Escaped through the Window

Escaped through the Window

Wednesday, Feb. 22, Nuquén, Argentina

I went back to my room last night without eating. I didn´t want much, so I looked for a sandwich place. I couldn´t find anywhere except three downtown bars and a fancy restaurant near my hotel. I gave up and just ate some peanuts I was carrying in my bag for such occasions.

It was obvious that there would be a children´s parade as a part of the Carnival celebrations. Families were lining up along the streets. And I saw a couple of children´s groups in costumes. I had seem similar things last year and was tired. (It was 8:45, and I knew the parade wouldn´t be for another hour or so.) So I stayed in the room and watched TV. There was a movie called A Home of Our Own that I watched.

I was up at 7:45, since I had a bus to catch at 9:45 and didn´t want to miss it. But the electricity went off around 8:00 and didn´t come back on until I was leaving at 9:00. I opened the curtains and could see enough to shower, pack, and dress. There wasn´t enough light for shaving, so I just skipped it. When I exited my room, I found myself locked in a hallway. Although there were 3 other keys on my room key, I couldn´t get any of them to open either of the doors. I knocked on the inside door. I head some noise a couple of times, but no one opened it. I returned to my bedroom and opened the window. I lowered a chair out of the window to the sidewalk, since the window was about 5 feet high and I didn´t want to jump down that far onto concrete. I jumped down to the chair and stepped down from it. Then I carried the chair to the lobby. They were surprised to see me there with my key and the chair. When we walked back through the hallway, however, the inside door was unlocked. Apparently the noise I heard was someone unlocking it in response to my knock. Why didn´t they open it to tell me they had unlocked it? Strange.

This is the first rainy day since I have been in South America. It was misty until 10 a.m. one day a few weeks ago, but then it stopped and was clear for the rest of the day. Today, however, dark clouds continue appearing and some of the rain has been heavy. I got to the bus station while it was only a light mist. As the bus made its way from Zapala to hear, I started thinking about my plans. Originally, I intended to get a room and then return to the bus station to buy a ticket for San Rafael for tomorrow. But I noticed in my guidebook that it is an 8 hour bus trip from Nuquén to San Rafael. That meant that a night bus would be better. But I didn´t want to stay in Nuquén all day today, the night, and then ANOTHER day. So I decided I should see if I could catch a bus for tonight. When we arrived in Nuquén, I was convinced that was the right decision by the location of the bus station. It wasn´t in the center near the hotels the way the guidebook had said. Instead, there is a new, modern station with a terminal that looks like an airport. It even has a control tower and automatic luggage return carousels. And the tourist office told me it is 3 km (1.8 miles) to the center of town! I bought a ticket to San Rafael for tonight at 8:00 p.m., and I am spending the day at the bus station.

Since the station is large and modern like an airport, it has shops and a food court. I went to the food court and had the plate of the day at one of the small places. It proved to be a good choice. I got the closest I have eaten to home cooking in ages. It consisted of 3 large pieces of meat covered in mixed stewed vegetables (carrots, eggplant, pumpkin, onions, cucumber, etc.) and served with mashed potatoes. The meat had to be cut with a knife, but it was tender enough to be no problem when chewing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, I am here at the cyber cafe. There are still 6 hours to go until time for my departure, but I have books to read and can go to a cafe for a dessert later.

I am a little worried because my bus arrives in San Rafael at 4 a.m.! There was a bus leaving at 11:00 I would have preferred to take. It would have gotten me to San Rafael a little after 7 a.m., but all the seats had already been sold on that one. I hope their bus station will be one where I can stay and wait until a decent hour to go out looking for a hotel. And I hope that I won´t sleep through the stop at San Rafael. I asked the ticket people to write in Spanish on the back of my ticket that I needed the conductor to let me know when we arrived there. They thought it was funny that I needed that.

I should be quite miserable by tomorrow. That will mean two days without shaving. And it will mean having gone almost 2 days without brushing my teeth. When I get into a hotel tomorrow (HOPING there will be a place with a room available when I get there), I will probably sleep the rest of the morning and then greatly enjoy cleaning up!!