I arrived in Bahía Blanca late at night, expecting to meet Juani at the station, he was not there upon arrival, although I was not completely suprised. I was simply happy to be off the bus. After nearly 30 hours of straight travel I was ready to be done. That was officially the longest bus I have taken in my entire life. Ding Ding Ding, New Record. El Calafate to Rio Gallegos took about 5 hours, I had 1.5 hour break in RG before enbarking for another 27 hours straight north. I covered a hell of a lot of ground. The trip cost me just under 200$! Man buses are pricey here, still can´t let that go.
Bahía Blanca is an important port city. A quiet relaxed town about 600 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. It was late and I wasn´t sure whether to give up on my friend and find a place to stay or not. I decided to get a strategic taxi to an internet cafe. By chance he would be online. Shortly after coming online I got in contact with him, got his address and walked to his house. Upon arrival I was introduced to Juani´s brother and friend then a few girls that were there pre-drinking for the night. I took a shower, relaxed and then we went out for the night. Things had turned out quite well considering how the evening had began.
I cannot say a whole lot about Bahía Blanca although I had a very good time. We spent the days sleeping in, walking around the city, and relaxing. Simple living, not worrying about being a tourist or seeing everything there is to see. This comes mainly from staying with people that live this way. It was very calming, the previous 2 or 3 weeks had been constant one thing to the next. Here I am staying with locals who don´t care about what they do that day or when they wake up. I took on this lifestyle from simply being in their presence and I enjoyed it. The nights were spent with little/no sleep, as is customary here in South America, when you go out, you go out, and when you stay in, you stay up half the night doing nothing in particular, different lifestyle for sure. Juani introduced me to all sorts of his family members and friends which was really nice, once again in the presence of Argentinians and not tourists. I was planning on staying this was for sometime as I had a contact in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Brasil. All of which providing me place to stay for basically as long as I wished. Things were gonna be nice and relaxed for the next month or so, a good way to follow up on the Patagonia experience.
The last night we took a bus to Juani and Mariano´s home town, Pigué has a population of about 15,000. I am told about 90% of students from Pigué go to Bahía Blanca to study, the other 10 go to Bs. As. Thus Bahía Blanca is full of people from this town, Juani is surrounded in a nest of friends from this town and thus practically everyone I met is from there. It was a birthday of one of the friends from in the nest so they were going out there to celebrate it. They invited me to come so I changed my bus ticket to the day after. Juani ended up getting a fever the night before, he came out to the town although did not come out to the party. We arrived at about 11 o´clock so I thought we were late, there was about a dozen guys standing about. It was in a large barn in a decent sized field. There was music set up inside with lights and all. Good scene! There was a huge fire place/BBQ spot set in the wall and they already had the damn grill full of meat grilling up. Several kinds of meat, sausage, steak, bread, beer, fernet, champagne. They were going it right. BBQ or ASADO in spanish is the main fame of Argentina. Fernet is also the common argentine drink, usually taken with Coca-cola. Most foreigners hate it, but I don´t think its too bad, different, like the Yerba Mate. For the asado a pile of wood was kept off to the side and burnt down too large coals, then these coals would be lifted with a shovel and placed evenly beneath the grilling meat. This way the meat cooks slowly and evenly and does not burn. It takes a few hours to cook entirely whence the men stand around, drool at the meat and keep the drinks constantly flowing. It seemed my name preceeded me everywhere I went as though there was a Canadian in Juani company for they had everything prepared. They divided the price so that I didn´t have to pay, against my insistance and constantly made sure that my glass and plate were full. The amount of meat was absolutely incredible probably amounting to around 100 dollars of meat which the man always cooks, this is a strict rule as proof of a man having the right stuff. One particular meat, a slin big slab of half meat half fat was dressed with tomato sauce, cheese and various colours of peppers, like a pizza, I forget what they called it, but it was absolutely fantastic... This was a real Argentine night. Once the men were finished eating some scurried off to the their homes to prepare for the evening and the women, who began to arrive shortly after the pack of men had disappeared in their cars. I think that is something notable about the Argentine people. They thoroughly dress themselves up and prepare themselves but not just before they begin the night, that means we are talking around 2 or 3 am. They sure are cute, getting themselves all dampered up and ready, the women arrive in taxis and pick their way through the tall grass in their short revealing clothing and highheels. The men return after completing their own procedures roaring back in their fast or noisy (because theyre not fast but they still want to be noticed). The men jump out in their dress shirts, hair still wet from the shower and covered considerably in Eau de Toilette. They had all returned and I was left with the feeling that I had underdressed. Afterall I was wearing my nicest backpacking t-shirt, shorts and sandals! haha and no I didn´t have any Eau de Toilette either, but there was enough in the air I was getting my fair share just standing about in this throng of 30 odd beautiful human-beings. I was satisfied. Full stomach, all the drink you could want and beautiful women. Now thats Argentina!
We went out to a club late and I started walking back to Juani´s house sometime after dawn alone. I remember somehow through the noise and madness of the club Mariano telling me the house address if we got split up and that the key was hidden under a ceramic snail in a flour pot on the left side of the door. I found the snail and the key upon arrival and was passed out on the floor within a minute. I awoke and was immediately introduced to Juani´s parents who made me a nice hangover breakfast and I took the bus back to Bahia Blanca alone where I would get ready and take another bus that night to Buenos Aires where I would meet Gaspar, another friend from El Bolson and the Hielo Azul hike.
Things were lookin´good
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