Salto

We left the Argentina side of Iguazu and headed back to the Argentina bus station to get our bags and jump on another bus for a 13 hour ride to Salto, Uruguay. I have to say, this busride was much more difficult than the 24 hour ride from 2 days prior. We were upstairs on the bus so it vibrated more and the seats didn't recline as far so it made sleeping more uncomfortable even though we had basically the whole upstairs of the bus to ourselves. I even had an entire row to myself to stretch out on and still didn't sleep well. You fall asleep for 20 minutes to an hour then are jolted awake. Then you stay awake for 10-15 minutes trying to find another comfortable position to sit in. Repeat over and over. I'm starting to tire of these long bus rides and we still have a few to go.

We arrived on the border of Argentina/Uruguay at 7am (2 hours longer than expected because of a flat tire on the bus) and had cabs waiting for us on the side of the road to take us across the border. The entire drive took another half hour. We arrived at the "Hotel Uruguay" and once again checked our accomodations. Very simple room. 2 beds, bathroom, shower. I think I'm going to take about a 1 hour shower once I get back to the states. These little showers with bad water pressure just doesn't cut it. Justin tried the shower and after a few seconds kept hearing him grunt. Turns out, the knobs were backwards so hot was cold and cold was hot. He ended up taking a half freezing cold shower until he figured it out. I thanked him for testing it out first. LOL! The whole group wanted to go to the Thermal Spa so after showers and getting food, we then jumped into 4 cabs to take us to the thermal baths. I had heard from Erika that the real thermal baths in Uruguay were up in the mountains and the water literally came straight from the earth. We just went to a spa with hot tubs. It was sort of refreshing though to sit in a hot bath and let the hot water soothe our bodies. There were probably 8 baths total in varying degrees. The hottest one was HOT. It was also the smallest. You could only sit in it for about 2 minutes before you started having trouble breathing. Probably because you were cooking yourself. The largest pools were the "coolest" though still about as hot as a hot tub. The group mostly hung out at that one. Plus it had a cold shower right outside of the bath so after sitting in the bath for a while, we'd jump out and stand under the cold shower. It's supposed to be good for the skin, the hot and cold. I don't know about that but it was a good time. We stayed for a few hours while people got different spa treatments (facials, massages, etc). I personally just paid to rent a robe and towel and jumped from hot bath to another. Some fell asleep in loungers reading books or listening to music. It was a nice relaxing day. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner which we heard was going to be with another GAP Adventures group that was heading the opposite direction. After some customary "pre-dinner cocktails" again, we headed out to the restaurant. We had been warned that the other group was "quiet". Sure enough, they kind of were. We on the other hand were pretty rowdy. We somehow (I have NO idea how) got into a game of "sexual charades" which while funny as all hell, had to horrify the other group. LOL! I also got my first taste of some Uruguayian food - Chivitos. Basically a fried egg sandwich with some meat, bell peppers, onion, bacon, and mayonaise on a roll. It was FRICKING DELICIOUS!!! Besides the amazing sashimi, it was probably the best meal so far. I've noticed the group getting a little snippier with each other lately and I think it has some to do with just being tired. We had been on a bus most of that day and we knew that we had to be up by 6am again the following morning for another 6 hour busride. After dinner, I decided to call it a day and try to get some sleep. We wouldn't have a free day for another 36 hours so we all knew we had a little difficult stretch coming up.