1049 Felt shit this morning of course but got up, Skyped parents and checked out at 10. Had breakfast at hotel, currently lurking there but about to trek over to bus terminal. Have a feeling I may not have the aisle seat I asked for as my seat no is 35 but can't be helped and even semi-cama should be better than a plane.
Will hopefully waffle later to fill in details yday. Right now not happy I am heading to a hotel which I am paying through the nose for (I expect it to work out at about 45 quid a night) and which doesn't offer wifi except at USD2/hour in public areas.
1126 At bus terminal. Bit sweaty but walk not too bad and it's fairly cool in here.
1132 OK, let's start to waffle about yday. Not going to harp on Ziggy being ill, except that apart from probably altering my mood in ways I am not quite aware of, that makes me less inclined than ever to stay in a dormitory and makes wifi availability for Skype more important than usual. Normally it would be OK if not ideal to not have wifi for a few days, especially if there's a chance of access in a cafe or something.
So I went over to the bus terninal the first time, which is a fair old trek, and all the ticket offices were shut. I checked the opening times on lots (bus terminal not huge but might be 5-10 scattered around) and anyway they didn't open til 5. My preferred company based on guidebook had a timetable on their office showing daily bus to Bariloche taking 14h overnight.
By the time I walked back into town there was only an hour or two before it was time to walk back to the terminal. I wanted some food but nowhere was open except Cafe del Sauce as blogged yday. I didn't really have time to try going across the river to Patagones of course.
Anyway, when I got back to terminal, the preferred company didn't have a seat (I asked, and though I was dazed and confused, I am pretty sure there were departures every day, also it said that in writing on the timetable) until Tuesday, ie two days after I wanted. Apart from not wanting to waste time, it is fucking expensive here and there were no obvious hostels I could try walking into off street. I had checked availability of my hotel here (which was Hotel Austral) earlier that day and they had a room Sunday night at 42 quid IIRC.
Anyway, I tried other windows. One other company had a bus taking 16 hours but next bus or free seat was Monday. Wandering the terminal desperately I looked at maps and other available destinations. Of course I didn't have most chapters of my guide book on phone. (The ones I just bought I got one file per book, which is better.)
There seemed to be a lot of buses to Bahia Blanca but that was the wrong direction. Also I did look back at hotel later out of curiosity and I couldn't find any cheap hotels there either.
So I saw a company with a bus to Neuquen. I was sufficiently flustered by this point to struggle more than usual with language and I bought semi cama ticket for ARS290 figuring it was at least taking me towards Bariloche. This is the bus I am waiting for now.
1150 Keep taking break as frustrating to write, poss not used to phone kbd yet.
1213 On bus. I am in an aisle seat. No one next to me yet and top (semicama) deck mostly empty but we aren't due to leave til 1220 so not counting my chickens (plus we stop a number of places en route to final destination Neuquen).
1219 Should say drivers in Viedma quite often seemed to stop to wave me across road. Also, saw quite a few (ie not that many, but a noticeable quantity of) Citroen 2CVs and lost dog posters.
1436 Still got double seat. Let's write paragraph or two more re yday.
So went back to hotel to book Neuquen hotel. Fuckety fuck. booking.com has 200+ properties but says 90% booked. expedia has about four. hostelworld lists Neuquen but shows 0 properties, I assume it has one or two only and hence lists name but all full. Tried random web searches, including some wanky Argentinian aggregator which said some place had rooms at USD42 but it didn't when you tried to book. Tried phoning couple of places from guide book (got up to date phone nos on web) via Skype, didn't even get hrough. At this point I checked Bahia Blanca hotels to see if worth just throwing Neuquen tkt away and going there, but as said earlier just as pricey there if not more.
1449 Was losing plot a bit at this point. Wanted food too. Was a single hostel with dormitory bed at about ten or eighteen quid a night but for reasons noted wasn't up for that. In hindsight if it had proper wifi might still be better than the hotel I did get. Anyway finally had to suck it down and book this place for two nights via not-going-to-say.com; price is quoted in dollars and I expect I am going to get shafted on the exchange rate, which rankles when ngts.com quote prices in pounds using an exchange rate they *know* is not realistic. But they were best of a bad lot, so had no choice. [Filled in later: this was OK actually, see below. Which makes me wonder what happened with the BA hotel, and also how to interpret prices in future.]
Cos I am only there for two nights I am going to be rushed there and also worried when I go to bus terminal tomorrow morning to book to Bariloche might have problems. Though it is close enough I hope are lots of buses. Cos it is so expensive and not particularly tourist-attractive (so I'm paying a lot for a little) I am only staying two nights. This continues the 'hurrying around and frankly doing little except sorting out onward travel' feeling I already had a bit in Viedma.
1513 I had planned to see Patagones either yday after buying ticket or today before getting bus at 7. Obviously neither panned out. Hotel was right next to guide book ferry pier but I went on there about 6pm yday thinking I might spend an hour or two over there and saw no sign of ferry despite guide book saying every few mins til 1030pm. Then went to try to find food. Serious shortage of restaurants.
Wandered futilely. Looked at guide book on phone. Only listed a few places and most sounded shit. Tried best of bunch, La Octava or something. Open. Took ten minutes to get menu *after waiter asked me what I wanted*, not ten minutes from sitting down. Main dishes were all 'avec', pizzas were priceyish. I just walked. Found La Sozzia's pizza place which was still a touch pricey but cheapish for beer and I was getting seriously desperate (nearly went back to Bucanero), had a large ham, cheese and pepper pizza and a litre of Quilmes which IIRC was ARS108+12 tip. Didn't quite finish pizza but had 7/8s. Bit bloated and forced last of beer down. Was getting late and apart from minor dog worries after dark (I had one fucker get a bit stroppy in broad daylight with loads of people round by river earlier, I possibly showed too much fear but the cunt did follow me a bit, anyway, it was fine last night) and wanted to try to surf a bit and also had to pack.
1920 Dozed a bit earlier. While I remember guide book says the world's longest kayak race (500km) takes place between Viedma and Neuquen along the Rio Negro, ie the journey I am currently making overland.
2148 At hotel. OK, credit where it's due, while I have nothing in writing if I remember what the girl on desk said and what I handed over and the change they only charged me ARS556 for the two nights, which suggests a 'fair' dollar rate (I had calculated it would be nearly 1000). On the other hand, the taxi from the bus terminal cost (on the meter; maybe he put me on some scam rate or it's night prices) ARS62. I asked at desk and there is no restaurant round here open now (possibly not at all); she said I'd have to take a taxi into centre but I said I couldn't afford it. I think she offered to phone for delivery food but I was slightly (only slightly) brusque about that. There is a little shop just down the road, which I went to. A big packet of crisps was ARS33; no, thank you. I got a packet of biscuits and a bottle of H2Oh Citrus and a bottle of water for ARS45. I think this is phenomenally expensive but am not sure. Maybe this is late night Sunday only place open getting away with it. Or maybe Neuquen exists only to suck money out of the pockets of tourists. I should chill a bit, the hotel using a sane rate of exchange makes it pricey for what it is but not too insane, I have kind of lowballed myself by getting super worked up about the hotel, that rage has spread and exists even now the hotel price has been OK. I do stll think the taxi and the food are expensive, but it could be worse. If breakfast is included I may try to get up for it. Then I will walk the 6km or so (says 3.5km on web when booking; no fucking chance, GPS says something like 5km from bus terminal and that's in a straight line) to the bus terminal and enquire about Bariloche buses.
It is warm here, not intolerably so (good job, as airconditioner in room is inacessible and I suspect but don't know only usable on payment of extra fee to get remote) but bit of a contrast from the bus (which was fine but not fiercely a/c; I didn't wear my jacket).
Glad I didn't pay extra for cama, the bus was mostly empty and I had a double seat all the way and for a daytime journey that was perfectly adequate. I am getting really worked up about the cost lately, the (loose) budget feels like it's being blown madly. But this perhaps ties in with my not quite finished rant yday (tho all factual bits re yday written) and might write it later.
2205 There is a secured wifi network called Hotel. I expected a wanky system like in the Chandigarh hotel. I might go ask about wifi as despite the 2USD/h claim on website I don't see how that could be enforced with a normal network, unless you need a password just to log on to get to the wanky system.
No one on desk, I could go ring the doorbell but will wait. No sockets in room btw unless you count the one for tv way up on wall, there is one in bathroom fortunately.
2214 Middle aged woman owner (girl is her daughter) came to desk, v helpful actually. Got wifi password, it's free, breakfast is included and is till 10 or half past ish. She said there is a supermarket 8 blocks down road open 24h; I wouldn't have liked to try that tonight but worth remembering for tomorrow. Feel a bit churlish now things have worked out a bit better than I expected, meh. Will send this now anyway.
I am in room 101...
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