Tim_Day 29-33 (Getting to Salta)

Day 29 Continued
Pretty much hung out all that day. Met some really cool guys from England and Ireland. They were pretty funny and we drank beers till late in the night and told jokes and old funny stories from our past. They were talking about the mine were headed to and it sounds really cool. They bought 5 sticks on dynamite and used 3 of them to blow up a watermelon. Really cool. It was raining a little that night and it was nice to sleep in a warm bed in cold country.



Day 30
Woke up and farted around most of the morning. Around 11:00 we decided to go on a bus to one of the local lakes. The lake was nice and very relaxing. We spread out or sheet and layed there for about 3 hours sleeping and lazing around. We finished writting the postcards to the kids back home and ate lunch. I bought some peanut butter in the large supermarket downtown and it makes the best sandwiches. Man I miss American food and it was nice to have the good bread down here with peanut butter.

After the lake we decided to walk to the "two eyes" in the river just a few kilometers down the road. It started as a nice walk but turned into a journey. My feet were sore from the volcano hike and I was getting frustrated with how far we walked. We ended up walking total for about 3.5 hours. About 2 hours of it was on dusty roads where I must have consumed about a pound of Chiliean dirt. Maybe that will help settle my stomach?

Our mistake was not to add the 2 hours to the time they said it would take. They said .5 hours and it took about 2.5 hours from the lake. Now we know the rule not only applies to the time the bus says it will get to a destination but also to hiking trails. The good thing was at the end the "two eyes" in the river really sucked. Man I was glad Ana had the brilliant idea to walk the whole thing.

After getting back we cooked some pasta for dinner and hung out. We had the room to ourselves which is always nice. The guy who crashed in our room the night before snored like a elephant. Good times.



Day 31
Woke up and headed out to catch our bus in the morning. It was an interesting bus stop. It basically looked like you were standing in someone´s front yard. There was a logo of the bus company we wanted to take on a small shack. Looking in the window you could see one desk and chair strategically placed in the open room to take up space. The little printed paper in the window said buses come on Mon, Tues, and Wed. Interesting since we were there on a Sat. morning with no one else in site and the place was closed. Luckily the bus was only a half hour late and picked us and a few more poeple up. I would have been pretty pissed if we missed our connection to Salta the next day.

The bus ride was the usual. Passing borders again. Waiting in line while 4 guys do nothing and one guy is doing all the work of typing the passport number in the computer. Sometimes the borders are really smart and they have one guy type the passport number in the computer and the other guy stamp the passport. Good old goverment workers. I guess there the same in every part of the world. DMV´s are the same in America.

Anyway we made it to San Martin and checked in to our old place. We went and had a really expensive dinner at the local resturaunt. We wanted to have some really good beef before we left the country. Ended up being ok. I wasn´t so impressed. The wine was good though and helped smooth out the evening.

Sleep good in our dorm room. Sleep in a room with another cute couple from Canada. This stop in the city was nice. We knew where everything was and I haven´t felt comfort like that in a while. Takes allot of stress out of the day and my mind.



Day 32
We woke up in the morning and cooked a really large breckfast for brunch. Had potatoes and eggs with lots of butter. Was great. Potatoes are one of the foods were really enjoying. The large meal was going to be our last till we got off our 36 hour ride to Salta. Oh joy another bus ride.

We boarded the bus around noon and headed to Salta. The trip pretty much sucked. Were getting more used to being in buses so it wasn´t that bad. But spending valuable vacation time on a bus isn´t where I want to be. I did get allot of time to read my spanish books. Damn language is hard to get. I feel like I´ve spent a good amount of time trying to learn it but I still feel like I don´t know anything. I guess when you think about it there are a ton of words in a language. To try and memorize them all is going to take more than a couple weeks. I´ve made it my goal over the next year to get enough of a grasp of the language so I can communicate with people poorly. If I can get that much of a knowledge base I think the rest will come with time. We´ll see.

We got a really nice meal for dinner. Little peice of hot meat with mash potatoes. Was suprising. Just like airplane food. We transfered buses in the evening right before a large lightning storm was bearing down on the city. We had the top front seats on the bus and could see everything. I was like a little kid saying to Ana ¨Did you see that?¨ About 6,000 times. She replied ¨Yes, I saw that¨ in her annoyed voice. The storm didn´t get us very wet since we were driving away from it but it was beautiful to see and was right at sunset so the colors and the smell in the air were amazing. I loved it.

Spent that night sleeping on the bus. Wasn´t bad. Moved around all night but somehow managed to sleep and feel rested in the morning.



Day 33
Woke up that great bus engine noise and that crusty dry ass taste in my mouth. Luckily I woke up just in time for the big breckfast they were serving. 2 cookies in a wrapper with some crackers. Damn that was filling. Overall though we were pretty rested and ready for another whole fun filled day of sitting on the bus.

We passed through some nice country as we wound our way up north. The double decker buses seem to rock allot on top since they are so top heavy. The roads are pretty curvy as well so pretty much the whole time I had a little sea sick feeling in my stomach. Ana did to later that day because she read to long with her head down.

We drove all day and into the night. The environment was changing and getting hotter and dryer. More desert like. We had a good lunch though. They feed us some chicken with rice. The bad things was they didn´t give us any dinner so we were pretty hungry when we arrived in the little city 30 minutes outside of Salta at 1:00am. Not the time you want to arrive into a new city but the only option we had.

We got off the bus and found that the only way to get to the city at that time was to take a taxi. Ana found an old guy with a regular car that called himself a taxi. He said it was 8 pesos per person to go to the city. Interesting. Was he a murderer or a nice guy trying to make a buck late at night? We decided to role the dice and said ok.

He walked us to his car just across the street and we threw our bags into trunck. It was on hardcore performance car let me tell you with 3 gauges that didn´t work mounted on the left side of the driver like a funny car. I was suprised when he turned over the key and the car actually started. Sounded like a lawn mower with no exaust. He dropped the clutch and we were off. Shacking and rattleing down the road. I could have swore I heard some large parts falling off as we drove the 30 minutes to downtown Salta.

As scary as that ride was it was also very magical. The night was pitch black and we were headed to a city we knew nothing about. The moon was half full and bright on the horizon. The driver and the drunk guy in the front talked to each other in Spanish. The car and the conditions were very normal and they were quiet confortable while me and Ana and the other girl seemed a little uptight and uneasy. They both had the front windows down and were blowing smoke in our faces in the back. The hum of the engine was mesmorizing and was putting me to sleep. I didn´t want to touch my head against the roof of the car since it seemed so dirty but after a little while I gave in and leaded against it. I wanted to rest my neck and my eyes. The guy up front ate a pack of candy I think and threw the wrapper and any trash he had out the window. No one gave a second thought to the fact that he was polluting. Just as natural and thoughtless as breathing.

We arrived in Salta a little while longer. We were tired and luckily the guy drove both me and Ana right to our hostel. After a litlte negotiating and figuring out we got our own room with a queen bed. This was the first night we had sleep side by side since the trip started. All the other places have been on different beds. Was nice feeling to collapse on the crooked bed and fall alseep next to each other. Athought we were both very tired we didn´t sleep that good. We woke up several times in the night and overall were pretty tired the next morning.

t*