So it’s been about a month since my last post. My bad. In my defense, I have been traveling the country like a fiend for a week… where I was for the other three weeks, I couldn’t tell you, but I was for sure studying very, very hard…
OK! So let me just throw myself into spring break. Every year, Argentine students just decided that one week they aren’t going to come to school, because they feel as though they’ve worked super hard and deserve a break. I can relate. During this week (known as ‘Student’s week’) international students take advantage of their newly acquired Spanish skill and confidence and travel the country to various locations. The group of friends that I was going with had decided that we were going to go to Rosario, Iguazu, and Cordoba. We felt that since we would be traveling by bus, it would be best to split it up into four bus trips in a circular formation so that we could maximize our free time. The week leading up to our departure, I was wondering how I’d fit everything that I would need for 9 days into my backpack (seeing as that was the only bag I really had for travel), however, after some organizing I managed to get everything I needed into my backpack. Exito! I met up with my friends at the bus station (we had already bought our tickets 3 weeks prior), we found the correct terminal, and got ready for our amazing journey! Just as the bus was pulling out… it went back in again. One of the bus attendants came down and said something very quickly in Spanish. We didn’t really catch what he had said, but everyone was getting off of the bus. We thought that, since there was a sand storm in the area, we had been delayed so we just sat around and waited. After 2 hours, we found out that it was not a sand storm that was holding us up, it was a Driver’s Strike. Of course the only company having a strike would be the one that is supposed to take us on our 14 hour bus ride to Rosario. We didn’t know how long it would last, so we waited around the bus terminal until midnight, then called the night a bust and decided to go back to our host families and then assess the situation in the morning. None of us were particularly happy as this was a serious wrench in our plans. We were supposed to spend 2 days in Rosario before heading off to Iguazu, but now we’d have to reevaluate our Rosario activities so as not to miss our next bus.
When we woke up the next morning, we rallied at the outlet that sold us our tickets to get more information. They told us that the strike was still going on and that we would just have to wait and see how it played out. We told them that that was sooooo not going to work for us because we already were behind on our schedule. We explained to them that we had a bus out of Rosario the next night, so either the company takes us there, or we get our money back. Obviously a South American Company is not just going to call off a strike because 7 North Americans are annoyed, so we got our money back and promptly left to go to the other, strike-free, bus company next door. We bought our tickets and, satisfied, went home to get ready, once again for our trip. The plan was pretty much the same as last time, except this time, we decided to execute plan Actually Leave The Bus Terminal. We loaded our stuff, found our seats, and waited with bated breath as the bus pulled away from the terminal. Success!!! We actually left lot this time and we were on our way to Rosario!!!
I’ve never traveled by bus before, and I must say the experience wasn’t too terrible. In fact, it might even be better than flying. Let’s discuss:
1) No pain-in-the-ass security
a. Security isn’t that huge in their airports (with their fake ‘customs’ and whatnot) so really the closest thing they have to a security check point is the tired and hungry looking woman at the Information desk.
2) Better service!
a. Not five minutes into our commute the nice bus attendant lady was serving us appetizer sandwiches, our full-on dinner, and offering as all different kinds of drinks. To top it off, there was a movie AND a blanket and pillow! Suck it United!
3) No fear of falling out of the sky
a. Granted, there could be the potential fear of an on-road accident, but have you seen the cars here in Argentina? My double-decker bus on steroids could soooo take on your little Fiat.
All in all, the 14 hours that I spent on that bus were not the worst of my life. When we finally arrived in Rosario, it was cloudy and cold, and we were tired and felt like we needed a good shower, but personal hygiene would have to wait, because we had roughly 8 hours to take in the sights and sounds of Rosario before our next bus left for Iguazu. We left our stuff at a baggage area in the bus terminal and headed out when we realized that we had no idea what way we were going. We eventually figured it out and began wandering the streets anyway, looking at the cool way that some of the streets were designed and looking at what a bunch of the signs had to say about the history of the city. After about an hour of walking around, we happened upon the shrine that was built to commemorate the creation of the Argentine flag. The National Flag was created in Rosario, so there was this huge monument with a really tall building and an ever-burning flame.
We went up to the top of the highest part of the monument and were able to look around the majority of the city. It was such a great view! After taking pictures galore, we all came to the consensus that we were starving, so we found an awesome restaurant that served a great brunch and rested there for about an hour. While eating, we came up with a plan of attack. With us missing one day in Rosario due to the strike, we had to consolidate our list things to do, meaning that we would need to get to the major stuff. We decided that we would do a boat tour of the harbor (which would take roughly two hours) and grab a quick lunch before heading back to the bus terminal. The boat tour wasn’t for a while, so in the mean time, we continued to walk the city. Rosario had so many colors! All of the street vendors had merchandise that was so colorful, even the street art and the graffiti was brilliantly shaded.
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| I'm not usually a graffitti person, but even I thought this was cool! |
After no time at all, it became time for the boat tour. To be honest, it wasn’t my favorite part of the trip. I don’t really need to sit on a boat to see the city, but the rest of my friends enjoyed it, and it was nice to relax after a lot of walking so all in all it wasn’t terrible. After the boat ride, it was a quick lunch, and then off to find a cab to take us back to the bus terminal. This proved to be more difficult than we expected. In a tourist city full of cabs, we found it impossible to get just one! Luckily, we did find one but obviously weren’t going to be able to fit everyone into it; we were just deciding who would go and who would stay when another one pulled up. This is known as kismet people. Positive Kismet. We rode the cabs back to the bus terminal and all too soon grabbed our stuff and filed in line to board our next bus.
I was much more apprehensive about this bus ride because when you look at it, 22hrs on a bus seems like a lot longer than 14hrs… maybe because it’s 2hrs shy of a full day. Either way, I was not looking forward to remaining stationary for roughly an entire day. After we packed onto the bus, we settled ourselves in for the looooooong bus ride ahead of us. Once again, busses proved their superiority over planes, when the bus attendant whipped the curtain back holding a bottle of whisky and some candy. His plan was obvious: Get the passengers as drunk and happy as possible so that they would pass-the-hell-out and leave him alone. Why do I say this? Well, after whiskey, came wine (red and white), more wine, and then some champagne. If I was a recovering alcoholic I would be sooooooo pissed right now. My friends and I all thought the free flowing booze was hysterical and of course they didn’t refuse anything. There is really nothing more to report about a bus ride besides the fact that we just sat there… and sat there… and sat there some more. Maybe all of the alcohol was to distract the passengers from the fact that the in-bus entertainment SUCKED. They showed this movie called “Buried” with Ryan Reynolds. In it Ryan is [Spoiler Alert] buried. As if that wasn’t a bad enough plot, he just sits there for the entire freaking movie! Like, actually just lying there the entire 2 hours buried in this box. Why, yes, Mr. Reynolds, you have come a long way. Crappy movie aside, the bus ride wasn’t too bad. I don’t remember too much of it seeing as I was sleeping for most of it. Hey, I had nothing else to do so I figured, meh, why not, sleep is definitely something I’ve been lacking in this country. Only when it started to get hot and humid on the bus did we begin to realize that we were getting closer and closer to Iguazu.
FINALLY! We had arrived at our destination! After getting all of our stuff off of the bus, we walked to our hostel. I had never stayed in a hostel before, so I was excited to take on this new adventure. We checked in and went to our room which had about 14 bunked beds. Only about 7 were occupied, so we chose the beds closest to a corner. After that bus ride we all needed to pee and take a shower, which we did [individually] before going outside to hang out and relax. There is a very big difference between Mendoza and Iguazu; the humidity. We all noticed, and loved, the humidity that is so absent from our home of Mendoza. After a good period of relaxing, in which we had mate and cookies, we decided to walk to the river (which was close by) to see where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet.
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| A little Post-Arrival relaxation! |
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| Paraguay to the left! Brazil to the right! |
It was such an amazing experience to be able to talk to so many people from so many different countries at one time. We were having a great time just talking and sharing traveling stories when two girls approached us. They were traveling as well and they asked if they could join us. We were in a “the-more-the-merrier” kind of mood, so we were more than happy to receive them. Our new friends were from England and “Spain”. Why the quotations? Well, for one, home-girl sounded like she was from California… and not the eloquent part. Second of all, I overheard her ask the waitress something and I’m pretty sure that my Spanish is better than hers… I’m not trying to be petty, I’m just saying… anyway, these girls had already had a few drinks before they came to our table, and they didn’t stop after joining us. My favorite line of the night came from when she decided to ask Emma [one of my traveling companions] if it was raining outside… forget the fact that it had only been raining since we got there, and that we were sitting on the deck surrounded by clear plastic that clearly displayed downpour. No, no… our friend from “Spain” needed clarification that it was, in fact, raining outside. Props to Emma for keeping a straight face and replying, “Um… yes, ladies… it’s raining…” because I, for sure, would not have been able to keep my composure had they asked me. We stayed there for a bit longer, and then decided to call it a night. Tomorrow we had to rise and shine a bit early so that we could go to Iguazu Falls. I had heard about them from people who had traveled to Argentina before, and had seen pictures. They looked beautiful, but I wanted to see them for myself. I couldn’t wait until tomorrow!
End Part 1
