Somos Americanos

OK I`m in Argentina, in the city Corrientes, capital of the state of Corrientes. People don`t say Buenos Dias here, they say Buen Dia. Castellano will take some getting used to, but my Mexican Spanish might actually be helping me, as far as sympathy goes. I have definitely left the tourist circuit that is Brazil-North Argentina is totally different territory, and it`s fun. In Brazil, I ran into the same people in different cities all the time, it was nuts.

Crossing the border was no problem, I didn`t get ripped off by the border police like I was expecting, and I spent the day on the Argentina side of Iguazu Falls. It was ten times more beautiful than the Brazilian side, and I loved every minute of it. My first order of business once I landed at the bus station in Puerto Iguazu, the Argentinian town for its side of the falls, was to figure out where I was going to be next. I talked to a guy at a tourist info office on my way back from the ATM, and he was crazy, first of all, but suggested a few places to go. So now it`s one of those things-who`s more foolish, the fool, or the guy who follows the fool? Corrientes kind of sucks so far, but I`m waiting to pass judgement until I can really see it. I`ve been walking for about 45 minutes, toward downtown, and have yet to see anything nice.

The bus trip here was the most excitement I think I`ve had so far. My original plan was to go to Santa Fe, then to Rosario, then BA. It was really expensive that way, so the crazy guy said to go to Corrientes, then backtrack to Posadas where there is a train that leaves Wednesday for BA, and the trip takes two days but would save me almost 200 pesos. So I booked a bus that left at 8pm last night, to arrive in Corrientes at 6am. I was sitting there and made friends with these English girls, we had some beers, and waited.

I was going to try to make friends with this couple of American families, but they kept looking at me like I was going to rape their daughters. All I did was ask if they wanted me to take a picture of them all together, and I obviously have an American accent.... but it was just downhill from there. One of the guys kept giving me stink eye like it would make me disappear. Such an idiot. But then this one little Argentinian kid, maybe 2 or 3 walked over to me. He looked a lot like I did as a baby actually, it was tripping me out that he took an interest in me and we could have been twins as babies. Then he kept grabbing my tatoo, his parents kept laughing, then he reached for my beer, and the parents thought it was hysterical and brought him is juice so we could ´Salud´ each other. Too cute.

Anyway, right at 8.00, one of the buses that had been sitting there for a half hour pulled out, and I was thinking ´man I hope my bus isn`t really late´ and I didn`t think that one was mine because the destination was Resistencia, not my destination. Then I looked at my map really quick and realized that Resistencia is just across the river from Corrientes, so it could have easily been my bus. I grabbed my ticket, ran to the police at the terminal, and they told me to RUN! I ditched my flip flops, ran my ass off to the end of the block, thanked god that the light turned red, and yelled to the driver that I was supposed to be there. I feel like there would be some regulation in the US preventing this, but the driver said he`d stop and wait for me ´up there´ so I ran back, grabbed my bags, and got on the bus. Brilliant. The girls said bye with a tone of doubt in their voice that I would be alright for the rest of my trip. They thought I was retarded. I do too.

Then I got on the bus, organized myself, and fell asleep as soon as I stopped sweating. Maybe a half hour later, this tough-looking military guy was prodding me with his baton thing and shining his flashlight in my face to wake me up. He asked me to get out my bag and open it (nicely enough), then I had to show him everything I was carrying (apples, a banana, cookies, toiletries.... he got bored) then he asked my nationality, I told him, he excused himself, but proceded to take a lady and her bags off the bus. I fell asleep with a big grin on my face with the realization that I am a clown and don`t know what the hell is going on, but here I am, having the time of my life!

This little corner of Argentina is nothing to write home about, even though that`s what I`m doing. Gotta run now because I`m out of time at the internet cafe. I`ll be on a bus for the next two days.