Outside the window.....

At the Retiro bus station we wait for the (night)bus to Patagonia. It is a huge bus station. We are told to  keep together and form a circle around our suitcases. When the bus arrives we have to board quickly. Just a short stop and there it goes.

The bus leaves around 3 in the afternoon and arrives the next day late in the morning in Puerto Madryn. It is a rainy day. Before the bus reaches the pampas, it drives for almost 3 hours through the outskirts of Buenos Aires and trough La Plata. It is fascinating to see what is happening along the road. To see the the city change. To see endless streets with a depressing amount of poverty. On the other hand there is also a lot of optimistic "entrepreneurship". Streets where people live and work day in day out.

There is poor...

and there is rich.

And there is the harbor along the river Plate.

Sometimes it is wet....

But there is always something to eat....

There are small businesses everywhere... Scaffolding for rent next to a mix of sandwiches, car washing and a place to play pool. There is not much order along the streets. Being a pedestrian is hard work. Look good because the pavement is full of surprises. For people from Europe certainly the way of building might look chaotic, but believe me you get used to this. The houses are purposely built to keep the sun, the rain and unwelcome strangers out. So they have smaller windows, mostly with some sort of bars, to prevent entering and to be able to keep windows open for fresh air.

Oil change next to the stairs to heaven.  Who left this garbage under the tree?

Many street corners; but where is the traffic?

Lots of pretty things for the garden. Next door they sell large swimming pools. It means we are already out of the city center.

In many places garbage is dumped along the road....

Probably this castle is also a home.....

Second hand things for building and new play-houses for children for sale.... and it is possible to rent the rooms upstairs. 

At the bus stop people wait in orderly queues. 

Nice fruit, but to get there.....

This building must be "under construction".....

Meanwhile some orderly queue of people waiting for a bus....

Now the business is done "The small market" is parked in the verge.

A fence made of three different pairs of gates (interesting use of wheels in the middle set).

After some time there is a change. This part of the city is so rural that horses graze along the street.

But then we are in the next city; La Plata.  We pass a main street with a building in the colonial style. 

Further down the road also these kind of derelict looking places.....

The municipality tries to lift the spirit: "La Plata - we share the city" .....

..... with this small railway that winds through this neighborhood.

Here you want to have an ice cream.....

As we leave the city Christina Kirchner (the president of Argentina) waves us goodbye. Yes we still have a long way to go - 1300 kilometers...

The never ending streets with the houses and shops and other constructions make way for a never ending landscape....... We are in the countryside. It is completely and absolutely FLAT; you could think you were in one of the Dutch polders.  It starts getting darker. The landscape has no more surprises.... The bus is very comfortable. We can close our eyes now.