Night Buses

Night Buses

Saturday, Jan. 14, Resistencia, Argentina

I made it he re on time t his morning and then had another problem--finding a bus from here. Everyone kept telling me the re was nothing until tomorrow or Monday night. It´s because it is a weekend and because it is vacation season here. Anyway, one place wanted to rout e me an out of the way routing tha t w ouldn´t begin until tomor row night and would involve 3 buses and cost a lot of money. Finally, I found one company that has ONE remaining seat on a bus for Cordoba for tonight. I took it. I will leave a t 8:15 and will get there at 7 a.m. tomorrow. It is still 7 hours from San Luis where I want to be. I am hoping there will be a seat on a day bus from Cordoba to there tomorrow. Otherwise, I think I will have to spend a night in Cordoba. I can´t travel 3 nights in a row on a bus without bathing or shaving.

So fa r, I have been only in places where I have already been before. I knew this town immediately when I saw t he bus station. I remembered how to get to town, where the hotel was where I stayed last year, where I at e, etc. Cordoba will be the same. When I leave there, however, I should be in new territory.

I had to go to an ATM again today. Yesterday, I made a mistake in Puerto Iguazu. I was in a hurry, since Merryl was waiting to go to the falls. I knew I wanted $250 (which would be about 750 pesos). I put 250 into the machine rather than 750, so I got less than $100 worth of currency. Well, after paying for our admissions to the park yesterday, paying for my ticket to here, paying for my ticket to Cordoba, etc., I was already running out of money this morning. Today, I withdrew another 700 pesos and should be fine now for a few days.

I spent most of today at a park in the center of town. I relaxed a nd watched people. I read from the book I am currently reading. I sat on benches. I sat on the grass at one time. I even napped briefly once on a bench. It was nice to have a whole day doing nothing. It reminded me of the wonderful summer days I often had in Copenhagen when I was there andArne was working, and I would go to the park for the day. Time slows down when one does something like that. It´s a feeling I associate with childhood when days just seem so nice, yet seem to last forever!

Occasionally, I went walking. I stopped at an ice cream parlor around noon and had a tr ipple dipper--dark chocolate, banana with dulce con leche, and lime. All were refreshing and delicious. But I discovered it isn´t easy to deal with a triple dipper when one hand is in a cast. I managed, however. Later in the afternoon, I st opped at a local place and had a fantastic lunch--carne con arroz. It was a very flavorful rice that had spices, chunks of pumpkin, pieces of tomato, etc., in it along with chunks of beef. Also, it had all been sprinkled with a delicious grated cheese such as Parmesan and was served with Italian-style rolls. I got a liter of Coca Cola to drink with it. The meal with the drink cost only about $2.25!! And the crowd and music provided nice entertainment while I at e. The people were all local characters--some eating and some socializing over liters of beer. The music was very Argentinian.

I am back at the bus sta tion with about 2 hours to go before my bus departs. I have to finish this, get my luggage out of storage, and find the bay where the bus will depart. I doubt it will be as nice as the bus l ast night. The seats were far apart, reclined greatly, and had leg rests t hat lowered between the seatback in front. Also, they served a warm meal (battered file t of chicken with mashed potatoes), crackers, and peach halves in syrup along with a cup of soft drink. Then they served coffee and cookies this morning. They also showed an English film I had not seen, but I was too tired to watch it. I went to sleep almost immediately and appreciated that I had no seatmate for the first 4 hours of the 10-hour ride.