06.01.2012 Tucuman, Argentina

We found out about the "South Pass", which is a bus pass where you buy 5 trips you can use within Argentina. Be aware that bus prices are steep in Argentina compared to most South American countries. For an extra charge you are also able to drive to Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay. But as we only wanted to see something of Argentina and we wouldn't have time to go to the very south of Argentina, as this was an extra charge as well we calculated and found out we would safe a good amount of money with it as well. And so I made a route for or trip. We first would go to Salta then Mendoza, Bariloche, Puerto Madryn and finally to Buenos Aires.

Here a link to the website of the "South Pass": www.argentinabybus.com/en

To be able to get to our first stop Salta, we had to take a bus to Tucuman and then 5 hrs later a connection to Salta.

This is how it came that we had the possibility to travel and have a look at Tucuman. The busses are very modern and comfortable. This makes it more possible to survive 20hrs rides. They show a movie (most of the time even in English or at least with subtitles. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served by a host or hostess and all seats are at least "semi-cama". This means there is more space for the feet and it is reclinable for better sleeping. The lower part is the "cama" area with even more space and more reclinable seats. We had ok food and very good food offerings during our trips, so it's hard to tell what you get, but so far we didn't have to starve.

The bus terminals in the main hubs are very modern as well and some of them look like airports. In the smaller towns you will find still the "historical" stops as well. Some of the busses even have Internet connection. And some offer "suits" or "first class" seats. It's like in the airplane with the first class compartments with little walls in-between. I guess we won't be able to enjoy this treat on our transpiration.

As we got served a late lunch we were full of energy to explore the city with the time we had. It was a busy town and many shops and vendors were open. When we arrived at the main plaza the sun was already gone and the buildings looked amazing.








And there was a demonstration going on in front of one of the parliaments buildings. And "Che" was there too.


After a great sausage from a grill which stood on the street, we went back to the terminal and waited to board our night bus to Salta. It was a smooth ride and the 16hrs went by in no time.

More Tucuman pictures are here.