The Friday feeling!!

Hola amigos, were now in Salta, Argentina after a very long 26 hours on the bus. It is a really busy and lively place and when we arrived yesterday it was lovely and sunny, today it´s grey, cold and overcast, I´m beginning to think were never going to experience summer again!
The bus is the longest one so far, I mean in terms of distance, not the actual bus itself! There are a few stop off´s along the way but it´s mostly just driving, the longest stop was a change of bus yesterday morning at a place called Tucuman, where we got of and had an hour to get breakfast, stretch your legs etc. I counted 3 different drivers for the whole journey, I´m not sure what the European laws are on driving hours across the continent. I know when I went to Austria years ago that we actually stopped off overnight in France and stayed in a hotel.
We chose to sit at the front of the bus as theres nothing worse than somebody in front of you with their seat fully reclined for the whole trip, the only thing with choosing these seats is you get to see the drivers every manoeuvre, good or bad!! Let´s just say that 2 of the drivers seemed to be in a rush to get us there, maybe they´d left a pan on at home!! Hopefully were not going to use the company again.
I´m not sure where you would end up if you got on a bus in the U.K at Lands End and drove for 26 hours, probably out in the North Sea somewhere, it just gives you an idea of the absolute vastness of this country, let alone continent.

We have just been to the launderette to get our stinking washing done, we try to get it done weekly (whether it needs doing or not ;-)) normally when we take it in they just weigh it and come up with a random figure of how much it will cost, and the wearer of the smelly socks and pants walks out with a certain sense of anonymity. Well today it wasn´t to be, it was like being named and shamed!! The woman emptied all the washing out into a plastic basket on the counter in front of a busy shop of people and started counting the items, i.e 8 t-shirts, 3 pairs of trousers. I was mortified, talk about airing your dirty laundry in public! We´ve got to go back at 7pm to pick it up, I might buy a rubber mask so she doesn´t recognise me!

We are going on an organised tour tomorrow (if we ever manage to get it booked) it used to be an amazing train journey, it´s called Tren a las Nubes (Train to the Clouds) for more info see enclosed link here
but due to a train failure a couple of years ago the line has been suspended, pending maintenance, which means that we will have to it by bus (12 hours) It´s a fantastic tour though and you get to some dizzying heights (impossible after the Bolivian ones) and see some fantastic scenery. No doubt the camera will get a good hammering.

Argentina itself is brilliant, we´re both really enjoying the place and it´s culture, again not quite as much poverty as we´ve experienced in some of the other countries and on the whole they have got a great standard of living. Everybody is happy and friendly and they love to help you out in any way they can, giving directions, recommending accommodation that kind of thing. We hope to come back to Sth America again, whether it will be a holiday or another RTW trip we don´t yet know. We have only scratched the surface, especially in Argentina, we will aim to come back in their summer so that we can head further South too.

One last thing, we got chatting to a "cockney wideboy" on the bus from BA to Iguazu, he started out as quite a nice bloke, amiable you know the sort. Anyway we said our goodbyes when we arrived at Iguazu and wished him well with his trip thinking we´d seen the last of him. The next day he was on the bus to the falls, and suddenly he seemed extremely over animated and excitable and talking really loudly, not caring who heard what he said, the bus was packed too. Well as I´m sure you can all appreciate The Falklands is not something we talk about openly while we´re here as we don´t want to offend the locals and raise the past. If we have spoken about it, it has been quietly or in private. Well this guy knew no shame and just started shouting out about it on the bus (my toes are curling now just thinking about it) talk about no decorum! Credit to Matt though he did say to him "well it´s not something we really broadcast here" This did bring the conversation and luckily the bus to an abrupt halt and we all departed!!

Have a nice weekend all!!