The wheels on the bus go round and round
Trip Start
Jan 12, 2008
1
19
45
Trip End
Apr 10, 2008
Tucumán,
Argentina
Sunday, February 10, 2008
sunday we packed up our camp and went to get tickets out of town. we weren't sure where we were going to go. we wanted to go to chile, and had been told by the tourist agent in town that the pass we had planned on going across doesn't have commercial passenger vehicles as it's a dirt road. bolivia seemed to have no problem with that, but apparently they do here. so we could head back to salta and cross to antofagasta, or head to mendoza via tucuman and cross to santiago. we also thought about flying, but again, as an american, i would have to pay a hefty visa if i enter chile by air, not by land, though. since we've already been to salta, we decided to head to mendoza.
when we got to the only bus company that heads that direction, the woman told us that she had no tickets on the 6 o clock bus, that we'd have to wait until 2 tomorrow
flower clock tucuman
. as we discussed what to do, she kicked everyone out (siesta time) and then told us that she had two tickets. she said argentinians always leave everything to the last minute and she doesn't like that, so she holds a couple of tickets for foreigners. yeah tricky old lady!we headed back to the plaza to kill a few hours. i called to wish eden a happy birthday, but she was napping. :-(
sky put me on speaker phone so i got to talk to mom, dad, sky and al. they even looked up cafayate on google earth. did you guys see me waving?
we left around 6 (buses here are surprisingly punctual) and got to tucumán at 11, with a short stop in tafí del valle. it was a beautiful town, set up in the mountains, next to a lake. everything was very green and there were some extremely nice houses. ismael wants to buy a house there, but considering it´s very difficult to get to this town, i doubt we´ll follow through with that.
after buying tickets for the following day to mendoza, we wandered around till we found a hostel with availability, and crashed. oh, a bed. it feels so nice
dios mio!
. the next day we wandered around tucumán. the woman at the tourist office told us to go to plaza san martin and see the reloj de flores. it was about 10 blocks away, but we made the trek over there. disappointing. i thought it would be this huge clock with beautiful flowers and wonderfully landscaped. no. it was maybe 6 or 7 feet across, and the area around it was pretty shabby. and the time wasn´t even right. oh well. we also went to a couple of historical houses. one was the house where argentina declared independence in 1816. there was this woman in colonial spanish dress who came up to the group and was talking so fast i couln´t understand her at all, but she was funny. there were 2 other characters too, the mayor and the governor. they did a little skit. but the woman was the star. the mayor kept flirting with her and she´d just shriek "dios mio!" and scurry off. we caught an overnight bus to mendoza. this one had big cushy seats, think first class on an airplane. and even 2 stewards who served us dinner and breakfast in the morning. we actually felt rested when we woke up.
well, that´s all for now. i´m almost caught up, only a day behind now. love you all.
Comments
I can't wait!!
I can't wait until you are home and I can look at all the pictures and hear the stories again!! I miss you guys!! Hey, I lost the 5 I gained plus 1.4 this week! 6.4! Can you believe it? I am glad you finally got to ride in style on a bus. Have a great time in Chile. I looked into moving there. You'll have to tell me how you like it!!
Love and miss you. Melissa
Hello out there!
Your last posting was a week ago. What's up? We are anxiously awaiting the next installment.
It is cold and rainy and snowy here. Enjoy the sun and the beaches.
mom