By: Zach Jesberger '11
Say you wanted to take a weekend vacation up to San Francisco, or a ski trip up in Colorado...You would probably take a plane or just drive yourself, right? Not in Argentina. There you would just take the Ómnibus. This is just a big, sort of double-decker charter bus that almost everyone uses for travel in Argentina.
Now, our minds may think, "Screw that, I'd rather just take a plane and be there sooner," but there are many plus sides to taking the Ómnibus. It costs a lot less than an airplane, so in these tough times, that can be very helpful, and also has much more comfortable seats. There are three different types of seats, and we traveled on all of them.
The Quarto Cama (quarter bed) was the smallest, but still had more room on every side than an average airplane seat. They had a pull-down foot rest and reclined back comfortably. The Semi Cama (half bed) was similar, just a lot wider, with a bigger foot rest, and reclined father. As you may have guessed, the Cama (full bed) was similar to the first two as well, but this one reclined to basically horizontal and had a larger footrest as well.
Karl Heiland '10 and Andrew Anderson '10 get some good sleep on their Semi Camas.
A nice aspect of the Ómnibus was that there was no racism whatsoever; it catered to many different cultures. Movies were frequently shown, and we ended up seeing some in 4 different languages. The majority was English movies that contained Spanish voice-overs, but some were English as well. We also watched a German rock climbing movie, and the beginning to "Confessions of a Shopaholic" in what I believe was Russian. This provides a comfortable, enjoyable, and affordable travel for anybody from vacationers to traveling businessmen.
Although the bus is relaxing and enjoyable, many of the more interesting experiences can be found in the Estación (station) itself. There is a wide variety of stores, from the very popular Kioscos (Kiosks, like a Circle K kind of), to restaurants to magazine stores. There is never a shortage of things to do there, believe me; we were at one for three hours once.
The Argentines perception of an average American breakfast. This is sold at many different bus stations.
Finally, the most interesting things at these bus stations can be the people that you meet there. One of our most absurd encounters on the trip involved a strange fellow that we called the Garlic Man. He sung to us in Spanish, tried to sell us garlic from a stick he carried on his back, and then creepily snuck away. Later, we found him lurking near us again; we were afraid, but luckily he didn't have his eye on us students. Instead, he worked his way behind Mr. John Damaso '97, and planted a kiss right on kiss shoulder. Why, I have no idea, but there is only on proper response to events such as these at bus stations...What the hell?
By: Zach Jesberger '11
