La Paz-Mendoza (via many unknown places!)

Argentina part 2!

We have returned to Argentina where we first started, however the computer has put all of our first entries (from Buenos Aires, and Iguassu) along with this one. Careful you don´t get confused! x x x

After escaping Carlos in the restaurant in La Paz, we shot off to the bus station and bought a ticket for the same night to Mendoza. 38 hours we were told. We went with a company called ¨Panamericano¨but when we recieved the ticket, we realised that we were only with this company from Villazon, on the Bolivian/Argentine border. From La Paz to Villazon we had to travel with a different company called Trans del Sur. The coach was appauling and the staff were extremely unprofessional. Normally the bus drivers wear uniforms, these guys looked dirty and were wearing what can only be decribed as mechanics overalls. We got on the bus at 6pm and had to travel through the night. The passengers were upstairs whilst the driver and his mates were sat in the area downstairs, apparently having a party. They played loud music throughout the whole journey as well as singing and shouting so we didn´t get alot of sleep. We had also been told that we would get food on the coach. We didn´t. Neil and i didn´t have any Bolivianos left to buy anything as we were leaving the country, not that we stopped that many times anyway. At one point the coach just stopped in the middle of the road and everyone got off to go to the toilet. There was no toilet; they were all just stood there watering the road. Even the women were out there squatting. It was pretty disgusting!!!

We were relieved when we arrived in Villazon and headed straight to the office of Panamericano. Here the guy told us that we had to go to the immigration office and then wait on the Argentine side. He also pointed out the bus company which wasn´t Panamericano, it was called Andesmart. Once we had been through immigration we were a bit lost but luckily a guy who was on the same bus told us that we had to make our way to the bus station. When we got there we went to the Andesmart office and the lady there told us we had to pay her $10usd and that the bus was at 12 midnight. (It was currently 2pm). We were tired and got a bit annoyed with her asking why we had to pay more money and wait 10 hours when we hadn´t previously been told this. Reluctantly she got on the phone and then all of a sudden, everything was ok and she was shoving us on to a clapped out old bus to a town called Jujuy where again we would have to change and get on to an Andesmart bus to take us to Mendoza.

It was about 5 hours to Jujuy and we arrived at about 8pm. We hurridly got some food; the first thing we had eaten all day and waited for an Andesmart bus to Mendoza. At 10pm we were shown our bus. It wasn´t Andesmart, but yet another name, however it was going to Mendoza and that was all that mattered! We were the only ones on the bus for a while and were so tired we fell fast asleep.

It must have been about 1pm when the bus driver struggled to wake us. There was no one left on our bus and he was saying something we couldn´t understand and pointing to a bus parked next to us. We only guessed we had to move because it was an Andesmart bus! God knows where we were. Half asleep we moved all of our belongings onto yet another bus. The bus was pretty full and Neil and i didn´t have seats next to each other. I had to sleep next to a smelly guy which wasn´t ideal or particually comfortable. The bus jorney was long but eventually at 6.30pm (48 hours later!) we arrived in Mendoza. I´m so glad Newzealand is a small country and that this was hopefully our last long bus journey for a while!!!