up at 5 am like planned, that something had happened. By 7 they might get worried, but by 8 they will have sent a rescue bus. Maybe. But there is no real procedure for this. We can only hope.

A semi stops. The driver looks at the engine, no hope for him to fix it, but he thinks he might be able to tow the bus. Fix the chains and away they go, with the passengers walking along beside the bus. They make it one-hundred meters and stop. Seems that the truck driver underestimated the weight of the bus, he says sorry and drives off. Tough luck.

Our traveler really regrets not buying that extremely expensive bottle of water at their last stop. He showed that shop owner who has the consumer power.

3pm. Finally, salvation…a rescue bus shows up. Gear and personnel are transferred…but…what’s the hold-up? One of the baggage compartments doesn’t open…another thirty minute wait. Finally on the road again…our traveler only has to wait another three hours until the destination before he can have a drink and a bite to eat.

Now let us assume that the previous story wasn’t hypothetical. In fact, if you haven’t already guessed, it happened to me. But, after the fact, it was worthwhile because now I am in El Chalten, a small village at the base of the amazingly spectacular Mt. Fitz Roy. In fact, I just returned from a four day trek through the mountains and around the glaciers, drinking their tears as they cry about global warming. Coffee never tasted better than when cooked from a glacial stream.

Tomorrow should see me hitchhiking to El Calafete…so if you happen to be on the road, give a poor vagabond a lift because this one is sick of busses!