So I just arrived in Buenos Aires and checked into my hostel after three bus trips across the continent.  It’s after midnight and I’m really tired so I won’t be going out to check out the city until tomorrow.  Yesterday all the buses to Argentina were sold out in Valparaí­so for the day so I took one to Santiago where I was able to find a small bus for a good price to Mendoza, which left after a couple of hours of waiting.  It turns out I chose the worst seat on the bus, which didn’t recline and wasn’t fully coupled to the floor and wobbled like mad as we crossed the road over the Andes.  So on that account I didn’t sleep much.  There were some kids from Mendoza on the bus who were pretty cool though and shared some yerba matte with me.

After we arrived in Mendoza at five this morning I found a bus for Buenos Aires that left at seven.  I’ve heard this trip is pretty bland and to some extent it is, but it wasn’t quite so boring as I had expected.  The landscape of the Argentine pampas is exceedingly flat, like I’ve only seen before in South Texas.  However it is green and covered in farmland and pasture and has a lot of streams and small lakes beading through it.  I saw a lot of ducks, birds of prey, and surprisingly some flamingos.  Really, this part of Argentina is absolutely indistinguishable from the agrarian areas of the US Midwest and some areas on the West.  It looks the same down the the modern grain silos and the signs for what pesticide is sprayed or what GMO crop is used in the fields.  If you’re interested in this sort of thing here is a link to an article concerning the genenically modified soy crop in Argentina:  Argentina Soya-fication.

I’m really looking forward to exploring the city tomorrow.  Goodnight.

(more…)