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So I am a little bit behind on the blog entries, sorry everyone, but when have you ever known me to be on time anyway.... lets start from the begining shall we, about 8 weeks ago...
South American busses continue to provide amazing representations of the countries themselves. This particular journey was from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina - and was supposed to take 7 hours. By now however we know that the South American concept of time is a lose concept at best. As we left Santiago we drove through beautiful green fields with snow capped mountains in the background. We entered the mountains and started up the switchbacks with peaks towering above us on all sides. To add to the wonder, square in the middle of the switchbacks was a chairlift ferrying skiers up to the ski hill from the parking lot at the bottom. So as our bus wound its way up the hill we were constantly looking up to see feet and skiis dangling from chairs above. After ascending the mountain we entered into the Chile-Argentina border control, what can best be described as a dark airplane hanger filled with cars, busses, offices and booths. One booth seemed dedicated for the busloads of people that were hearded off each bus to stand in line. We then, believe it or not, waited. and waited.... over an hour after first lining up, and having watched all the cars go through at a merry pace, we got our passports stamped and were hearded once more to the side of the hanger. Argentina supposedly has strict laws against bringing fruits and vegetables into the country and so now we had to prove we had none. We waited another 20 minutes before Argentinian officials began to read off what we guessed were random names of passengers from our bus and checked their big bags that had been under the bus. Then one customs officer went down the row of passengers and glanced into hand luggage, in what I can only assume, based on the low light of the hanger and thouroughness of search, was a search for watermelons. Finally we got back onto the bus and continued on to Mendoza, arriving much later than we had been told.
The city of Mendoza is famous for being in the middle of Argentine wine country, so of course we had to do a wine tour. First, however we explored the city and its biggest park, and took part in a pub crawl. For the wine tour we had to take a city transit bus to another town outside of the city. Our hostel told us it would take about 2 hours to get there so we all geared up for a long bus ride and settled down in our seats for a little nap, what was quickly becoming our favourite afternoon activity... Luckily Collin stirred 20 minutes into the bus ride to discover we were mere minutes from our destination and we got off just in time. I'm not sure why we continue to be amazed that the people here have absolutely no sense of time, but it is a little difficult to comprehend how a local who works at a hostel where almost everyone goes on these wine tours can be so wrong... anyways. The wineries were spread all around this little town so we rented bikes and first visited an Olive factory, then a wine museum, followed by two vinyards. After a lot of pedalling and a little bit of wine we returned to our Hostel and took a night bus to Cordoba.
The bus this time was fine, it was the hostel... we checked into our hostel and our 7 bed dorm hoping to get some good rest before the bright lights of Buenos Aires. Our room was full of 30 year old Brazillians that would nap during the day on top of their blankets, fully clothed, face down then wake up and go out drinking and come back in the wee hours of the morning (not late by Argentine standards as we would find out in BA) and then sleep all morning. The kind gentlemen above my bottom bunk had the loudest snore I have ever heard, while at first I was worried he had a chainsaw up there, after a couple of hours I was hoping he would drop the chainsaw on me and end my torment.... thankfully he was only in our room the one night and I slept well for the rest of our time there. In Cordoba we went to the Zoo, filled with lots of animals native to the country and the continent plus your usual staples of chimps, bears, tigers and seals. A lot of the animal enslosures left a lot to be desired and some were downright depressing for the animals. One especially sad part was the ''Do Not Feed The Animals'' signs that were only in english. Throughout the park parents and kids threw popcorn to animals of all kinds. It was, however, amazing to see leopards, panthers, tapirs and other animals from South America.
As Argentina is famous for the quality of its beef, one night we went to a nice restaurant and had the most expensive beef on the menu, complete with Argentine wine. A delicious meal.
Our last day in Cordoba we set out to go to Condor Valley. A bus drove us a couple of hours outside the city and dropped us off in the middle of no where. From there we walked another 15 minutes to the park entrance where we were informed we would have to be very quick if we wanted to hike to the Valley and be back in time for our bus. We set off at a brisk pace and were about 3/4 of the way to the valley when we figured we would have to turn back if we wanted to make our bus. Instead we ran to the valley, looked around and took a picture of a winged black thing in the distance and ran almost all the way back to the road in full hiking gear and just made our bus. In the end we figured we had done a 16km loop in about 2.5 hours, not bad.
After our hike/jog we took a night bus to the capital of Buenos Aires. The first two days we explored the city, including a beautiful park by the water and a community known for its graffiti. The next three nights are mostly a blur of BA night life. In BA they don't start partying until midnight, and clubs go until about 6 am. So we did as they did , partied until daybreak and slept into the afternoon.
From Buenos Aires we took a 19 hour bus to Iguazu Falls, right on the border with Brazil. The falls are huge and it has a bit of disneyland like atmosphere as we had to line up to get in, line up to take the train to the top of the falls, line up on the huge walkway over the river as we neared the viewing platform. Once at the overcrowded viewing platform we were able to quickly grab a spot at the ledge, take the obligatory picture, have a little gander at the absolutely amazing water falls, and then proceeded back the way we came with the encouragement of the park employees continuously yelling for people to keep moving. From there we took a boat that went right up to the falls and got us completely soaked but was a lot of fun. We were leaving as the park was closing and were told to wait for our bus in the parking lot. As the sun fell and the majority of the employees and tourists left we waited in this parking lot with a handful of other tourists and a couple dozen local workers. And we waited. Finally, after about an hour we saw a bus in the distance, then it stopped, and turned around. Most of the locals waiting with us set off at a run after the bus, so we ran after them and just managed to catch the bus as it was leaving. It was so full we sat in the exit stairs but were just thankful to be on the bus, in awe of how we continued to encounter these ridiculous situations and somehow got through them.
Next was into brazil, crossing the border included more bus ridiculousness, but thats enough bus stories for now...
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