I am still snowed in here in Bariloche. Actually, I did get out in the snow again today for several hours and soaked my feet in all the slush. I has snowed for 3 days and there is about a foot or more of snow on the ground, yet today even while snowing, it began melting and the streets were a mess! I remember well why I prefer warm and sunny Miami, even with the heat and humidity and hurricane season of summer. I went out because I needed to get my own lunch, (it is not part of my board package) and I was supposed to go to school at 2:30 p.m. So I went downtown for lunch, which was good, treated myself to 4 little pieces of chocolate from Mamuschka's the finest chocolate store in Bariloche (which is saying a lot because the town is known for, and prides itself on, having the best chocolate in the country.) It was divine! Unfortunately they do not ship! Then I tried to find a taxi which was not easy today with all the messy streets. I finally flagged one down and he took me the 5 kilometers to the school, which was closed. I just figured they were not open yet and so I waited. About 45 minutes later, about the time I was supposed to arrive, someone opened the door and told me the school was suspended. He then called the headmistress who explained they were closed because they had no electricity and they had tried to call me, but for various reasons I did not get the call. So, I had basically spent the day exploring where the school was located and how to best get there. (Which I learned is the bus, which I can get very near my house and get to school in very short time. And it is much, much cheaper than a taxi ride.)
Anyway, this post was supposed to be about the bus ride from Cordoba to Bariloche. It was a fascinating trip, very comfortable and peaceful. What was so fascinating was that the landscape all looked so familiar. The first 8 hours or so were through the flat Pampas grasslands of central Argentina. When I say flat, I mean FLAT! There is lots of space and not much there except cows and the gauchos who herd them. It looked just like the flat prairies of the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma. The stars in that flat, empty land were glorious, filling the night sky. I could not recognize any constellations, which I believe was to be expected since I am in a different hemisphere.
I awoke before dawn and was able to watch the sunrise and take lots of photos. When the daylight exposed the terrain, it had changed dramatically, but was still very familiar. It was high desert and looked just like southern Utah, Nevada, northern Arizona & New Mexico along with southwest Colorado. I have driven through those areas many times, and this felt just like that. This too changed as we climbed higher into the mountains. The weather began to deteriorate, turning into rain and then snow. It was interesting that are first the landscape was still desert like, but it soon changed to more trees of all sorts. There were beautiful mountain lakes, a mountain stream that had become a small river, overflowing from the snow melt and rain. The rest of the trip into Bariloche looked ghostly, with a heavy fog, or cloud, or heavy snow blanketing the region. It was fascinating to me to be half a world away and again to feel so at home. It was just as though I were riding through areas in the Western US I have visited many times before, most recently last summer. I realize even with all the variety in the world, there are still certain similarities in climate zones and geological zones. Still, we tend to fantasize about the rest of the world as being more exotic than our home region (at least I do) and when we get there and discover it is more familiar than we imagined, it is just surprising. That was my primary emotion on the 22 hour ride from Cordoba to Bariloche.
If you want to see more photos of this landscape, follow this link to the Kodak Gallery album:
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