Los Andes y Argentinos...dios mio!

Today we had our oh so lovely eight hour bus ride to Medoza today. Have I mentioned, estamos en Argentina!!! We began the bus ride and the first three hours were unmentionable. And then we got to the part where we hit the actual Andes. Then we went up pretty much the scariest road that we have ever been on. It reminded me of the curvy road in San Francisco that is super windy...except it was at a much more severe slopes...with piles of alvalanched snow cleared off the road. The road reminded Amber of multiple Lewiston grades combined into one, over and over and over and over again. At one point I looked at Amber and said " how is it F$&#@ing possible that THIS isn't the most dangerous road in the world?!?!" It was so freaking crazy! I had to close my eyes and do some budhist meditation of sorts to calm my nerves of going up the road. It seriously went 100 feet and then turned 180 degrees and then went 100 feet and then turned 180 degrees....over and over again...probably at least 30 times. Ufffffffff....

I never want to drive on that road ever again. There were parts of the road that were cement barriers were made to block the roads from avalanche. At a few of these barriers, there was so much snow that there were skiiers skiing on top of us! It was que loco! We were very glad once it was over and we didn't have to take that road any more. The Argentinian side of the pass was rather flat (especially in comparison) and quite enjoyable.

While on our bus, Amber and I met a rather friendly, and cute, Argentino named Luis. He was very friendly. He was our exact definition of what "tall, dark and handsome" is. When we were headed up the death-road, I said to Amber "ahhh, que miedo!" (How scary!). He looked over and said in Spanish about how we shouldn't be scared and he started distracting us from the view out our window. He was a very nice guy and by the end of the bus ride we exchanged emails so we can possibly meet up with him while we are in Mendoza. (Don't worry Mom(s), he was a police officer! --and a very hot one!)

Amber and I have learned from our mistakes and were smart enough to buy our bus ticket to Buenos Aires for Wednesday while we were still at the bus station (we didn't do this the first time in Valpo and we ended up having to stay another night). Amber walked around asking for prices and seeing what the best deals were. We found one that cost us less than $50 per person for our 14 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires. We leave on Wednesday at 6pm and we are sitting in the equivalent of business class which has chairs that recline into a bed. We are happy with it and have a only a few days here in Mendoza so we will have to plan well.

Our hostel here is, in a word, FABULOUS! We have our own suite (as my birthday is tomorrow) and it still cost the same as just a bed in Chile! We have our private bathroom and shower and a large room with black out blinds which was really exciting. We also have a personal safe to put our belongings in (passports, cameras, etc.) for safe keeping. We are basically in a hotel here and its fantastic. We can't get used to this place as its above our budget if we were to stay like this every night but its nice once and a while to have a really great place (this place is like $30 per night for both of us). We're very excited for a few nights of fantastic sleep!

Upon arrival, Amber needed a shower. I begged her to as she really was quite stinky! She took a shower and came back with a very sad look on her face. She then proceeded to show me the rash/breakout of her skin on her chest and upper back. Its not pretty folks. She says it doesn't itch so hopefully it was just the detergent the last hostel used on our sheets. Also, she hadn't showered in three days so hopefully she'll learn to keep a little cleaner. I guess two days is our norm now!! We will keep you updated of when it goes away...hopefully soon!!!

Well we are off in search of some really great Middle Eastern food that our travel book told us about. Hopefully it'll be fantastic as we're both really hungry.

Amor y abrazos!
Katie & Amber

P.S. We are now an additional hour ahead of eastern standard time as we crossed another time zone on our trip here.

P.P.S. On our way here we had the best lomo sandwich! Apperantly Argentina is famous for its lomo (steak) sandwiches. We hope to have many more as it was fabulous. As our last hostel owner told us in spanish "the steak is so good in argentina that it melts like butter in your mouth!"