Our 4 part bus journey home started in Bariloche at 3:30 PM. We boarded a bus that would take us to Neuquen, Argentina, and would take 5 1/2 hours to get there. We sat down grouchy, ready to be home, and dreading the bus rides ahead. About 30 minutes into the ride, Lena, who was sitting next to me, commented on how something smelled like tuna. My nose, which has been clogged with ash for the past 5 days, didn't smell it at first. Then, I got a wiff. It smelled like death. We were both sitting there talking about it, and decided there is no way in hell anyone in their right mind would eat tuna fish in a confined space, with 50 other people around, tainting the air with that wretched smell. Jake looked behind us and confirmed the bad news. Someone indeed was eating tuna fish, and that someone happened to be a backpacker, and backpackers happen to be people who are usually smelly themselves, which made hate the tuna fish eating backpacker more than I normally would have hated him. We were grouchy to begin with, and even grouchier now. But we got over it, which lasted about an hour, until we yet again smelled something bad from the dirty men behind us. The non tuna eater joined the ranks of his gross friend when he decided to eat a salad. Salad, whatever, salad with hard boiled eggs and peppers, not ok. I hated him. And his friend. They stunk up my 5 hour bus ride.
The next bus left from Neuquen and headed to Mendoza, another city in Argentina. This was an overnight ride lasting for 11 hours. We left at 9:30 PM and arrived in Mendoza at 8:30 AM. Usually I don't mind overnight bus rides, people are usually quiet, you can get some sleep, blah blah. This ride started off well, we got some food, a large comfy chair, and a movie that WASN'T dubbed AND made after the year 2000. Score! Just as I started to drift off into my slumber, the snoring started. A few rows behind me, loud, deep, obnoxious snoring. I don't understand how people don't wake up from their own snores, especially when they sound like a cow, as the man behind me sounded. At least he got a good sleep.
Our third bus was finally going to get us to Chile. Yes, it was Santiago, but still Chile none the less. It left from Mendoza at 10:30 AM, and would arrive in Santiago at 4 PM. This pass would lead us through the Andes Mountains, which was amazingly beautiful and almost worth having to ride 1000 km out of the way just to be able to see it. This bus ride was actually the best of the 4, even though at certain points through the mountains I was sure we were going to fall off a cliff. I was sitting in the front of the bus on the second floor. One of the best seats for being able to see the landscape. It was also one of the scariest seats when we were winding down the mountains on a road that literally had 26 curves that were pretty much U-turns on the side of a cliff. Buses have to make wide turns too, so each one felt like we were going to go straight over the edge and fall to our death. But, we made it through, got to Santiago, and only had one more bus to ride.
We arrived in Santiago at 4 PM and went straight for the bus companies to find the fastest ticket out of there. Our favorite company JAC didn't have a bus leaving until 10 PM. We weren't having that. So, we went with shady shady Tur-Bus, who has a history of deadly bus crashes but also had a bus leaving in an hour. That trumped the chance of death. It was also only 16 dollars for a 12 hour bus ride. That should have been a warning sign, but we were too blinded by the thought of being home in Valdivia to care. We got on our bus, a small small crowded bus, and left. Things weren't so bad at first, but about an hour into the ride we were all sweating balls. For some reason, the assistant closed all the vents, the air conditioning wasn't on, and the bus was packed with people. The windows were fogging up from all the hot breath and carbon dioxide. I had a mild freak out. Still no air. Then, the man sitting behind Lena, who I noticed looked pretty awful, started moaning and literally sounded like he was on his death bed. People were trying to take care of him, he was laying on someone's lap. And finally, a man told the assistant who opened the window. I felt the cool air and felt relieved, but also annoyed that a man literally had to start dying for them to open a window for us. The open window lasted about 10 minutes, until 80 year old woman sitting in front of me complained about being cold. Freaking old people are always cold. I don't understand that either. So the windows shut again, the heat creeps in, some little smelly cholo from Talca comes and sits next to me, and I start dying again. I had been going on 30+ hours in a bus and was starting to lose my mind. But, somehow, with my chair that barely reclined and my mini foam pillow, I fell asleep. It lasted for maybe 30 minutes, until the old lady in front of me started dying too. She either a) had an asthma attack, b) had whooping cough or c) lung cancer. I don't know. I really honestly felt bad for her, because you could tell she was trying to be quiet, but just could NOT catch a deep breath. But it was loud. And contaminating the air along with the moaning man behind me. I felt like I needed a mask to breathe. But, FINALLY, after spending too much of my life on a bus, we got to the bus terminal in Valdivia, and I was home! I had never been so elated/relieved/excited in my life!! It was the longest trip I had ever been on.
No comments:
Post a Comment