El Trenpatagonia..

El Trenpatagonia- 30 July 2006... (from Bariloche in the mountains, to Viedma on the sea)

8 am..

The train was only 7 hours late, which I thought was not bad for an advertised time of 16 hours anyway...Only thing was that there was not too much to see, just miles of scrubland and empty space, though I guess thats what Patagonia is all about. Did see a few houses and people at the small settlement of ´Ministro Ramas Mexico´ around dawn, who seemed freindly enough by coming out of their houses and waving at the train, though I´m not quite sure what else there was to do in this place. Still speculating what these people did everyday, I vacated my ´Pullman class´ where I had slept and headed off towards the dining car. This was decked out in cheery orange, had real wooden chairs, and waiters dressed in the full black tie attire. Deciding to go for the ´full Patagonian breakfast´ I got orange squash, coffee and burnt toast, all for 5 pesos, and it meant I could linger there for a while and watch the nothingness go by..

1 pm.

Reached the relative civilisation of ´San Antonio de Ouest´ where we off-loaded cars and the train shifted around a bit of freight and seemed to add on around 5 more wagons from somewhere (had they come from Buenos Aires??). Afforded time to wonder about, take in the views and watch the obligatory stray dogs wonder the platforms.. After over an hour of messing around, we were off again.

3 pm.

Now over 20 hours on the train, there still didn´t seem to be any water in the toilets for some reason (was there a shortage, or had it frozen up??). Still, because of our slight delay, they had given us free sandwiches, and the Argentinian family behind me was trying to make the most of it, by having a sing along which was a chance to hear some traditional Argenitinian songs (well, it wasn´t Coldplay anyway). Also, lots of Mate drinking was going on. Went for a walk and found 2 kids playing a game of who could push each other out the open train door first (not quite sure why it was open), though didn´t stick around to see who won.

6 pm.

Arrived in Viedma slightly later than the scheduled arrival time of 10 am, but guess I wasn´t in a great hurry..

Argentina etc

Have now been in Argentina for over 3 weeks. Here for your interest are some pictures of the trip so far..exciting no doubt..

Some friendly people in La Boca, Buenos Aires.....

Feeling satisfied after an all you can eat steak and salad feast...