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San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina
24° 10' S 65° 18' W
Jan 11, 2006 23:41
Distance 1053km

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Almost there

Text written in: English

We've been traveling so quickly and for so many consecutive days that ive pretty much lost track of both day and time. i think we started in Lima on the 5th and took a 4 hour bus to Huacachina to sand dune surf. from there we took a 12 hour bus to Arequipa and immediately hopped on another 5 hour bus to Puno. thats the one where we got to play ethicnically biased bingo and watch the whole ten yards horrible dubbed into spanish. in puno we rested for about 32 hours while enduring a horrible tour of the lake and i took on the sun and the sun won. so i think it was two days ago that we left puno for the bolivian border on a 5 hour bus to Copacabana where we had a great time getting to know Bolivia. it turns out its like peru but nicer and cheaper. the people dont hassle you when you stop to look at an item and are generally friendlier than the people on the other side of the lake. after a delicious lunch of creamy vegatable soup and a quarter chicken, we boarded another bus to take us to La Paz which only took a suprisingly comfortable 4 hours. more on La Paz later. we were there for a night and then woke up early to catch a bus to a town 5 hours away where we could catch a 17 hour train through Bolivia to the border where we would walk across to Argentina and then board yet another bus to take us to Salta where we would try to buy a plane ticket to Buenos Aires. all this trouble is for the purpose of getting to B.A. cause weve heard its a city well worth visiting and we want to have as much time as possible. but we missed the plane, and the second half of the bus ride for that matter, and are now in San Salvador de Jujuy (pronounced you-youie) and have a flight tomorrow afternoon. ok, that was painful to write.

so were pretty happy to be past peru. not that the country didnt have its attractions and good times. we had a blast but we were also looking forward to exploring more of south america and our stint in peru seemed to drag on. Copacobana is on the other side of the massive Lake Titikaka and is a small but vibrant port city. we didnt have much time between buses so we only had time to explore the church and one local restaurant. both were great and we were tempted to stay there for a night. but our mission was and still is to get to Buenos Aires so we pushed on. when our bus got to La Paz, we found it to be exactly as advertised. its the highest city in the world, dwarfing our beacon of altitudinal (did i just make up a word? take note, Webster) glory in Denver, and its a metropolis teeming with life. we walked a short distance to a nice hostel across from a park, dropped our bags and went in search of options for travel. we used our hand-us-down Lonely Planet South America to find a travel agency and were able to discover that the bus and seemingly endless train ride through bolivia was our best and most time efficient bet. after we were happy with our travel plans, we went to explore the city. we walked in the direction of what is called El Mercado Negro, literally, the Black Market. there we expected to find thousands of goods for sale at rock bottom prices. we didnt realy need anything but just wanted to see if these black markets were everything the horror stories make them out to be. on the way we passed a public square where next to a dark skinned bolivian with a Mr. T haircut, a pair of street performers were displaying that physical humor still pleases the masses, especially when the masses include two gringos who cant understand the local dialect. after watching the show and the crowd for a little bit, we moved again towards the marketplace. we apparently stumbled into the barbershop district as literally every store on the street boasted advertisements for the best haircut this side of the Falklands. we had both been itching (not to use a pun or anything) for a beard shave and decided this was the time and place. we walked into a shop, secured a fair price, and went underneath the knife. it was davids second real shave but my first so i was a little nervous about having a razor blade caress my jugular. but both men were equal to the task and we left the store looking like babyfaced teenagers again. for a brief moment i was able to convince david to leave only the mustache so he could complete his life mission of looking exactly like Valderoma but he quickly came to the same decision any sane man who looked like that would and cut it off as well. i was able to secure a picture which hopefully i can attach soon. after the brief but very necessary distraction, we were again headed in the direction of hte black market. we passed through what david thought was the witches market because we were suddenly surrounded by stands selling voodoo like dolls including many llama fetuses in varying stages of development. pretty gross as many of them had a lot of hair and looked very much like a baby llama. he asked, but guido was unable to discern their use. we quickly moved on. finally, at the top of the hill, we found the black market but because of our late arrival, most of the shops were closed for the day. regardless, it was a impressive sight. there are probably 7 floors and over 200 stalls, most of which were covered with the silver metal sliding door that protects it at night. the only shops that were open were fabric shops and niether one of us liked the colors, so we moved on.

we went in search of dinner and randomly stumbled upon a restaurant frequented by foreigners. the menu was a bit more pricey than the rest of the bolivian options but was still quite reasonable by american standards. we ordered some local beers and waited for our food while listening to jazz music. by the time our food arrived, a live band was setting up so we were becoming increasingly happy with our dinner decision. and after taking one bite into our food, we were ecstatic. the best food on our trip, sorry to the colombians who rivaled it with their bbq and who also provided many a delicious arepa, but this restaurant, Sol y Luna, served a myriad of cuisines of which we sampled indonesian and french. fatty got chicken with a asian peanut sauce with rice. i got filet mignon chunks wrapped in bacon and onion served on skewers with bell peppers and a sliced baked potato with fresh steamed vegatables on the side. of course we completed a food for food exchange so we both were able to appreciate how great this food was. we ate every thing on the plate and sat back, bellies protruding. soon into our second round of beer, the 3 man band started up and promised to entertain the crowd. they were a stand up bass, a acustic guitar, and a pair of bongo drums. the bongoman looked exactly like David Allen Grier which made us both look at each other quickly like the scene from Amazon Women from the Moon (zac and spiegel, i know youre with me on this one) and blurt out ¨Jeremiah was a bullfrog!¨. if you havent seen this amazing B movie, i suggest you go out and rent it but put the kids to bed, its a little crass and right up the alley of a 17 year old. so the band played two fantastic sets of fast paced spanish jazz including some covers of like genred, familiar bands. we stayed late into the second set but then headed home anticipating the long day ahead of us.

quick note before getting on with the travels; in the morning along the way to the bus station, we saw several men dressed head to toe in zebra outfits and tehy were directing traffic. i was too slow with the camera but i assure you, their costumes were as accurate as possible and why they choose this method to direct cars in the morning rush hour, i cannot tell you but only offer this explanation: its south america. the bus ride to Oruro wasnt too bad and soon we had bought tickets for the overnight train and decided to listen to the guide book and try a 4 star restaurant in the city. apparently a retired french bistro chef decided to move to this middle of nowhere city and set up a nice restaurant. who knows but the food was great. david had chicken millonesa and i had a rack of lamb. with drinks the meal was 10 bucks. i had finished what i thought was the entirety of the good meat from the lamb when the chef came over and told me that ribs are really only eaten with the hands. as it turns out, he knew was he was talking about as i threw cleanliness to the wind and found that if you eat between the lines, you find hidden treasure. i ate more than i should have and again sat back to let ¨it¨ breathe. we got on the train and found that the first class seats we paid for were really not much of an upgrade from the seats that everyone else got. the only difference we could discern was that our chairs rotated 180 degrees and we got a meal ticket. we had bought the elitest seating because for a train ride that long, we figured the extra 10 dollars would be well spent. it tunred out to be a rather inexpensive mistake however. we quickly developed cabin fever but were pacified like children when they put a movie on. before they were playing the music video channel for opera singers dressed like mariachis. the one reprieve was when they showed a Roy Orbeson video, Pretty Woman, in which the drummer maintained a Howdy Doody like gaping grin the whole time and poor old Roy didnt move much either. anyway, the choice of movie was also subpar but mildly entertaining because it was a early Jackie Chan flik. clearly made in Hong Kong, they showed no respect for indigenous people as they represented them as unintelligent, stupified, bumbling idiots while chasing Jackie Chan (also his name in the movie) around in the opening scene. we interrupted our movie for dinner of which we didnt need to eat but did because we're cheap travelers and will always take a free meal. we tried to play cards on the dinnertable but were quickly repremanded by the waiter. we returned to catch the end of the movie and shifted uncomfortably and made audible complaints when the next movie came on. this time, from their vast and diverse dvd selection, they chose The Son of the Mask. quite a waste of $5 million i suppose but at least we didnt pay to see it, intentionally. finally after that, we got to watch Something About Mary whose simple toilet humor translated very efficiently into the Spanish dubbing. after that movie, it was pretty late but neither of us wanted to sleep so we retuned to the dinner car for some drinks and some cards. it was late so they allowed it this time and we played for quite some time until we got into an argument over a Snickers bar (no, Marcela, he already ate that one) and Fatty stormed off to go to bed. oh the things we choose to fight about, at least its stupid and trivial like candy and not something meaningful like religion or politics or who was the best Bond. a quick note on the bathrooms. to cut right to the point, the toilet holes, lead directly to the tracks. so if youre ever in Bolivia, dont walk on the train tracks. fortunately there are city codes that dont allow use of the facilities within city limits but in the country, its anybodys game. no need to go into detail but ill say this, after crossing the entirety of Bolivia by train, its safe to say i left my mark. was that necessary? probably not but hey, why not.

we woke up this morning at the border town of Villazon and made the mile walk to the border where we encountered probably the most inefficient and painful immigration process known to man. there is one lady sitting in an air conditioned room taking passports and identification cards of whoever thrusts them in her face. then she had to manually write down all the numbers and names and then would occasionally bark at the crowd to back off. there was very little resemblence of a line and david was able to get all the details of this carefully planned procedure because he stood at the front with our passports for about 30 minutes. once we finally got stamped, we went to the bag inspection lady and once she saw our USA passports, she said ¨oh, pasen¨. rediculous. the argentinian side was nicer but not too nice. we discussed the insanity that is the creation of border towns to support the popular spots to cross countries. none of them are that great and each resembles each other somewhat. we changed money, got some pastries for breakfast, and booked a bus to take us to Salta to catch a plane to Buenos Aires. the buses here are like luxery liners with two stories, semi-cama chairs, radio and tvs, and a smooth ride. it was interesting to me to see two uniformed police officers who were riding gratis be forced from seats so that other people could use them. they ushered the public servants to the back where they sat in the area used for baggage storage and shared the narrow aisle for leg room. interesting way to treat the cops but who am i comment?

we got off the bus here in San Salvador and found a flight leaving here tomorrow afternoon. we opted for this choice rather than get back on the bus for another 4 hours to salta to have the same flight option. so we ate a good late lunch, found a great hostel that offered us the best room in the house looking out over the intersection of two main streets, and hunkered down for a night in Jujuy. i should probably get back to the room as Guido has probably almost convinced himself that its ok to eat the entire Snickers bar. tomorrow we get to B.A. and we will both be very happy with finishing our longest stretch of travel.