"Barilo, Barilo, we goin' to Barilo..."

I don't want to hear another Nene Malo song for the rest of my life...

This past week, River Plate Fútbol Femenino took an unforgettable trip to Bariloche, Río Negro, in the south of Argentina, about 1600 kilometers from the city of Buenos Aires. We left directly from our league game on Sunday (which we narrowly won 13-0 against Platense... I was drinking mates in the goal box ...) at around 6:30 p.m. and arrived in Bariloche at 4:30 p.m. the next day, only stopping once or twice to get gas – though no one was allowed off the bus in order to save time. Needless to say, after almost 24 hours on board, we were all thankful when the door finally opened and we were able to walk somewhere other than the aisle separating the rows of seats.

Traveling through Argentina by bus is an interesting experience, especially when one lives in Buenos Aires, a city with block after block after block of building after building filled with people, people, and people (and lots of dogs too) with streets filled with cars, buses, motorcycles, scooters, and bikes all fighting to get past the next guy to get to work, school, a meeting, church, a party, soccer, etc. As soon as you get about two hours west of the capital, life starts to slow down. There is more and more space between houses, cars, and people. Rarely does one hear a honking horn; (in my case all I heard was cumbia by the oh-so-wonderfully terrible Nene Malo...) the only sound is overwhelming silence interrupted by the occasional whoosh of a passing truck or car. For almost 1000 kilometers all one sees is wide open plains and fields populated mainly by livestock and soy (as well as a few humans).

La Pampa

We pass out of the province of Buenos Aires and into La Pampa without even noticing. The plains continue and the two-lane highway appears to extend infinitely into the horizon. Observing the vast, almost uninhabited landscape, one can't help but wonder why the population is so heavily concentrated in the city of Buenos Aires and the surrounding areas. Buenos Aires is not only the seat of political power in Argentina but is also home to the majority of private business and industries, many of which could be located without a problem in another less-densely populated province to promote decentralization of power. However, due to laws and subsidies which encourage centralization of power and industry in the capital, almost half of Argentina continues to reside within an area covering under 2 percent of the nation's total surface area.

Living in Buenos Aires, it's easy to forget there is more to Argentina than the city and its suburbs. In any urban setting, it's also easy to get caught up in the "fast and furious" (sorry, we just watched the fifth movie of the series on the bus...) lifestyle of the city. One of my teammates wisely observed, "Porteños are so busy going from here to there, running to work, running to workout, running to school, running to catch the bus or the subway, they forget why they are even running in the first place. If you were to stop and ask most of them why they are living, most would probably be left speechless. That's what's so great about living in the country. We live at a different pace. Even though we may not have the material wealth or comforts that come with living in the capital, we learn to enjoy our time with family and friends. We have more time to pause and think about the reasons behind why we do what we do during the day. We work to live, to support our families; we don't live to work... The city is cold and uninviting. There are so many people yet each person is isolated in his own world. If we as humans are all equal, why do we treat each other with such distrust, like strangers, like what we need to do each day is more important than what the person next to us on the bus needs to do...?"

Finally, around 2 p.m. the landscape began to change. The flat plains began to rise into rolling hills which grew gradually higher and more impressive as we drove along the winding road. We began to see small piles of snow on the shady side of bushes. Quick glimpses of the snowy peaks of the Andes Mountains began to appear as we made our way through the foothills. At one point, we found ourselves above the clouds, a view which was truly unforgettable. As we came around a bend, we saw what appeared at first to be a lake covered by fog, with snow-covered mountains in the background, but soon we realized the lake was actually clouds which had settled in the valley. Everyone rushed to grab their camera or phone to try to capture the stunning panorama, but even the best devices couldn't capture the beauty of the moment.

My attempt to capture the panorama

The remaining two hours to Bariloche were filled with oohs and ahhs as the landscape became more and more stunning. I could try to describe the views, but I think pictures are more effective.

Upon arriving to Bariloche, we were received by the municipality's Minister of Sports who took us to our hotels and helped us get settled in – though it was not easy to pull us away from the spectacular views of Lake Nahuel Huapi which greeted us as we got off the bus.

As for the rest of the trip, it'll have to wait until the next blog post because this one is quickly getting too long...

To be continued...