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Finding Friends in Salta

We arrived in Salta tired and hungry having long ago exhausted the multiple sandwiches and snacks we had brought with us on the bus. We had expected to arrive at 7am and have the whole day ahead of us, but instead we arrived at the bus station at 2:30pm. Eric and I had a hostel booked for the night, but the two French girls did not, so they decided to tag along with us and see if there was room for them at a reasonable price at our hostel. It was only on this walk to the hostel that we thought to exchange names, despite having first met each other 40 hours before and spent 28 hours in a bus together. That might have been a small personal failing, but you can meet so many people on the road you never see again, that sometimes names aren’t that important. We’ve noticed it’s not unusual to chat with people for quite a while before asking their names, even though that would be one of the first things we asked at home.

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Five Days in Asunción, Paraguay

Months ago we booked six nights at El Nómada Hostel in Asunción because we needed to show accommodation on our Paraguay visa application.

The first night after our sweaty bus ride, we ran into Jonathan and Danielle in the kitchen, the first Americans we’ve seen since we left Buenos Aires. While we aren’t particularly focused on finding Americans on our trip, it was fun to meet them. We are doing our trips in opposite directions, so they had lots of tips about Colombia, and we could tell them about Encarnación and getting Bolivian visas in Buenos Aires. They had spent three days in Asunción and were leaving the next day. They warned us Asunción is weirdly empty and there isn’t much to do.

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Encarnación

Buses in Paraguay are not like other buses we’ve experienced to date. For one, no one cares about your passport when you buy a bus ticket. They expect you are going on the next bus and they are happy to take your money. For two, the buses are quite old and there are no fancy features: no AC, no WiFi, at least not that we’ve seen. You might get a seat that doesn’t recline or you might get a seat that doesn’t stay up. In fact, you might not even get a seat.

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Montevideo: “Pretty Much A Success”

Before we left Buenos Aires, people kept telling us we shouldn’t spend a week in Montevideo because there’s nothing to do there. If they’re talking about nightlife and comparing it to Buenos Aires, they might be right; however, we have loved having time to explore.

We spent the week in a funny sort of hostel we found on AirBnB. We chose it over the other most promising option because the other one mentioned they had cats. We decided we shouldn’t spend a week in a place where Eric would suffer from allergies… only to show up and find two cats and two dogs in the hostel. Continue reading “Montevideo: “Pretty Much A Success””