the land of plenty

We made it! Argentina at last!

The last few days' rides were uneventful, save for one more big climb and a whole lot of busses and trucks flying by kicking up dust and rocks with their horns blaring. It was the destination that drove us on, and since there aren't many songs about Argentina (or at least we don't know them), we sang our California and Mexico songs, exchanging Argentina in the lyrics...

"Going to Argentina, going to life the life, sipping on red wine night after night..."

The border was chaotic, but thankfully our bikes bought us a ticket to the front of the line, where I only had to wait for an hour rather than five like everyone else. Still, it was a battle. When I got to the line, I was third. At least 10 people were helped before me. Everytime I would let myself get distracted, I would look back to see that 3 more people had snuck in front of me. At one point, the border guard refused to help anyone until a straight line was formed. After a 5 minute stalemate, he simply accepted the passport of the woman that had just butted to the front. Finally, I used my long limbs to secure my place in line by putting one hand on the wall and stretching the other one out so that no one else could get by. And finally we were in....

But alas, the land of plenty does not seem to have plenty of hotel space and we spend another hour riding around in search of a place to stay, hearing "no hay" as much or more as we did in Bolivia!

But plenty of pavement, there is. The 3 kms of it between the border and town were blissful and we can't wait to hit the smooth black road again tomorrow!

Christine