24th of October to 31st of October
Balancing busses over the plains
From Mar del Plata to Bahia Blanca was 500 km or a 6 hour bus ride.
Here in Argentina they like to let their tree branches grow quite low, which means that the branches scrape the tops of the double decker buses as they go through each town. As you’re dozing off and settling in for a long drive, you hear screech screech screeeeeeech.
Along the way we saw lots of happy healthy Cows (!future steaks :-)) on windswept plains with puddles of water, ducks, and horses. The roads were very narrow. It was like we were balancing on a beam. The bus would wobble side to side! Later we saw big dark clouds…
And after that we didn’t see much at all, because the people on the front row decided to close the curtains. I don’t understand why you would want to sit at the front window and close all curtains 🤯.
Elusive Bus 20
As we got out of the bus we were blasted with freezing cold air… When we got out of the bus station dad went on Google maps to look at buses going past our apartment. Google maps directed us to a deserted looking bus stop, where we waited for bus 20 in the dark. We waited and waited and waited. Not one bus stopped there… In the end dad looked for another bus and we had to walk a couple of blocks and found a proper bus stop. In a couple of minutes we got a bus to our apartment. By then it was almost 9pm!!! Throughout the week we kept a look out for the ominous bus 20. We saw a bus 21 and bus stop for bus 20 but never the bus 20 itself… Would it be a ghost bus?
Oh and big surprise… I have a cold. Again. I’m sure the long wait for the bus in the cold night didn’t help much…
Backyard BBQs
We were staying in a backyard apartment complex with 2 houses for rent (ours allll the way in the back). We had a cute house, that was nicely decorated and I had a proper bed again!! But you could tell that the ladies running the place (mom and daughter) had a hard time figuring out how to fix stuff… their other guests broke a lot…
There was a BBQ (which we made sure to use ;-)) but it had a hole in it, not that that stopped us!! During our stay at Bahía Blanca we BBQed 3 times. 2 times in the weekend and the other time in the week😉 (like that’s a big surprise).
We didn’t do so much in Bahía Blanca because I was sick again and we were taking it easy. But every night we would go out for a walk and during the weekends we would walk around the city…
The temperature wasn’t helping my cold either. One day it was so cold that we could see our breaths and later it started raining and there were small hail stones!!! I have never seen hail that I can remember so I was amazed!! Luckily it didn’t hail that much and it all soon melted away, but still Hail!?!?!?!
To tell you a bit more about the place: Bahía Blanca is a port city in the southwest of Argentina’s Buenos Aires province. It is known for its grand 19th- and early-20th-century buildings such as the Palacio Municipal that surrounds the Plaza Rivadavia.
The city has museums like Museo y Archivo Histórico and Museo del Puerto de Ingeniero White, but we didn’t go there.
Also, everything was very quiet on the Sunday because it was election day and people had to go vote. Therefore most shops were closed and the usual Sunday markets weren’t open.
Interesting to know:
Bahía Blanca means “White Bay”. The name is due to the color of the salt covering the local soil surrounding the shores. The bay (which is an estuary) was seen by Ferdinand Magellan during his first circumnavigation of the world on the order of Charles I of Spain in 1520, looking for a canal connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
There are lots of old buildings dotted around the neighborhood. There is also a fair deal of contemporary art, which I “Love”, like I personally don’t get it at all. I mean, sure, some of them are pretty cool (like the one on Plaza Rivadavia- see picture) but I can’t exactly see the beauty in a block of metal or a metal rope tied in a bow line 🙄…
Honour to Homeless dogs
Close to the Teatro Municipal, a big and impressive (but unfortunately pink) building, we found a statue of a dog.
We looked up the story of the statue and read that is actually a memorial to a stray dog named Cachirulo, or Cachi. He had his own Facebook page and was known all over town as a tireless walker, an honorary visitor in shops, bars and schools, always looking for affection and company, basically loved and spoiled by the entire Bahia Blanca community.
It was the idea of the Bahian Animal Protection platform- MAPA (Mascoteros Bahianes) to use the image of this famous street dog after his death to honor his memory and that of all the other homeless animals.
Sweeten the Irritation
So I’ve been getting annoyed lately because everywhere there are reminders of what I’m missing in Bocas. You see, other than Jiu Jitsu, Bocas Halloween is my pride and joy. Except for my first time dressing up and the Covid lockdown, I have won a prize every year. First it was 5$, then it’s been 10$, and even 20$!! I take pride in coming up with original ideas: Pirate (1st time- too many pirates around to be original so not a good idea), tooth fairy, water elf, highlander (scotsman (during covid)), forest elf, I even got my friends to do ‘the 4 elements’ with me!, and Greek goddesses Artemis and Demiter with my Bff!
I’m mainly mad at my parents because their travel ideas are going to make me miss out on 2 Halloweens. Which is the only time I get candy or that I dress up!!
Dad did buy sweets for me because they finally realized that was a part of the missing out they could help with. Of course he hid them from me until the last minute and gave them to me just before the bus ride to our next destination: General Roca!🍭🍬
Greetings from popsicle Gitane….🧊🥶
See y’all in the next place!!!!