Tucuman

I have decided to go up north and explore the final part of Argentina before heading to Brazil for Carnaval. I am now travelling with a friend I have made in Buenos Aires called Liya - a girl from Israel.

Our first stop was Tucuman, and although the city itself was a bit of a hole, the journey there was even worse. The bus ride was supposed to be 15 hours, which is quite reasonable for bus journeys in South America. There were several companies offering to go from Buenos Aires to Tucuman, so, of course, we chose the cheapest one. This time was no different from all the other times, as we got what we paid for.

It was difficult just taking the first step on to the bus because of the stench. Our conclusion was that some small animal had somehow made its way into the ventilation system moments before its death, and the carcass was then left there to ferment for several years.

Still, that was not the worst part of the ordeal. The bus had not been moving for more than five minutes before some really cheesey rock music started blasting out the speakers. It was just loud enough so that we could not hear eachother speaking. We promptly asked the steward to turn it down, which, to his credit, he did almost instantly. It seems however that the volume control on the stereo and the air conditioning were somehow linked on this bus, because as soon as the volume dropped, so did the temperature. Taking into consideration how hot it was outside, I completely forgot to take any kind of warm clothing with me, and had to deal with the cold for the entire 15 hours (actually due to delays, it lasted closer to 17).

Despite all of these distractions, I still managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time. I was sleeping exceptionally well until some genious decided that 5:30 in the morning is an excellent time to break out a guitar and start singing really loudly. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but it all became clear when I heard Liya telling him to shut up. It was a pretty pointless effort, unfortunately, because we seemed to be the only people who thought that it was pretty inappropriate. Even the people sitting across the aisle from us with their toddler were enjoying it.

It was after 7 o'clock when he finally shut up and silence fell across the bus. Not for long, though because the old man sitting behind me started snoring really loud. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep that night.

Arriving in Tucuman, there was so much rain, that we could not possibly do anything even if we wanted to. Arriving at the hostel, we asked what there was to do, and the man answered us with a whole bunch of nothing. We were out of there the very next day.