El Micro

Astonishingly, there are few trains in Argentina. Apparently the British set up quite a nice system when they were down here for commercial pursuits in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, in the 1990s, Argentinian leaders let it fall into disarray. Now, from BA, there are only a handful of places you can get to by train. Most folks travel long distances by bus (el micro),of which there are several companies to choose from. We are NOT talking Greyhound. These buses are nice, nice, nice. There are 5 classes to choose from with class 1 being the best. I took the Semi-cama (class 3, cost about$52 US) out to Mendoza and Cama (class 2, cost about $66) back to BA, a difference of $14 US and well worth the upgrade. They feed you pretty good meals on the bus and the seats recline, much more than on an airplane. In Cama, you get wine with dinner, plusher seats that recline farther back and two movies at night. I was elated that one of them was The Motorcycle Diaries, which was filmed in South America. I don't know which was more beautiful, the landscape or Gael Garcia Bernal's face. I love this movie.

On the way back to BA, I sat next to Veronica, an Argentinian woman about my age. She spoke less English than I did Spanish and I certainly didn't understand everything she said. But, we became acquainted and enjoyed laughing about how bad our English or Spanish was. The benefit of traveling by yourself is that you are given the opportunity to interact with folks that you would not if you had a companion. It took me out of my comfort zone to speak what little Spanish I could, but it was fun and my Spanish improves each time I speak.