A New Appreciation for Salt, Flat Tires, and Coca Cola

Alright, we admit, it´s been awhile since we have last blogged...again. In our defense we have been spending a good amount of time in remote areas without internet and on more epic bus rides!!

We last left off in Argentina..... Shortly after our last blog we made the treck by bus to Bolivia. We made it easily across the border and to a town that looks like it´s in an old western movie called Tupiza and home of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (shoutout to Vinny). After spending one day there we decided to take the train to Uyuni....the town closest to the biggest salt flats in the world. Before taking the train we ate the most delicious street food we have ever had in our lives! Imagine fried potato and in some glorious batter with the best salsa we have ever tasted...all fried in front of your face!!

We got on the train at like 7 at night....and finally made it to Uyuni at like 2 in the morning. The next day was spent looking for a group to go to the salt flats with and going to this glorious market that had everything you could have imagined. We have also become big fans of the ¨set lunch¨here.... it´s pretty much eating a three course meal for like 2 dollars.

The next day we hopped in a jeep with four other folks from all over Europe and headed to the salt flats. However, before we even made it to the salt flats, our jeep got a flat tire, our driver, Jimmy, assured us that this is normal, and that it was all good!The salt flats are amazing. Blindingly white for days...they sort of look like snow, but good thing for us it was nice and warm! Jimmy spent a good portion of the day checking the jeep....mostly just walking around it and kicking the tires....but sometimes looking under the hood (a little more cause for alarm than a tire). But nevertheless....Jimmy was right, it was all good. We spent the night at a hostel made completely out of salt in the middle of nowhere...and spent a good portion of the evening playing cards by headlamp...what can we say, even after all this time, we never lose at Spoons!

The next day we went to the lagoons in the desert around the salt flats, right after we got up to watch the sunrise of course! The lagoons have flamingos in them, and Deanna you were right, they live in a beautiful place! They also took us to go see the "arbol de pìedra", a rock that has been eroded by the wind to look like a tree( sorry Braidy, we nerded out for a sec)!

The day was great, even if Jo woke up with the worst stomach pain she had ever experienced. At our first stop we tried everything...Coca leaves, crackers, alka seltzer, coca cola....and the pain just wouldnt subside...however, she was determined not to have this stomach pain steal her of seeing the flamingos..... At a stop to help another jeep with another flat tire, another traveler told her it was a parasite.... Oh my... WHAT!?? Ok, ok, so who says that to someone in the middle of the Bolivian desert??? So maybe we have been eating more delicious street food than usual...but a parasite? Really? Slighltly freaked out, we continued on, and as the day went on the stomach pain started to disappear, so if she does have a parasite, it is living happily inside her...so it´s all good.

On the last day of the trip we spent a lot of time crammed in the back of a jeep! We would like to send a shoutout to Lizzy Leavitt for the use of her ipod. Lizzy, you have a great taste in music, and have totally save us on numerous bus rides and this insanely long jeep ride....!

Speaking of bus rides....just when we thought they couldn´t get any better...they did. After the tour we took a morning bus to Potosi. The bus was packed...Aly spent her time squished in the back row of the bus with some sassy ladies that we absolutely loved! Oh....plus a baby...and Jo spent her time being a pillow for some guy she just met. Throughout the bus ride we helped feed and entertain the baby, and had some lively conversations with the sassy ladies as to why we were not married. We jokingly told them we had boyfriends, and they claimed..:¨Let us see the ring!!¨. Neverthelss, it was the best bus ride ever. We have heard some other travelers claim that they do not want to ride on buses with other Bolivians....this to us is a shame. They have no idea what they are missing. Bus rides are the best way to make tons of friends. Enough said...

So...now we are in Sucre...a beautiful city with white buildings...they even Eiffle Tower here..who would have thought...we def. climbed it in like two minutes, but took tons of pictures. We have spent a good part of today and yesterday being bums and chilling around the city.... Tonight we have hopes for chicken wings that we saw earlier (shoutout to Chad). We also did our laundry in the sinks of our hostel yesterday...got in trouble for it, but are now sporting clean clothes. Totally worth it.

We plan on heading to Cochabamba soon (get excited guys!) and can´t wait for a miny reunion. Until nex time, Adventure is Out There....

A week at a Glance

Hello everybody! Due to the immense amount of funhad in the last 2 weeks, our lack of funds, a long line of people waiting in our hostel for the one computer and now malfunctioning internet we are going to make this blog a quick one... Don´t worrywhen we have the time and perfectspot we will elaborate on the awesomeness that is Argentina. So here is our brief overview of whatwe have been doing:
1. Hungout in Buenos Aires which was awesome!
2. Saw a Tango Show and ate delicious Argentinian Steak in Boca.
3. Mastered the BA public transportation system and saw some really beautiful sites around the city.
4. We were reunited with our Homie Ambra! P.S. Ambra you plus us equals India!
5. Went to the Recoleta Cemetery and saw Evitas grave and it was just straight up the coolest cemetery ever!
6. Went to an awesome street fair... Jo got a Mate she got into the Spirit of Argentina and Aly a scarf after pondering the awesomeness of the mate but lack of drinking hot drinks...
7. Left for Foz de Iguazu... the biggest falls in the world.
8. Spent hours at the falls and took about hundred pictures... It was literally our heaven there were rainbows and raccoons!
9. Got a wicked sunburn while observing the beauty of the falls.
10. Spent a lot of time at the pool at our Falls hostel! It was awesome... added to the sunburn!
11. We have a new appreciation for Reggeaton... sorry Gama...
12. Left on a 36 hour bus to Mendoza the land of wine.
13. Was pestered all bus ride by our bus ride host who was once attractive and now is the bane of our existence.
14. Played Bingo on the bus! Aly thought she had won with 4 in a row and screamed BINGO at the top of her lungs and jumped out of her seat only to find out it was a game of black out... looked like an American idiot.
15. Was woken u`p by bus attendant fake tap dancing on the stairs and playing a fake piano on the coffee machine all night... We love sleep more than cute guys!
16. Got to Mendoza and walked around the city looking for the cheapest food deals.
16 1/2. Went to a Godoy Cruz vs. Tucuman Futbol game. It was seriously amazing. The crowd was super pumped and sang the whole game through. Godoy from Mendoza won in the last three minutes with a beautiful shot. Jo had toexplain every play to Aly... It was absolutely amazing!
17. Went on a self guided bike tour of the wineries in Maipu.
18. Rented bikes from the greatest bike rental place ever! Mr. Hugo is the best!
19. Jo Drank some at Mr. Hugo´s before starting our personal tour... it improves her bike riding.
20. Visited some awesome wineries and a chocolate factory... Jo loved the wine and food and Aly was all about the chocolate...
21. Felt like we were in the sound of music... sang as rode on our bikes.
22. Took awesome photos... get excited!
23. Made it back to Mr. Hugo´s... Mr. Hugo is the nicest man ever.
24. Got back to Mendoza and searched for a magical buffet.
25. Found magical buffet. Ate for hours and it was glorious!
26. Recorded bullet points of Argentina from bus terminal Internet cafe.

So tomorrow or the next day we are going to start our long trek back to Bolivia. We are so excited to see the Salt Flats and our frineds! We will try and write more frequently, our bad, but when you are having this much fun it is hard to stop the magic! Until then Adventure is out there! Love ya all!

4 Days, 4 Buses, Not Quite 4 Meals.....One Hot Shower in Buenos Aires = Priceless

So we made it to Buenos Aires.... It wasnt an easy task...but definitely a noteworthy adventure. To understand the craziness of this journey, let us start back in Cochabamba Bolivia.  It was a hot friday afternoon when we walked into the Cochabamba bus station, we arrived with a twinkle in our eye and hope in our hearts that we would be able to find bus tickets to Buenos Aires. As we walked into the bus station, we realized that there was only one company selling tickets all the way to BA. The lady behind the counter was super friendly, she too had a twinkle in her eye.... to us, she looked like a saint. We talked with her for awhile, she told us at first that the ride was 50 hours long, but not to worry because there would be food, tv (Aly loves the movies here!), and bus camas....(these magical seats that turn into beds). Pretty much, this was the bus of our dreams. Only once in a lifetime do you come across a bus that is made of unicorn dust and leprechan gold. We were pretty sure it was parked at the end of a rainbow!!! On a scale of killer whale to fat baby skunks (shout out to all people who love these animals) it was off the charts as a multi-colored vicuna that gives free rides to people who cannot breathe at high altitudes (we love this animal).

We promised our new friend that we would be back the next day to purchase the tickets.....we didnt want to buy them until Jo had her passport in her hand!! We left the bus station with a skip in our step! Later, the next day when we showed up at the bus station, our friend was gone, replaced by a new guy with greasy hair and a shady look in his eyes! he made the same promises to us however, but charged us more than our twinkly eyed friend had promised us the day before. Nevertheless, with this being the only company, we bought the tickets and left the station.

We spent our last few days with our new friends in Cochabamba:Gama, Vinnie, Fish, and Ale. We spent most of our time playing card games, but also eating delicious Picante Pollo... (thanks Mama Sierraalta!! It was the best food we have had so far!!). It was sad to say goodbye, but luckily we will see them again!

We left our hostel the next morning at 4:45am to arrive at the bus station on time. When we arrived, the bus company that we had bought tickets with was closed. We thought: No big deal, well just ask around. After asking people for 30 minutes we figure out that the magical bus does not exist in Cochabamba, we would have to take another bus (9 extra hours) to Santa Cruz then load the magical bus. So, even though we were frustrated about being told a yarn about the bus being in Cochabamba we were still hopeful and boarded our first bus.

We arrived in Santa Cruz after a really hot and bumpy ride through the jungle. We were hopeful that we would find the Flecha Bus company...owner of magical buses...and finally load our bus! After waiting for hours, we begin to load our bus, but quickly realize that we do not have the seats that they promised us, and since they wouldnt refund us the difference we decided to wait for another bus. Little did we know, the Flecha bus company sold us to another bus company, which was less than ideal...since instead of going all the way to BA, it dropped us off at the border and PEACED! We did meet a nice friend on the bus who helped us at the border, he was born in Bolivia, but lives in New Jersey....he was coming to bring his wife back to the states! 

When we got to the border we were met with a three hour line to get out of Bolivia. Not only was this line long, it was also scattered with hustlers.... one even had a harmonica as a disquise...! But, we were not fooled, and proceeded to wait. Jo was met with a little bit of trouble in the office as her passport was new and they thought it seemed shady. After waiting an extra couple of minutes Jo was sent to the either the office of doom or redemption as we like to call it! After a half an hour of negotiations and persuasions Jo was free and we headed for Argentina! There we crossed with ease, only having to wait like an hour!

We walked to the bus station, with sweat rolling down our back, once again in search of our Flecha bus! We really thought we were at the end of the yellow brick road at this point! We even clicked our heels three times and said Buenos Aires! Once we made it to the station they informed us that we had to wait a good 10 hours for our next bus. Luckily, there was good food in the town and our next bus was baller status. However, we did have to go through 3 checkpoints of passports and bags that night, there was also no food, or tv.... At about 9 in the morning the bus stops and the driver tells everyone to get off. We were a bit confused since we were pretty sure that we were not in BA.

We got off and went to the ticket counter and asked them when the next bus would be. They said in a few hours, so we waited and might have fed some stray dogs to pass the time. As the Flecha Bus pulls up, we were just happy to finally be leaving for BA. After we give them our tickets, we find that other people have been assigned our seats. Strange....so we go downstairs to ask....they tell us that they are going to move us to another bus (the worst one yet). Thanks FLecha for being our bus pimps!! they def. sold the tickets twice! 

Nevertheless, the adventure must go on, so we got on the bus. It was uneventful except for our one stop where we got pizza and stashed away some oreos for breakfast the next morning! At about 9am or so we made it to BA! YEAH! We were so happy!! And we might have started a campaign to take down Flecha....fight the man!! And the shady dude who sold us tickets! ... ok, jk but really that was a huge lie he told!!

We have checked in to a super cute hostel already had steak and watched a tango show. It was def. worth the trip! And now we have an awesome story to tell. We are looking forward to beds tonight, and the showers are hot here (we havent had these in awhile!!). 

Until next time, Adventure in DEFINITELY out there!