Taking The Show On The Road

Ah my very first bus ride in South America and shit do Argentina know how to lay on a bus ride. They have five comfort levels ranging from your basic common or garden bus right up to fully reclining seats that'd have Qantas' best first class efforts hanging their heads in shame. I opted for the midrange semi-cama (half-bed), the seats recline far enough for a decent kip and there's more leg room than I've ever seen on public transport allowing me to expand like a gas to fill every available space.
I hoppped on the bus, found my seat and settled in. I ascertained that the young lass sat next to me was called Suzanna and was from Paraguay, searched my brain for the rest of my painfully limited Spanish knowledge, decided that it'd be inappropiate to ask her when her birthday was or order steak and chips so I gave her the Blank Tourist Look, explained I was English (I'm pretty sure the Spanish for "english" and "ignorant wanker" are the same) and got aquainted with the reclining seats.

And they feed you! If you can consider it food anyway, we were handed a foil tray containing a small slab of something grey that may have once had a face and some yellow stuff that might have passed for mash potato in less stringent testing with a non-taste that was easily masked by mixing it with salt and the brown, liquidy stuff I hoped was gravy.
Ha, bitch please, check her out, three weeks in Buenos Aires and suddenly only the finiest steak will do. Pass the caviar will you, Jeeves?

It was 7am by the time we arrived in Encarnación and I was fucked. We'd had to stay awake for border security in both countries at some god awful hour in the morning (although the Paraguay side was fabulous, we just sat on the bus while a man collected our documents then handed them back after they'd been processed) and as soon as you get off the bus you're pounced on by people offering cambio (currency exchange) and taxis. I stumbled over the road from the bus terminal to Hotel Germano and checked into my own room for 40000GR (Guaranies). Cheap as chips and not them overpriced ones you get at fairs and events served to you out of a trailer in a tiny cup by an overweight woman who could do with her roots re-bleaching and wouldn't look wrong with a fag hanging out of the corner of her mouth. I already liked Paraguay.

Its not a bad deal though, the bus ride; you get somewhere to crash for the night, a feed and you get to where you're going all for AR$165 (Pesos). And of course I fucking ate the food, I'm a backpacker.

I'd eat mangled rat if you handed it to me in a sandwich and told me it was free.

written by

Koala Bear on May 12, 2010 from Encarnacion, Paraguay

from the travel blog: Tourist, Rincewind Decided, Meant "Idiot"

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