Day 11 - From Iguazu to Salta

Today would have been my day to head back home if I wouldn´t have extended my stay. I am really glad I chose to stay longer.

When I woke up this morning I was planning on checking out, going on a three hour horseback riding trip, then going to Santa Fe. Turned out the horseback riding wasn´t until 2pm. So, I decided I was going to go to the bus station, find out where the next bus was going, and if it was somewhere new I was going to hop on it.

I took a taxi to the bus station at 8:45am and booked a ticket for 11am to Salta, 24 hour bus ride away. Salta was one of the places I really wanted to go, but wasn´t sure if I would be able to because of time. I figure the bus ride will give me a good opportunity to relax, get some sleep, catch up on my journal-blog, and watch the world go by. Turns out I was right.

New Folks
While waiting at the bus terminal I met a couple from New Zeland and girl from Isral, Lee. The couple from New Zeland actually met when they were working in London about a year ago. They went home to New Zeland and are now taking six months to travel as much of the world as they can. The girl from Isral, Lee, is so funny. I told her I met a gentalman from Isral the other day at the hostel. She said, you mean a dude, there are no gentalmen in Isral. I really like her, she has a bold, strong personality.

The cops
There is some funny business going on right now in Argentina. When we were leaving Iguazu our bus had to stop. We were boarded by Argentine cops. We all had to show them our passports. They also brought a dog on board. Perhapes it was a drug dog, but I almost think he was too friendly and happy-go-lucky to be a drug dog.

At first I thought they had just checked us because we were on a boarder town and they wanted to make sure we hadn´t smuggled anything. But since that first boarding we have had two or three other boardings. They haven´t checked our passports again, but they have done headcounts.

The cops here kind of creep me out. I think it is because so recently ago Argentina was a military run country. I just don´t trust the police and I avoid them if I can. If anything happened to me I think I would try and get to the US Embassy in Buenos Aires before going to the cops.

The bathroom
The bus ride was nice. As good as it can get considering you feel like you are inside of a germ with no ventilation. I am constantly using Purell hand sanitizer while I am on the bus. Thank goodness I brought it from home. I also have a really hard time using the bathroom on the bus. Everytime I use it I think of how much Shawana would hate Argentina because it is so germ infested. She would spend her entire time purelling and lysoling everything she saw. (My friend Shawana, for those of you who don´t know her, is obsessed with killing germs.) I think the worst part of the bathroom is I can never open the door. They stick horribly on these buses. When I get out of the bathroom I have to put my entire hip into the door to get out. Wouldn´t that be awful, me stuck in the bathroom of a moving bus until the next person had to pee. Yuck. I don´t know what would be worse, the pain from holding in my urine or being stuck in a cramped, filthy, germ infested moving bathroom.