The First Class bus to Mendoza

The First Class seat is shown in the middle of the image above taken from the Andesmar web site.

Long distance bus travel is very common here in South America and they have modern buses that often travel overnight to provide a cheap alternative to air travel. We have used overnight buses twice in Peru and four times in Argentina. On those trips we had Semi cama or Cama seats. (Cama is spanish for bed.) For our trip from Buenos Aires to Mendoza we tried the ultimate, the First Class bus with a full bed for AUD70 per person. The company we used was Andesmar and the seats in the bus were spaced far enough apart for the back to fully recline into a flat position. There was a little padded ¨ironing board¨ that could be positioned level with the seat to support your legs and voila, a full flat bed was formed. It worked much better than any aircraft seat I have ever tried to sleep in.

All these overnight buses have a steward or hostess and serve dinner and breakfast on the journey. The quality of the food varies enormously from company to company. Our first class Andesmar bus started the journey with a game of bingo and amazingly I won! The prize was a bottle of Mendoza red wine which we are going to drink today when we have a picnic in the huge park here in Mendoza. For dinner we had a big salad followed by hot roast beef with a glass of red wine and fruit salad for desert. It was delicious and at least as good as what you get on aeroplanes. Then we watched a movie and finally champagne was brought around for a nightcap before drifting off to sleep on our cosy beds. In the morning coffee and croissants were served and by 11am we were pulling into the bus station at Mendoza.