The first half of my 24 hour ride

What a near waste of a day! If it wasn’t for four movies, I would not have much to show for my day. I got up at a decent hour and packed up what I didn’t yesterday. I had my last breakfast with the crew and said my goodbyes. I bought alfajores to share with Erik, but they are really soft and goopy. They may not make it to Lima. (Alfajores are a specialty of the area. They are typically two delicious cookies with dulce de leche in the middle – a local version of an oreo. The cookies can range from biscuity goodness to a crispier cookie. The creamy goodness is sometimes flavored with other stuff, and generally not as delicious.) I shared a taxi in to town with my friend Alana from Australia and checked mi mochilla grande at the bus stop. The feria was pretty well set up, so I wandered through a couple times for souvenirs and un litre de cerveza for Erik and I to share. I love the beer and wine in Argentina, all the products of the land really, and Peru just doesn’t hold a candle to it. I got my last helado, this time from Mony, because the guy I talked with yesterday told me it is less famous, but much older than Jauja: manzana con canela y roseta musquetta (apple with cinnamon and wild rose hip). Delicious! And it wasn’t the ice cream’s fault at all, but there were a million and one people in the baggage office. Gratefully, the guy who complimented me on my Spanish yesterday came and pulled me aside and got my bag for me. I did not want to miss that bus!!! The first twelve hours on the bus: so I am always grateful for packing snacks because the snack tray was pretty lousy, and the full meal didn’t come for ten hours. I saw four movies: The Contract, Disturbia, Four Brothers, and The Shooter. The Shooter played on my way to El Bolson, but it was in Spanish without subtitles, so I didn’t pay attention. This time I did pay attention because it was in English with Spanish subtitiles, but there still wasn’t volume. Bummer! I didn’t really read and write a ton like I hoped, but I did finish a bunch of sudoku. It was mostly uneventful. In Bariloche we had to disembark for twenty minutes. I went to call Erik to make sure all was in order for our rendezvous, and when I came back, the bus was gone! There were more than a few things going through my head, but I kept cool and went to the ticket office to ask which platform to wait at. They sent me to another counter where a line had formed. I waited, looked out the window, waited, and looked. I have no concept of twenty minutes. I thought it had only been ten, but the crowd had dispersed from my bus, and I couldn’t see the guy who sat next to me. The woman at the counter looked really confused, which didn’t settle my nerves, but then she reassured me it would come back in 10 minutes. I waited long enough that it did arrive, and I didn’t lose my seat. Phew! My neighbors changed in Neuquen, and a mother and baby sat down in front of me. I wasn’t especially pleased at first because the baby was really fussy. The mom kept pouring 7-up into her bottle, and when it emptied, the crying and refilling began. I started to think about how judgmental I was being. I was thinking if it were a mom I know, a baby I know, I would be more understanding that sometimes it is tough to quiet a child who cannot speak and reason with you. I was still a bit edgy about this noisy girl. In the end we made faces and shook hands a lot. She was really quite sweet and probably thoroughly upset that her mom was taking her on the bus for 14 hours. In Cippoletti we switched buses, which meant a bit of time waiting in between, but this time I didn’t leave sight of the bus. Dinner was tasty: a cucumber and tomato salad, amended with the rest of the red pepper I had, flan, and for hot dinner, a potato and cream stuffed squash. It is the shape of a pumpkin, green in color, and about four inches across. It was really tasty. Sadly no wine this time, but I passed on the coffee. No caffeine at night necessary! Twelve more hours to go...tori