La Quiaca
12/10/2001
Time to cross over to country #8 of my trip - Argentina! As I cross
over from Bolivia to Argentina, I have this strong feeling of getting
back to civilization (sorry Bolvia, but you are rough!). The city on
the Argentinian side, La Quiaca, is nice, clean, with trees planted
along the streets. I start to understand that not just Buenos Aires
is very European style (as many people say), also the rest of
Argentina reminds me of Europe a little. The food is also good, and I
have the first good tasting steak in some time. The other experience
I have is the temperature - Coming down from the mountains of Bolvia,
it got warm - now I can feel, it's summer!
I have to wait a long time, as my bus leaves at 10pm.
Long Bus Rides
12/11/2001
The bus driver wakes me up - the bus is empty! I fell asleep and we
already arrived in Jujuy. Here I know I have to change busses, but I
didn't know that I would arrive 4am in the morning, and that I have
to wait now for until 7:30 until the other bus leaves! At least a
cafe is open, so I manage somehow to fill in the next 4 hours. At
least this bus now is very nice one, with AC and supercomfort seats.
Next annoyance - I find out that the bus does not go directly and I
need to change again, after 6 hours in Tucuman. And, there, I need to
wait again, 4 hours! Not very optimized the whole thing, or I just
got screwed over by the bus company. At least there is a nice park
near the bus station, so I have a more pleasant waiting time. Also,
right next to the bus station is a big shopping mall, makes me really
feel I'm back to civilization.
Finally, 4:30pm, the bus leaves and goes directly to Resistencia,
where I wanted to go all along.
12/12/2001
The bus arrives again very early - 4:30 am in the morning. I leave it
up to the taxi driver this time to bring me to a hotel. I just spend
the day relaxing, internetting, and, sleeping in a bed and not in the
bus for a change.
A couple of things make me wonder about Resistencia, first, I have to
search for 1 hour to find a place to eat in downtown, at 3pm -
siesta? Places to eat are closed, but, many other stores are open.
One has to mention the bad economical situation in Argentina, and I
heard many restaurants closed due to that. I don't know if this is
the reason, but everything is very expensive.
Also, I have one banknote that is not really money - it is
called 'Quebracho' and was given by the state to its civil servants,
since the state was not able to pay anymore. It is rather a 'promise'
that people will be able to change it to Pesos some time later, but
right now, nobody wants to take it, some stores take it with a
exchange rate of 2:1. Somebody gave it to me as a change, and I
didn't know about it at that time and didn't pay attention. Well, it
is just $2, so I will just keep it as a memory.
12/13/2001
I go to the bus terminal to either go to Asuncion, Paraguy, for a day
or straight to Puerto Iguazo, where the waterfalls are. My timing is
again bad, and all the buses only leave at night, so I have to wait
for almost the whole day. Another effect of the bad economy are
strikes - I saw trash on the streets, the trashman striking, I heard
about problems at the border due to strikes, and now, as I buy my
ticket, the guy tells me that the bus leaves at 9pm, but could also
leave three hours later, as the bus drivers are on strike as well!
After the long waiting time, however, I'm lucky and the bus leaves in
time.
On to Brazil...