My journey to Chile

Monday, 12:30h. Bus company: Andesmar. Seat: 46, semi-cama. Estimated time of travel: appr. 33 hours. Yeah, it should be a long journey. But I chose the bus over the plane because I assumed that I would get some impressions on how South America would be like. Which was indeed the case. Luckily the busses overhere are better then anything I have seen before in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the States. Semi-cama are seats that recline almost fully with an extra rest for the legs. One class better are camas the recline complety and guarantee a good night's sleep. Unfortunately that version was fully booked. I did not mind though because up to that stage I saw myself still like a traveller.

Having be overwhelmed by all those Argentinian cultural impression reality hit me once the bus got to the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Obviously, a metropolitan like the capital had to have a dark side. And just like in Bangkok I saw one slum after the other. All one could see was poverty that was poorer than poor. Not to forget that the winters here do really get could (a little bit warmer than German winters, but living in a slum with no means of heating...). Having recovered a little I got out my diary and wrote, and wrote. The streets were luckily in good shape so that I will be able to read what I wrote in a year's time. The first 800-900 kilometers were, as others had suggested, rather boring. Just vast plains, steppe with brownish red sands. It reminded me a little of Australia's Outback. It got dark at about 7p.m. and I was happy about those four movies they showed before it was bed time. Two of them were good. During the other two I studied some more Spanish and read in my book "Generation Stupid" (Thanks again for that Lea. You were right, it is amazing how stupid we seem to be :). Because the bus offered everything you need (toilet, food, drinks) we were barely allowed to get of the bus which bothered me a little. However, I made to get out once to brush my teeth and fresh'n up a little. I remember that I shut my eyes at about midnight and never woke up until 10 the next morning. So I did have a very good sleep but I missed out on breakfast. I considered it not to be too bad because that 350 other sandwiches made white bread that is giving your tommy a hard time from the day before were enough. However, at about 2p.m. I was happy to be able to hop off the bus and buy something-again a sandwich. By now the landscape had become far more interesting. The first pre-Andes hills arose and the houses were built like you know it from wild wild west movies. I was impressed did I not have a clue what Argentina would be like. From my last sandwich to Puerto Varas I had just eight more hours+one hour more time difference. I had a nice feller sitting next to (by now I was sitting up front) from the states. Also the border was not to bad. High up in the Andes-snow, juhuuu-we had to jump of the bus, get our exit-stamp, hop on the bus again and 21 ks later jump of the bus again and check into Chile. So Chileans were very fuzzy about vegetables, drugs, and fruits. Dogs were sniffeling out bags but not enough. Just like at the airport all the luggage was unloaded from the bus, x-rayed, and reloaded again.

By the time we were all on the bus again it was dark and really foggy. So much that I decided to put on a seatbelt (which before me was probably never been used). Having arrived in Puerto Montt I was picked up by Jose, a really nice man. We were talking, obviously in Spanish which kept the conversation on a very easy level. He dropped me off at my new home were I was welcomed by Elizabeth. We had been in touch beforehand and she had to answer all my dumb questions I had before I left Germany. Thanks for that and hey, apparently I also belong to the "generation stupid" so I guess all the questions were justified ;). Now here I was still not knowing what would really expecting me...