After you last heard from me on Tuesday afternoon, I finally took it easy for my last few hours in Encarnación. I enjoyed some delicious barbecued chicken at Daniel's house and then we went to a little ice-cream parlour for dessert. It was amazing, basically a self-serve ice-cream buffet by weight!!! Daniel handed me a generously sized tub and I was free to fill it with vanilla, dulce de leche, chocolate, white chocolate and rum 'n' raisin! I can't describe the joy of using a proper metal scoop to cram the icy spheres into the tub, and so cheap as well - I was gutted that I didn't know about this place on my first day in Paraguay... but then again, I would have needed to go to the casa de cambio even more times!!!
After a spot of people-watching in the plaza, we collected my bags and headed to the bus terminal. The bus arrived pretty much on time and I was soon on board and off back towards the border. Now, I was originally going to go back to Posadas by myself that morning, but decided against it due to the ticket being cheaper to Buenos Aires from Encarnción. Now, that saved me £12 or so, but Daniel warned me that it would take a couple of hours to clear immigration this way. He wasn't wrong!!! Admittedly, it wasn't a difficult proceedure, but there was a lot of waiting around. At the Paraguay side, a guy from the bus company took all the ID cards from the other passengers, and my passport (the only one!) and disappeared off into immigration. What seemed like an age later, he returned them all to us, much to my great relief - I knew that my passport wouldn't get lost, but I always feel better when I have it on my person and am dealing with it directly! We then crossed the bridge to Argentina. This time, we had to disembark and hand over our documents in person.
Now, this is the 3rd time I have crossed into Argentina, and with all the other stamps from this trip, there's not actually much room left in my passport! With another 7 years before it expires, I'd rather not have to buy another one before then because it is completely full. Imagine my annoyance when the official's first attempt at a stamp was too faint to read, so rather than stamp a clearer one OVER it, he stamped one NEXT to it, using up even more space!!! He then said something to me in Spanish which I didn't understand, so another lady had to explain that they would return my passport to me later and I had to follow the rest of the queue.
Once I was x-rayed, I then had to wait for ages more for everyone to clear immigration and for the bus to collect us. At this point, I still hadn't had my passport returned to me, so I was still on edge. As people started to re-board the bus, I decided to go back into the office to ask where my passport was. I think they said I would get it back on the bus... but I wasn't sure, so I asked the conductor... To my relief, we were all given our documents back as we set off again, at last making some progress towards our final destination! That was until we made a rest stop just a few minutes later!
I really needed the loo by this point, so my first priority was to locate the bathroom. I asked the conductor (again) how much time we would be spending there, as every bus journey differs. He said something like "go and eat" so I just blankly stared back... He signalled for me to follow the others, and after quickly nipping to the bathroom, I followed the entire busload into a restaurant, where we were all seated at tables and served with a hot meal of chicken with rice, bread rolls and dessert, plus Coke, Sprite, wine and beer! This was the first time this had happened in my entire trip, so of course I was scared that there would be some charge, but is seemed that everybody else on the bus was doing the same. I just went along with it, smiling to myself how funny my experiences in South America have been!
Once fed and watered, and 3 hours after I had boarded the bus, we finally set off properly into Argentina. I had been told the journey would take 12 hours, and I now realised that it would, from this point onwards, so really it was 15 hours from door-to-door!!! Oh well, I would still reach BA at a reasonable time in the morning. After a short time, we made a stop for the local police to come and inspect the bus. I'd forgotten just how routine this is in Argentina, but of course, I was relaxed about it as it is all part of the process here. Until... the conductor came upstairs and gestured for me to get off the bus. I swear my blood ran cold for a few seconds. "Me?" I inquired sheepishly, while he continued to babble on in Spanish that I couldn't make head nor tail of! I grabbed my daysack and headed outside, where I saw a police guard inside the bus's hold, with my backpack. Both he and the conductor asked me questions, to which I could only tell them that I didn't speak much Spanish and I didn't understand!
How did he know that was my backpack? What was the problem? Were they going to search it and empty out all the contents, meaning that the bus would have to be delayed by an hour while I reassembled it??? Crikey, only 3 weeks to go, please don't all go horribly wrong now!!! Anyway, another guard appeared, they all looked at each other then let me reboard. "¿Esta bien?" I asked, stunned that everything seemed to be in order anyway and still wondering what on Earth they had taken me off the bus for! I spent a good few minutes quietly quaking in my seat as we drove away, hoping to goodness everything was indeed OK and realising that I would never have any idea as to what had just happened! I can only surmise that they could see from the bus's manifesto that I was the only non-Paraguayan/Argentinian on the bus and they wanted to give me a once over! Thank goodness I managed to get a fair amount of sleep!
That was until this morning when at something past 6am, the guy opposite me thought it would be acceptable to play awful music on his mobile phone, but not without using headphones like any normal human being! After 10 minutes, he seemed to get bored and turned it off, allowing me to drop off again... until the driver then put a video of cowboys or gauchos or somebody bucking around on broncos and bulls, all to horrendous mariachi music! All this and the sun was barely up! All I could do was bear it as we made the slow crawl through the traffic into the centre of Buenos Aires! I finally arrived into Retiro terminal at 9.45am and headed off to find tourist information to ask which bus I would need to take to my hostel. Unfortunately, there was no one in the office, so after standing around for too long looking like a lost tourist, I headed out to the local bus depot, asked a guy in a uniform for assistance and was guided in the right direction.
It was easier for me to ask to go to Plaza de Mayo, rather than my hostel directly, and luckily, because the traffic was slow, I was able to follow the route on my map. Once at the plaza, I had my exact bearings, but I then needed to walk for another ¾km on foot through the city to the hostel. Through traffic lights, parades, road-works and protests, I thought to myself just how much I enjoy travelling, but just how much I am in need of a good rest! Only in South America! Welcome to Buenos Aires! Anyway, I checked in and asked if which room my friend Anh was in. The receptionist just gave me the key to my room, so I dropped off my bags and went back to ask her where Anh might be. "She's in your room!" Oh I see, she'd put me in the same dorm, but there was no-one in there! I headed down to the computers to write Anh an email, when I heard a familiar voice behind me - it was her and so there were joyous shrieks all round! Turns out she was taking a nap in the dorm, I had walked in and put my bags on the bunk directly above her before walking out again! She came looking for me as she thought "That backpack looks familiar!" Anyway, she's now nipped out for a tango lesson, but we are meeting for lucnh in a few minutes! It will be great to catch up properly, but we have to eat quickly, as I need to be back online at 3pm to bid on eBay...
...for a Paraguay patch of course, I will have to order it from England as I sure as hell can't find one in South America!
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