Beeline

It´s 9:05 in Salta, Argentina and I have just finished my first Argentinian steak dinner. Yesterday morning I hoped on a bus at Sucre, Bolivia to take me to the border at Villazon.
The man sitting next to me was from Argentina. How I knew...he hugged his thermos of mate the entire bus trip. They truly do love their mate.
I was prepared for a simple 12 hr bus ride and arrival at the border in the middle of the night...okay I was a little nervous about the arrival thing but the Bolivia/Argentina border is as good a place as any to camp out right? The thing about ´direct buses´in Bolivia is that they are anything but. Every couple hours we´d stop at a terminal..and if there was no terminal for people to get off/on at, we stopped in the middle of nowhere. At hour 4 we drove through the mining town of Potosi. At first glance it appears to be a garbage dump. I kidd you not. Everywhere you looked there was litter, it is a common sight in Bolivia but from what I saw in Potosi, it was worst there. It is also the highest city in the world, sitting at some 4090meters. Most of the population is miners, all of which chew coca religously. As we ventured further, we passed numerous farms and entered a more uninhabited area. We stopped at a resturant at 7:30pm where I was informed that we still had 8 hours to go, meaning arrival at 3:30am. I almost hoped that we would continue to stop so that I would have less time to sit alone a the border.
Then the road turned to crap. My brain is so rattled, I wouldn´t be surprised if none of this makes sense! For about 9 hrs of the trip we were on a dirt road (highway?) and my window kept being rattled open, making it even more impossible to sleep as I was frightened of my head falling out, or at least getting cold. At 2:30 we stopped at another terminal and I thought ´hah we´re early!´ but was disapointed to findout that we weren´t there yet. At 3:30 (this is 14 hrs into the trip) I greatly anticipated being on my own two feet..so at 4:30 it was nice to get off the stupid bus. It was also the first time in my trip that I´ve been greatful for the hassling travel agents (selling me an overpriced ticket to Salta). I hopped off the bus and went straight to their office where I promptly crashed on their couch for 2 hrs (the extra money for the ticket covered the couch I guess), until the sun shone and the border opened. Crossing into Argentina was just as simple as crossing to Bolivia. I think the Canadian passport really does help! So I was in. Luciana (a local girl who´d been traveling in Bolivia and is a total sweetheart) and I hiked up to the bus terminal, waited another hour and then got onto a beautiful Argentinian bus. An hour in we were stopped, herded out and sent through customs. Again, the Canadian passport aided me in not having my bag searched. They had real drug sniffing dogs too! Then we got back on the bus and drove the smooth, real highway, for 6 more hours and arrived in Salta completely bagged. I met up with Caroline from Sweden and we found a hostel where I had a wonderful nap and the best shower of my trip thus far. Dinner was a real treat and now I plan to sleep it off. Tomorrow Caroline and I hope to go to Cachi and then on Thursday night I will take another bus cama to Cordoba. I´ve been in Argentina for 12 hours and absoultely love it. It´s beautiful, clean and I don´t get nearly as hassled as in Peru/Bolivia.
Also, South America doesn´t celebrate Halloween, it´s a total gringo holiday! So, Happy Halloween everyone, I hope you all had a good one!


xoxo Erin