Travel...
Would you rather be stranded on a Carribean beach or in a South American desert? I can now say I've had both experiences. The Carribean beach in Honduras, and the South American desert yesterday. The jeep we were all piled into was putting along nicely, and then sputtering along not so nicely, and then completely stopped. Somehow water seeped into and saturated the oil. With miles of desert in every direction we had no choice but to wait, and wait we did.
Two hours later a bus comes rolling down the road. We flag it down and crawl in. On our way again... right? Nope. Some 45 minutes later there's a loud bang and something is broken. At least this was fixable and only set us back an hour. By the time we pulled into Tupiza, all the buses for the border had long since left and we had no choice but to hole up for the night in the town.
At 4 a.m. this morning we were back on the road. A smooth border crossing, and by 7 a.m. were in Argentina. We found a bus to Salta and seemed now to really actually be on our way... that was until we ran into a road block set up by protesters, resulting in a minor half hour delay.
Why don't more people backpack through South America?
I do have to say that while I really enjoyed Bolivia, I'm super happy to be back in Argentina. In some ways crossing the border felt like coming home. Everything is so familiar and I feel so at ease. As soon as we checked into our hostel here in Salta, Katya, Sabrina (a girl from Germany who's now traveling with us) and I went to a really nice cafe for coffee. With the exception of one place I found in Copacabana, it's the first really good coffee I've had in a month. Now I'm going wild with, and sligtly in awe of, the high speed internet connection and fast computers. It's amazing what little things we take for granit.
Two hours later a bus comes rolling down the road. We flag it down and crawl in. On our way again... right? Nope. Some 45 minutes later there's a loud bang and something is broken. At least this was fixable and only set us back an hour. By the time we pulled into Tupiza, all the buses for the border had long since left and we had no choice but to hole up for the night in the town.
At 4 a.m. this morning we were back on the road. A smooth border crossing, and by 7 a.m. were in Argentina. We found a bus to Salta and seemed now to really actually be on our way... that was until we ran into a road block set up by protesters, resulting in a minor half hour delay.
Why don't more people backpack through South America?
I do have to say that while I really enjoyed Bolivia, I'm super happy to be back in Argentina. In some ways crossing the border felt like coming home. Everything is so familiar and I feel so at ease. As soon as we checked into our hostel here in Salta, Katya, Sabrina (a girl from Germany who's now traveling with us) and I went to a really nice cafe for coffee. With the exception of one place I found in Copacabana, it's the first really good coffee I've had in a month. Now I'm going wild with, and sligtly in awe of, the high speed internet connection and fast computers. It's amazing what little things we take for granit.
Our jeep broken down in the middle of the desert
An Argentine bus station we passed through on our way to Salta
Serafin showing his utter excitement for bus travel on day two
Sabrina, Katja and I at the cafe here in Salta
posted by Amy | 2:14 PM
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