Tuesday morning, Leah and I catch a bus to Villazon, which is on the border of Bolivia and Argentina. Once we get there, we have to cross the border and change buses to get to Salta. We have been assured 6 different times by the crazy transvestite woman who works for the bus company that we have plenty of time to switch over, about 2 hours, and we should be fine.

Well. The bus left 20 minutes late. The lady forgot that Argentina is an hour ahead, so we really only had one hour to cross the border. And she failed to mention that Argentina is the most inefficient country on the entire planet and that it would take us 3 hours to get through a line of about 30 people. So our bus was supposed to leave at 2 30, by 5 30 we finally got through the line and entered Argentina. I think the most frusterating thing was that it only took Leah and I five minutes combined to get everything taken care of. So what was taking so long with the people in front of us? We had a sneaking suspicion that all the workers went on lunch for an hour or so, leaving us to bake in the sun.

So we are finally back in the great, grand, wonderful land of Argentina and head to the bus station. We were told we could turn in our ticket for a later time and we would be fine. We go to the same bus company that we went to in Tupiza. We explain our situation to the men working there. They proceed to tell us that their bus company does not exist in Bolivia, even though we saw two different offices in two different cities. When we told them that, they said we were wrong. I know that we were not wrong. The vision of the giant terrifying woman in Tupiza has been burned into my retinas forever. I even had to leave for a few minutes when talking to her, because she widened her bulging eyes at Leah over something and I thought I was going to burst out laughing, so I KNOW that office exists.

We decided to try a different company, who obviously honered our ticket right away. So with about 5 hours to kill, we began to explore the city. And by explore I mean look for a place to eat. Everything in the town was closed. EVERYTHING. After about wandering around famished for about 30 minutes, we finally found a place. The waitress there was kind of crazy. She pretended she couldn´t hear us or see us waving our arms when she didn´t want to serve us, but was very kind to the large group of argentines on the other side of the resteraunt. Oh well. We ate quickly and then killed 3 hours on the internet, searching for places to live.

We went to catch our bus at 11 pm. It´s supposed to be about 7 hours, so we will arrive in Salta at 6 am. This was quite early, but Leah and I truly believed that we would catch about 6 hours of well rested sleep and spend a morning in Salta before heading off to BsAs. We were such fools.

Now on the way to the bus, you basically get harassed by all sorts of people trying to sell you bus tickets. Leah kept getting harassed by this guy in a turtleneck and she finally just screamed at him WHERE IS THE BATHROOM! He backed off, made eye contact with me, and we both started laughing. He was like, "okay, sorry." We got ourselves all rearranged and went to load our stuff on the bus, when who should be loading our luggage? Turtleneck guy! He saw Leah and was like, "do you need to find another bathroom?" It was embarassingly hilarious. So we get on our very crowded bus and settle in.

About ten minutes after the bus started moving, all the guys who worked on the bus decided to go right by where we were trying to sleep and talk. They were laughing and just being really loud, but Leah and I decided it was still too early to complain and we would wait a little bit longer to ask them to be quiet. Well. They kept getting up and shoving my arm (aisle seat) and not to mention they all smelled terrible. So finally we asked them to be quiet. They just stared at us, then kept on talking. Finally, about 45 minutes later, the spread out and were quiet. But suddenly the bus stopped and someone came onboard and told us to get off the bus. I was very confused and woke up Leah. Neither of us knew what was going on, but we were the only ones on the bus, so we hurried off.

Turns out we had driven by an army base and our bus had randomly been chosen to be searched. This is about 2 30 am. We had to stand in a long line with all of our luggage and wait for it to be searched. We were getting kind of nervous, because these people were doing VERY thorough searches and well, we might have bought a few illegal dvds. Plus, my stuff was packed so tightly I had no idea how I would ever close my suitcase again if it was searched. We slowly made our way up, checking out the men in uniform, because some were cute, obviously being very awkward about it. We hoped the cute one wouldn´t open Leah´s suitcase and replay what happened at the border crossing, where the man searching her stuff picked up a bra and examined it for a little too long.

We get to the front of the line and I went first. I´m all ready to open my three bags when the man asks me for my passport. I give it to him, he looks at it for 2 seconds, and says,"okay, you can go." That was it. Apparently being from the United States makes you exempt from getting searched at 2 30 am in a weird army base. Same thing happened to Leah. So yeah, if you are from the United States and want to smuggle illegal things into Argentina, you have nothing to worry about. Go crazy.

So we are waiting to get back on the bus and unfortunately standing next to those assholes who wouldn´t stop talking. There was a dog (actually still kind of a puppy) that was wandering around. It was very cute, not bothering anyone, just playing with a stick. I went over and played with it for a while, it was a really nice dog, just sitting there. Out of nowhere, one of the guys who worked for the bus just went up and kicked the dog in the face. Now if you know me, you know I love dogs and that asshole doing that plus the way he acted earlier just set me off. The guy claimed the dog had bit him, which was a total lie since I had been watching the dog the whole time. I said some rude things, (the guy was really fat so it wasn´t hard to think up stuff), and the dog went and hid behind luggage. I´m still pissed off when I think about it, it was just such a mean thing to do.

So we get on the bus and the boys continue to talk. We and everyone else around them keep asking them to be quiet, but they keep laughing and talking until the bus pulled into Salta at 6 15. I think I might have gotten an hour sleep, maybe. But don´t worry. I filed a complaint. I´m sure nothing will be done about it, but it felt great to vent and go off on those jerks. So yeah, this was pretty much a terrible 24 hours, but the next ones were glorious, so everything is okay again.