Traveling back to Argentina

So my lovely Chile trip had to come to an end (like all trips do) and it was time for me to go back to sweltering Argentina. So I did my last load of laundry and packed up my bags with a few extras: Jam. Blackberry jam, Rasberry Jam and Fruits of the South Jam (specialty jam from Chile).

So Thursday morning I got up probably the earliest at of all of my vacation (7:50 a.m.) showered, ate, and packed my last minute items (toothbrush, jammies, and shampoo stuff) and organized my backpack in such a way that would be most beneficial and safe for me (remember I was traveling alone). Than I waited. I heard Tio Ewaldo tinkering around in the kitchen so I just patiently waited while talking to Pink. At about 9:20 a.m. Tio Ewaldo comes into mine and Pink's room and says "I have been waiting for you to eat breakfast. I went to into the kitchen and it looked as though no one had eaten so I have been waiting for you to eat." Now just remember I did eat, I am just an extremely clean girl and Tio couldn't even tell that I had been in the kitchen and eaten my breakfast. side note: they keep a very emaculate house. (Mom aren't you proud of me?)

So my bus was leaving at 10:00 a.m. and we were a fair distance away from the bus terminal so we said a prayer with the family and we jetted off. It was a good thing we prayed for safe traveling mercies because we were weaving in and out of traffic at 140 kms an hour. Now I really don't know how fast that is in MPH, but let me tell you it was scary.

We made it to the terminal with 10 minutes to spare and as I am asking at the AndesMar desk where my bus stop was at and I hear a voice say (in English mind you) "taleah how was your trip?" I look and it is my friend ShaLondra. I was so excited to see her. It turns out that she and a group of about 3 other ACA girls were going to be taking the same Buses that I was back to the UAP so now I wouldn't be alone! Hooray.

I got on the bus that would take me across the border to Mendoza and it was filled with catholic missionaries who were very boastrous, but nice. They were going to build a school somewhere in Argentina so they were really hyped up. To go through customs it only took 2 1/2 hours which was really nice and than we made on our Merry way to Mendoza, ARgentina.

We get to Mendoza and decide to eat at the mall. As I walk into the foodcourt I realize that I am back in the land of meat and starch and no options. So I decided to settle for Noquis (potatoe pasta) with Mashed potato balls and a Pepsi (yes I actually had pepsi in south america it is a miracle). Than we raced back to the terminal and hoped on our bus that would take us to Parana in only a short 13 hours.

Let me tell you that it was the longest 13 hours of my life. It was interesting though. An older guy was sitting next to me and after trying to talk to him I realized he couldn't speak because he was suffering from Parkinsons. His daughter and wife were sitting in front of us. It seemed all good. I had it quiet to myself except when the daughter would stare at me for a while (she was about 8 or 9). It didn't bother me until about 2 a.m though when I wanted to sleep, but this weird child kept on looking at me.

At 4 a.m. I was startled awake because this family had to get off the bus. The husband and wife moved fast, but the daughter didn't move at all, she was dead asleep. The mother tried to wake her up, but it was not working. The daughter was deader than a doornail. They started yelling and she actually started making noise, but it was quite obvious that she did not want to wake up at all. Now there are people waiting for these seat 3 men to be exact and we need to get on going, we do not want to be in the bus for longer than we need to be. THe mother now is smacking the girl (not really hard) and saying "let's go, people need there seats" the little girl just whimpers. The father has had enough of this so he tries to step in and pulls her and tells her (he actually spoke I was surprised) "get up now!" She doesn't so he starts smacking her (not as nice as the mother) she starts crying loudly and says "I'm going I'm going."

She wasn't going anywhere.

They can't get her to move and so they start pulling her out of the seat, but she is a chunkster and her parents are a bit small so it wasn't working very well. The parents continue telling her its time to go and smacking her, but nothing helps it only makes the little girl yell and scream louder, it actually was a quite terrifying noise. The three men try to help pull her out it is hard but they manage to pull her to the stairs (this is a double decker bus) the mother is now telling the girl "you are embarrasing me, get up now!" Nothing is really helping though. THey still can't get the girl off or quiet. They finally dump water on her and she yells and screams off the bus. It was a quite tramatic experience let me tell you. (I think mostly because it was at 4 a.m.) I however was quite glad when they got off and I was able to relax in peace (I don't know if I could have slept though).

After what seemed like an eternity we made it to Parana, grabbed a bus that went to DIamante (about 20 km from the UAP) and than grabbed another bus to Libertador San Martin (home of the UAP). We made it from Santiago, Chile to La UAP in 26 hrs. I was so happy to get off the bus and back into the familiar little Villa, I had missed it.

So thank you all for your prayers. I am safe, my stuff is safe and soon I will be rested.

what a good vacation.