BACK ON THE ROAD

I was in BA a little longer than I had planned because I was waiting for some packages to arrive. I spent 3 weeks total in Buenos Aires. It was an amazing time and it was great getting to know Yanina and all her family and friends. I needed to move on though. My fins finally arrived after a month which I really needed for Galapagos. My mom sent me some other stuff, but I just couldn´t wait, especially since I had idea of when it would arrive. I headed to the bus station and booked my ticket. $80 Buenos Aires, Argentina to La Paz, Bolivia 48 hour bus ride. Yes 2 whole days. I was not excited about the journey, but it had to be done.

I really had no plans for Bolivia until just a few days before I left. I was reading about a little mountain town that is off the main tourist track and super relaxed. This all sounded good to me, but then I read about a spanish teacher that will teach one to one. This is exactly what I wanted. I sent her an email and about 5 days later I was in my first spanish class. The bus ride to La Paz was much better than I expected. It actually fun except when I couldn't sleep. I was the only nonspanish speaker on the bus, and only one guy spoke decent english. The other told me "ingles? No entiendo nada." It was fun trying to communicate with some of the people. I ended up learning and teaching every bad word in the english and spanish language which was pretty funny. The guy I sat next to is a policeman in Lima, Peru. If my spanish is good enough I will meet up with him when I pass through. It really was great getting back on the road. I was a little worried thanks to my sis. She kept warning me about all the crashes and how dangerous the buses can be. I am a "out of sight out of mind" kind a guy. It didn´t help seeing several buses being toed down the road either. There was one unexpected event though. I have been doing really well with all the details and important information. But when we got to the border I almost did not get in. All the research I had done said there was no requirements to enter. I found a little bit about the regulations may change and I sent the embassy an email. I never heard anything back so I figured it was all good. (it wasn´t) I had to pay $135 to get in. I had 200 Argentinian pesos about $60. At first they said only in USD...I told them this was all I had so they accepted it, but it was only about half. I thought it was the border patrol trying to squeeze money out of me so I was refusing to pay more, but it got to the point where my bus was going to leave me. Luckily the one man who spoke some english had $60 on him and he let me borrow it. There is another example of how kind people can be. That $60 was much more to him that to you or I, yet he still not even know me handed it over. All in all the trip was easy and fun. We drove through some beautiful scenery and it was a blast trying to talk with people and I definitely enjoyed the 15 or so movies (in spanish ofcourse).