So last week I got my spring break! It was 10 days of traveling without having to worry about classes and just what I needed! I think I spent about 60 hours total in buses. It is crazy but the bus system here is great. One option you can take it like basically getting a bed as a seat. it is a seat but it lays down ALL THE WAY so that you can sleep. Its amazing for overnight trips.
My first destination was Valparaiso Chile. It took me two different buses and about 19 hours to get there but I made it! I left thursday night at 8:30 and arrived friday afternoon around 5 maybe. I also had to go through customs. This took about an hour to two hours. One lady got in trouble because she had an apple in her purse and this is illegal for some reason. Anyway, she had to pay $170 US dollars as a fine. How sucky is that! I almost left my visa there by accident! Thankfully I realized my mistake in time.
Vaparaiso was gorgeous. It reminded me of Greece in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Lots of little colorful houses. The ocean. Lots of hilly streets. I sure got a workout walking to and from the hostel. We had to walk down like 2 hundred windy stairs and walk up quite a few steep places. Our hostel was nice. Breakfast was sucky though. Oh and did I mention that one of the employees offered us pot??? haha. Itw as his birthday and he had friends over and invited us to hang out with them. We then proceeded to a club where I was approached and asked to dance and or (i think) but some of my own pot. Needlessly to say I declined both and we left. Then getting home to our hostel was a bit tricky. Apparently in Chile they have taxis and collectivos. The difference is a taxi takes you wherever and a collectivo has a fixed route. BUT on the outside to me they look the same. So we tried to take a collectivo home and it took us like an hour to go ten minutes b/c we didnt know where we lived. haha. The driver took us to the police station to ask them and we finally figured it out and wayyy overpaid him for getting us home safely. To sum up Valparaiso I also ate a lot of seafood including shrimp and some octupus.
Then we went to Santiago and I loved it. I'm not exactly sure why but it might have to do with the fact that they had kentucky fried chicken AND dunkin donuts and Buenos Aires does not. Also the taxi drivers werent honking 24/7 and would actually let pedestrians cross the street. it was nice.
Next, we traveled to Bariloche which is back in Argentina. That bus ride was about 20 hours. Bariloche was gorgeous. It has mountains and lakes, and its just great. I went horseback riding and on a mountain hike. The mountain hike was in the rain for parts. It was super cool but I was soaking wet for 4 hour which was not fun. We saw a black glacier, some waterfalls, and got to the highest point of the mountain. At one area itwas so windy and rainy I thought i'd get blown away! Bariloche is also known for chocolate and I definately got my moneys worth of chocolate while we were there. it was great!
Finally, we completed the journey with yet another 20 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires.
Sorry this is so late!
~lizzi
