Mendoza to BA Train

Sunday 8th May 1988

I didn’t wake up until 10:00 hrs. when I got up and went for a short walk around the town. Everywhere appeared to be closed. I went up to the railway station and found out that the ticket office would be open at 14:00 hrs. and returned to collect my rucksack to check it in at the Left Luggage Office.

Back at the railway station I got talking to an excitable friendly Chilean, who I will call Juan, who gave me all the information that I needed about train ticket buying. I walked around the town window shopping, as all of the shops were closed, looking at fashion clothes, leather goods and luxury sweets, including a massive Easter egg.

At 12:30 hrs. the Nevada Restaurant on the corner of Las Heras and Chile opened for business. They offered three courses plus a pudding for ₳7 Australes. I chomped my way through chicken soup, ravioli, chicken and salad and finally a bunch of grapes, served up by a pleasant smiling waitress. Great stuff and great value!

I wandered down to the main square which was fairly boring. A large flat area surrounded by trees. The museums of Art and Natural History in the centre were closed. A fire and earthquake in 1861 and another earthquake in 1985 ensured that all the buildings in Mendoza are low and new. All of the old colonial buildings were devastated long ago.

The 1985 Mendoza earthquake occurred with medium intensity in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. It took place 7 minutes after midnight on 26th January 1985 and had a magnitude of 6.2 in the Richter scale. Its epicenter was located about 45 km southwest of Mendoza, the provincial capital, at the southern end of the region's pre-Andes range, and at a depth of 5 km. It was felt as grade VIII in the Mercalli intensity scale.

The earthquake caused 6 deaths and about 100 injuries. In the affected Greater Mendoza area, where most of the provincial population is concentrated, one third of the buildings were built of adobe. Some 23,000 homes were destroyed or condemned, though the actual number might have been larger. Estimates vary between 50,000 and 100,000 people left homeless.

A report released soon afterwards stated that the main reason why the event did not produce thousands of casualties was its short duration (less than 10 seconds). In addition, the fact that it was a summer Friday night might have led many people to be sitting outside their homes, chatting with their neighbours, rather than sleeping inside.

I strolled back to the Railway Station and found Juan agitated and scampering about. He was looking for me as he was convinced that the train to Buenos Aires was about to leave, almost an hour early. I paid ₳6 Australes to reclaim my baggage from storage and jumped aboard the train, although dubious that it was even the right train.

We were shunted in and out of the station, but we didn’t leave until 15 minutes late, at 16:10 hrs. Juan was delighted that we were travelling “juntos” (together) and jabbered away regardless of the fact that I couldn’t understand much of it.

He also talked loudly to the other passengers further down the carriage and yelled banal comments out of the window, such as “clean it good,” to a man washing his car. He eventually quietened down as the afternoon lapsed into the evening.

On both sides of the railway track the pampas spread flat and featureless into the distance. There was solid low vegetation comprising of grass and low scrub bushes. Occasionally we crossed a winding river, but it was so flat that I wondered how they could flow anywhere.

Dust blew in through the chinks where the windows didn’t quite seal. It was very dry terrain. The evening passed dozing fitfully on the upright seats with only the kids squealing and jumping up and down in boredom. One particularly cute one had her hair tied up like a palm tree on top of her head and peered at us over the back of her seat.

We stopped at several stations overnight including San Luis. National Route 7 connects San Luis to Mendoza, 255 kilometres (158 miles) to the west, and Buenos Aires, 791 kilometres (492 miles) to the east.

San Luis was founded on 25th August 1594, by Luis Jufré de Loaysa y Meneses. The settlement was later abandoned and was re-established in 1632 by Martín García Oñez de Loyola as San Luis de Loyola Nueva Medina de Río Seco.

By the end of the 19th century, San Luis had 7,000 inhabitants, and in 1882 the Argentine Great Western Railway reached the city on its way to Chile.