Day 86 : Journey to Mendoza

Finally after 19 hours of bus journey, I reached Mendoza!  The bus ride wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I had a few surprises along the way.

First, while storing our luggage in luggage compartment of the bus, I was shocked when the luggage boy openly demanded for a tip before giving me my luggage docket. 

I was never asked for a tip during the whole time I had been in South America and so this came as a surprise.  Dug into my wallet and pulled out 2 Peso (approximately S$0.60), which was the last smallest note I had in my wallet and handed to him.  I later noticed that the other passengers had prepared about 2 Pesos each in their hands to give to the luggage boy and reckon that it is a practice in Argentina.

I got on the bus and was told that my seat was on the 1st level (it is a split level bus).  I found myself facing 9 big comfy looking leather chairs of which one was mine.  Ooooh, I feel exclusive! 

The 2nd level were filled with about 50 semi-cama seats which were regular coach seats, and I am really glad that I had opted for cama as they were definitely more comfortable with wider seats.  It was only able to tilt about 60 degrees which was not great, though I was still able to get a good rest throughout the long journey ahead.

At about 10.30pm, we were suddenly presented with a tray and a plate of different food.  Didn’t realise that meals will be served on the bus, and was a little taken aback when I dug into the rice portion of the plate and it was cold!  At this point, I was fairly glad that I had taken something light earlier before boarding the bus.

Within 5 mins, I was presented with another foiled box which was hot, and opened it up to discover 2 slices of roast beef and lots of mashed potatoes.  The combined portion is definitely better than what is offered on a plane, but it was a huge portion for a dinner at that hour!  I think I barely ate half of it before returning the tray.

I went to get some rest subsequently while waking up intermittently on a number of occasions, especially when the bus stops to pick and drop off passengers, which was pretty frequent though never spending more than 10 minutes at each stop.

Woke up at about 7.30am and was presented with a box which I suppose was our breakfast, containing assortments of tea / coffee, and 2 packets of pastry and a packet of biscuit.

At about 11.30am, we were presented with another box, which contained a ham and cheese sandwich roll, and guess that was early lunch for us! 

I took 1 of the 2 apples out from my bag, and just as I had finished eating, someone got on the bus to check out bags and seeing that I had an apple in my bag, he said in Spanish which I understood that it was not allowed. 

If my Spanish was more adequate, I would have asked why, since we weren’t travelling between countries and the apple was bought in Salta.  So without further questions, I handed the fruit over to the guy.

About an hour later, the bus drove past vineyards after vineyards, and I assumed that the earlier checkpoint was setup for the same agriculture reasons as in Australia and New Zealand that prohibit fresh fruits and other products that may be detrimental to their agricultural or wine industry.

I later saw a sign on the entrance of the bus, which I would never have read or know what it would have meant until the incident happened, stating that fresh fruits and other agricultural products is prohibited in Mendoza.  Blame it on my poor Spanish skills!

Finally got to Mendoza at 4.15pm and having ran out of small notes, prepared 1 Peso in coins to give to the luggage boy and apologised to him saying that I had no other cash on me. 

At least this luggage boy was grateful and said thank you, unlike the one in Salta where I had a rude shock!