Constitucion train station and travel to Bahia Blanca

it is time for the first blog entry "on foot". I am currently sitting in a bumpy train coupe heading towards Bahia Blanca, 654 km south of the city of Buenos Aires.

From the moment I exited the front door of the apartment, I decided to do it the backpacking way, this means walking and utilizing public means of transport to largest extent possible. So, after being treated with an astronomically sized ice cream from my favourite place, I started the journey by a walk to the subway station, which would take me to the train station of Constitucion, where all the trains south depart from.
Walking with a backpack through the, by now, very well known neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, made me feel like a turist again, reminding me of the first days of arriving to Argentina. The same feeling of expectation I had back then, for everything that was lying ahead of me, appeared again and this was of course a good sign.

The train station hall

I arrived to the Constitucion train station almost an hour before train departure. So I had, some time to look around. I knew beforehand that this area wasn't the safest one in Buenos Aires, so, gringo as I am, I was on guard. However, I couldn't resist from taking out my camera and photographying the beautiful train station building. I bet it's designers imagined a more gloriuos destiny for the building than it has now; surrounded by highway and other buildings not as near beautiful as this pearl.

The train arriving

The train

One thing that still surprises me is the Portenos (citizens of BuenosAires) queuing discipline; in this big city, people perfectly stay in line at bus stations, in supermarkets and in this case, also train stations. I was tempted to follow my instinct and subtilly move to the front of the line, avoiding any potentially discouring eye contact, but I guess living one year in a city assimilates you.

Interior of the train

At 23.10, without any announcement, the lights in the train coupe were shut down and it became completely dark. As we were in the middle of endless Pampas, The only light to be spotted was from the stars and of course, mobile phones. Probably many cows out there, digesting the kilograms of grass eaten during the day. The Argentine pampas is an enormous grassland , almost as big as Sweden and Italy together, provides fresh grass all year round, which makes the Argentine beef so tender and tasty. When the spaniards first came to Argentina, in order to colonize it, they brought cows but colonization turned out harder than expected and many settlements were abondoned and the cows were left behind. Having few natural enemies, with rich food supply, the cows rapidly increased in number. The Argentinian similarity to cowboys, Gauchos, would back in the days suppose to be feeding on such cows - just catching them in the wild.

The station

Arriving to Bahia Blanca

After a 14 hours (did I mention bumpy) ride, I finally arrived to Bahia Blanca. I managed to get some sleep, even if it was interrupted from time to time by the carriage basically "jumping" on the tracks. The railway isn't prioritized in Argentina, and many railway tracks are taken out of service due to unprofitability and hence poor maintenance. At the time of the second world war, Argentina had 47000km of railroad, today only 34000km (source: wikipedia). This is a pity, because given the large distances, a modern railway system would make the transport of people and goods more eficient. Now, the main main for overland transport for people are buses - I am testing that tonight and I have great expectations.



But first, I will stroll around in Bahia Blanca.

Translation: Lounge for women only

On my way

..then I am on my way! Heading towards the Constitucíon train station in Buenos Aires to take the night traing towards Bahia Blanca, which lies ~600 km south. Departs 19.45 local time (00:45 CET), estimated arrival 09.30 (14:30 CET)

 Wish me luck!

What to pack on a backpacking and fishing trip

I quickly realized that my 50 liter backpack was going to fill up pretty quickly. As I am going to Patagonia, which is far far south and it's already autumn, I have to bring warm clothes, spare socks, sweaters but also all the necessary electronic equipment worthy a modern backpacker. In the end, I have to prioritize and make room for the electronics - if any problem arise, it should be solvable with an Internet search.

The electronic equipment

First of all, a good camera with exchangeable lens so that I can shoot the endless Pampas and the massive Andes. The battery is charged and the SD memory card is empty - check!

Secondly, a smartphone and a tablet, which I have loaded with books, maps, travel guides and of course, a lot of music and pod casts. This is a must in order to survive the long trips (everything from 3 to 16 hours) in along my route. Among the pod casts I have Swedish documentaries from the public service radio and of course from TEDtalk.

You may see from the picture below, that I am bringing a key (Bluetooth) keyboard and since I intend to update this blog along the trip, I hope it to be rather convenient. Pairing a Bluetooth keyboard to a tablet was extremely easy - just put it in discoverable mode (remember to unpair with any devices it may be paired with already, as in my case, a mac mini) and ad it as a Bluetooth device on your tablet. So, I will not have an excuse for typos :(

The white lite thingy is a camera connector kit, so that I can import the photos from the camera directly into the tablet and use them via the blog mobile application to create blogs.

So - if you haven't figured it out yet, the technical part was really fun to plan.

Electronic equipment for the trip

The rest

Then I have some clothes and a fishing rod with me as well

The final backpack - doggy excluded

Making updates to the blog as I travel

I have just downloaded a mobile application so that I can update the blog as I travel ( I will not be bringing a computer).

According to the description of the app, it should be capable of writing posts and uploading images - which will be more than enough!

Hello World, I guess!

Route - 4000 km from Buenos Aires - Puerto Madryn - Bariloche - Junin de los Andes with train, bus and car

Show larger map

I am planning a trip!

(G) Buenos Aires - (B) Bahia Blanca - (C) Puerto Madryn - (D) San Antonio Oeste - (E) Bariloche - (F) Junin de Los Andes - (G)Buenos Aires.      (distance covered > 4000 km)

What first started as a day or two fishing trip got evolved to a backpacking trip covering more than 4000km, involving train, bus, car, bike(?) and of course walking. If you would have asked my if this what I had in mind, when I walked to the local fishing store a cold winter day in Stadshagen, Stockholm, to acquire my first fly fishing rod, the answer would probably been somewhat more modest, in parity with a local lake or stream. Given that I never had done backpacking  nor fly fishing before, I thought, why not unite the two? I am certainly in the correct place for it; Argentina and Patagonia are ideal for it.

My goal was to fish for a couple of days in what is oftentimes referred to as trout fishing capital, Junin de los Andes, so I could just have taken the direct bus from Buenos Aires but, why make it easy (and less fun)?  So I figured, hey, I've got plenty of time and since arriving to Argentina (almost a year ago when this post is written) I have barely traveled. What I have done, apart from learning Spanish  is evaluating destinations and travel options. To my own surprise, I chose to travel with train!

While the Argentinian trains may not be the given choice to travel around in 8th biggest country in the world, there is something romantic about trains, at least from the my very cozy spot in the sofa. Well on board the train, the reality may strike me as the distance from (A) Buenos Aires to (B) Bahia Blanca of 680 km is covered in nothing less than 14 hours. That give us barely an average speed 50 km/h. The fastest man alive reaches around 37km/h, 100m sprint that is. The worlds fastest train, CRH380A,  reaches 486 km/h. 

Luckily, I am allowing myself to travel in Pullman class, including air condition and reclinable seats for only 140 ARS (~ 30 USD) - a report about that experience to follow.

In Bahia Blanca, I will spend a day, not knowing yet what do and see, but I will have a lot of time to read the guide book I am bringing along. Besides, I kind of like the name of Bahia Blanca, so it got to be interesting.

After strolling around in Bahia Blanca, I will be taking the long distance bus to (C) Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, which departs at 20.30 on Wednesday, arriving at 06.00 the following morning. I have heard a great deal about the comfortable buses in Argentina and finally I will have the chance to familiarize with one my self. To be on the safe side, I choose the best available class, which is CAMA (translation: bed) which means that you can recline the seat, making it flat, like a bed. Looking forward to seeing that for my self, as I usually have difficulties sleeping in buses, air planes etc.

The following day, on Friday, I take bus north to a small town called San Antonio Oeste, still in Patagonia. I will only have one hour between my arrival until the night train takes me to Bariloche, the famous Argentinian ski resort, surrounded by Andes close to Chilean border. As I will travel between seasons (being the summer and winter seasons), I don't expect that there will be too much activity, so I will have good possibilities to see the surrondings, watch the famous architecture, which I heard can be compared with the one from Swiss villages by the European Alps. Last and not least, they say the chocolate is fantastic!

How good it may sound, I plan on heading north to Junin de los Andes, already the next day, on Sunday, and I have decided to rent a car, which will be absolutely a good bargain in the low season. I plan on driving the famous route of "siete lagos" (seven lakes) where the scenery suppose to be magnificent. If everything goes well, and if the mother nature's beauty doesn't keep me stopping every 10 minutes to enjoy the view, I should be in Junin de los Andes in the evening, ready to explore the promising fishing waters. Writing this, I am putting expectations of great catches - it may be somewhat embarrassing if my fishing luck isn't with me :)

Keep 'em fingers crossed!