Zapala

Zapala is a sleepy small town but is one of the hubs when travelling to several destinations.  Having to spend 4 hours there before my bus to El Heucu was long.  When I left Buenos Aires it was so hot I was wearing a light cotton dress that I had purchased in Hawaii.  It was great for the bus ride however arriving in Zapala was totally inappropriate.  It was much cooler and blowing hard.  I changed into something warmer in the restroom of the bus station and then  I purchased my ticket which was 95 pesos.  Now since I didn't want to haul my suitcase around town I decided to scope out the friendliest face among all the ticket agents to see if I could park my bag in their office.  I wrote out what I thought the request in Spanish would be and then gave it to him.  Didn't expect him to agree to this as no one else seemed to be doing this but the fellow said sure.  What a relief.  Walked around town and found a grocery store.  Bought some fruit and yogurt and walked some more.  None of the restaurants seemed to be open and I wasn't really hungry so I returned to the station, got out my IPad and read.  Again the bus was on time but this bus was totally different.  More like a city bus and loaded with locals.  Off we went and very quickly found ourselves on unpaved, windy roads through the country.  We had to stop a couple of times for herds of goats filling the roadway.  Also a few horses that required a little persuasion to use the side of the road and let us pass.   There were groups of authentic gauchos off to the side as well as this is a time of roundup.  Dusty and hot (air conditioning ? Hardly!)

We arrive at El Heucu in 4 hours and Skye is waiting for me.