Argentina!

Jess and I decided a long time ago that we wanted to do a trip to Cordoba and Buenos Aires in Argentina. The airport fee for Americans is $160, so we decided to bus to Cordoba and then we would fly back to Santiago (because we've already paid the airport fee in Santiago.) So Thursday morning we plan to meet up at 6:30am to catch our bus at 7:30am. Unfortunately, my alarm didn't wake me up so I didn't wake up until 8. I called Jess in a panic, but it turned out we had bigger problems, the pass between Chile and Argentina was closed because of snowfall! Jess couldn't believe it, but, having spent a winter now in Colorado, I understood perfectly that we were out of luck. They told us that the pass might open tomorrow, but Friday arrived and the pass was still closed. Jess talked to a woman who told us that the pass probably would open back up until Tuesday (our plane tickets back were for Thursday!) We were getting pretty desperate at this point, when a man told us that he was organizing a trip to Argentina through the south of Chile. The bus ride would take about 30 hours, but we had no choice.

We should have known something was wrong when the bus pulled up 45 minutes late and it was tiny and without a bathroom. (SPOILER ALERT) The bus ended up getting into Mendoza NINE HOURS LATE somehow and then we still had to get to Cordoba (another 11 hours) so all in all we spent 49 hours in bus. I decided to write little blurbs every few hours of our journey so here you go:

Hour Zero: 6pm

"Anything I say can and will be used against me on Piper's blog" -Jess

"I hate you and its only hour zero" -Jess

"What's a little more leg room? I don't think its going to make a difference." -Jess (famous last words)

"I'm already hungry and its only hour zero" -Piper (of course, its about food)

Okay hour zero. Still not on the road yet. Feeling good, feeling strong. The trunk ran out of space so Jess's bag is in our laps (Jess, forever the optimist, can only say "Lost luggage? Not a problem, its right here!") Also there are some people on this bus with really bad attitudes- they are not going to make it.  I've already eaten my dinner and broken into the reserve beef jerky, not a good start. Also no bathroom on this bus.

Hour :01

Turns out the emergency exit on this bus leaks, we know this because its raining outside. The poor boy in front of us is using an umbrella to shield himself from the downpour. Its going to be a long 40 hours. At least he's being good natured about it.

Hour :15 (they get more spaced out after this)

Fixed the leak. I found a waterproof cover for my backpack while I was packing (would have been useful in Patagonia!!) so I used my American ingenuity and fixed our leak problem:

11:20pm Hour 5 

Jess and I have just been chatting for the last 5 hours. She is a great travel companion. Probably gonna get some shut eye soon.

5:10am Hour 11 

Well this bus is just small enough for this to be really unpleasant. Can't sleep for more than an hour at a time.

9:10am Hour 14

Slept really well after last entry, feeling good. We stopped for a bathroom break and Jess and I were able to brush our teeth. Minor difficulties getting cleared to leave Chile because I lost my Chilean ID card, which I apparently needed, but thankfully I still know my Chilean ID number so everything worked out (they have a national database for ID's, not a bad idea!) Now time for breakfast- cereal with a fork. 

12:15pm Hour 17

Cleared through Argentinian customs.. 2.5 hours later!! We had to wait for the bus in front of us, then we had to unpack the entire bus (although neither my backpack nor the food bag-the one containing almost every illegal food item including fresh veggies and nuts- got unloaded.) The customs area was beautiful though!

A rainbow!

"Welcome to Argentina"
Little did we know this was only the beginning

Everyone having their bags inspected, ugh

 2:41pm Hour 19
So we just stopped so that people on the bus could have an HOUR LONG LUNCH (Editor's note: this still remains a mystery why we would stop for an hour lunch when we were already 2 hours behind schedule. One of the many mysteries of this journey.) I thought Jess was going to kill someone, good lesson in "Southern Cone Culture"/lack of importance of being on time.

"Wash me"
Jess and I are such pranksters

 6pm Hour 23
So I've just been napping and reading. We just stopped (AGAIN). Turns out we're lost. But it appears that we've only missed the turn by 15 blocks. However somehow our Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) has been pushed back between 2 and 5 hours. What I've concluded is that (1) No on has any idea what they are talking about and (2) if we ever actually get to Cordoba I'm going to be stoked.

7:20 Hour 24
We stopped again for either being lost or a mechanical problem. Communication skills are not strong in this country.

8:50 Hour 25
The passengers are directing the bus driver and I'm pretty sure no one knows where we're going. A direct quote is: "A la izquierda! A la izquierda. No. A la derecha!" ("To the left! To the left! No, to the right!") as we approached a fork in the road.

10:53 Hour 28
We stopped again. Allegedly the drivers have bought a map or at least know where we're going. Our new ETA is 6am, only 7 hours after the promised arrival.

8:45am Hour 37
We arrived in Mendoza ONLY 8 hours behind schedule. Fortunately we were able to jump on a bus immediately to Cordoba. This bus has WAY MORE leg room and we've managed to snag some front row seats. Jess and I feel like we're travelling first class! 

All that we got to see of Mendoza

Front row seats, best view in the house!

 12:40pm Hour 41
"I'm close to cracking" -Jess
We started roaming the aisles of our bus, just because its empty and we're starting to lose our minds a little bit. I'm sure the other passengers hate us, but we could not care less right now.

5pm Hour 46
Well, relatively, we're almost there. Only 3 more hours. Pretty sure I couldn't be more excited to NOT BE ON A BUS. Food supplies= low, spirits= medium. 138km to Cordoba.

7:15 Hour 49
Nearly there! I can see the city lights! 7 kilometers!!!

7:35 Hour 49.3
Entering the city we are greeted by a McDonald's. We think to ourselves, "49 hours.. just to see a McDonald's." Just kidding, we are still super excited to be here. :D

7:51pm Hour 49.5
SUCCESS!!



Hopefully you enjoyed that. After arriving we couldn't figure out how to leave the bus stop and we had to stay for another hour trying to figure out the directions to the house we'd be staying at. We decided (understandably) that we wanted to walk for a bit so we headed out in the direction of the house. We were dirty and frazzled, and we literally turned heads and stopped conversation when we paused to grab some pizza from a restaurant that we passed.
Finally we grabbed a cab and headed to Jess's friend, Emily's, house. We shared a twin mattress that night, but it didn't matter, it was heaven compared to the bus.
The next morning we woke up at 6am to go with Emily to her class. She dropped us off and we got to explore the city all morning and then meet up with her for a guided tour with her in the afternoon, she was an awesome tour guide.

A beautiful church in the center of town

Neat plaza thing

This beautiful building turned out to be a shopping mall. Who would have guessed?

A monument to the "Heros of the Malvinas"
Pretty much every statue is Argentina seems to be dedicated to that.
(Background: Argentina and the British went to war over the Malvinas and the area is still contested, thus it is a huge source of Argentinian pride)

"Legalize abortion to prevent death"

"Sexual education in order to decide" 

A cute river that runs through town

Such a beautiful city! I couldn't believe it!

We called our tour a "gastronomical excursion through Cordoba"
For breakfast, Jess and I spent about 75 cents each, and we got to sample all kinds of delicious pastries

A really fun park with rings for every year of Argentina's history, with a fun fact on each one.

1810

A McDonald's with stained-glass windows. Wow.

Emily gave us a tour through campus, it was really neat. Lots of student activism without the violence  (like in Chile)

We concluded that the fruit was neither as delicious nor as cheap as in Santiago.

We went with Emily to buy some mate. I couldn't believe the selection!! This grocery store was tiny but they still managed to dedicate nearly half an aisle to the stuff. (Mate is like tea that they drink in Argetina at addiction-level quantities. EVERYONE DRINKS IT! But Jess and I tried it and decided it was quite good.)

Emily's water heater had a mate setting, it heats the water to the perfect drinking temperature.

Me drinking mate!

To finish the day off, Emily took us to the top of a hill that overlooked the city so we got to see all the city lights. It was beautiful!

 We had originally planned to spend 2 days in Cordoba but because of the stupid bus we had to get going that night to make it to Buenos Aires. The last thing we did was eat some really delicious dinner and get some cheap ice cream and then head to the bus stop.

Jess and our wonderful tour guide, Emily

 We hopped on an overnight bus and headed to Buenos Aires. We arrived in the morning at 9am ready to explore. The bus stop dropped us off in La Boca a cute and colorful, but also very poor neighborhood.

Afterwards we made our way to the city center and saw a bored kid unsuccessfully trying to catch pidgeons.

We spent a few hours wandering the beautiful city

and then we met our host, Victoria, who was a super cool Argentinian girl about our age.

She showed us to our room, which was this one tiny mattress for both of us. Again, we didn't care, it was way better than a bus seat.

Afterwards we met up with another one of Jess's friend from school and for the next 2 days we explored the city. It was really beautiful. The metro is a lot more sketchy than in Santiago and there are noticeably more white people, we felt like we could blend in instead of standing out all the time like in Santiago, which was kind of nice. Also they have way more delicious pastries in Argetina I think, I'm glad I didn't study abroad there or it might have been bad for my health.

We went back and found the touristy section of La Boca, which had a lot of neat graffiti

"La Boca" in Spanish means "the mouth", so we thought this graffiti was very fitting.

Praying mantis holding a cross and praying. Apparently the joke is multilingual

The Boca Juniors soccer stadium. South Americans love their soccer.

Medialunas, the most delicious pastry ever.

La Casa Rosada
Literally "The Pink House" its like our equivalent to the White House except I don't think the president actually lives there.

More delicious pastries! I think all of this cost about $2 total.

All in all it was an amazing trip, even considering the 2 full days spent on bus. It was well worth it to see two beautiful cities.