the case of the vanishing backpack...

ok, we all love a mystery story, here´s mine...

i cross the border from bolivia into argentina, no worries. then i buy a ticket to salta, argentina... approximately 10 hours further south in argentina (let us also ponder that i have already been on a bus for 20 hours at this stage). i buy my ticket, hand over my backpack (as is customary) and ask, do i need a receipt? They scoff. "No" the woman in the office says, "this is ARGENTINA". "Ok", I think to myself, "back to toilets that take paper, food that is edible. this is argentina, that makes sense". So i merrily eat some food and jump on the bus. After a ride that wasn´t too chronic, (i mean hey, who doesn´t want to watch dodgeball in spanish, still funny in my book) I arrive in Salta. This is of course after we were stopped and searched for cocaine, where in I didn´t see my bag and i thought, "mmm, that´s a little weird". So i get off the bus and for once don´t make my usual mad rush for the toilet but rather wait patiently for my bag to be unloaded, and wait, and wait. I then explain to the guys that my bag isn´t there. So they point me in the direction of the office. who don´t give a damn. So i do what any girl with a lick of sense who has been wearing the same clothes for three days and who is vaugely starting to smell does. I gathered a posse. So i gathered together this group of about 8 guys who can speak some english and explained to them what had happened, and of course they are suitably upset for me and we got back to the office to find out what happened (because i figure, sure they can ignore me, but can they really ignore me AND 8 spanish speaking blokes... nope.) anyway, after much dilly dallying and arguing the guys in the office say that i have to ring the office in la quincintera (where i left from) gave me the number and showed me the door. THANK GOD for horatio. He rang them, talked to them, then followed up with them again when i was told i had to go back to the bus station an hour and a half later and then chased them down again this morning and then... hero that he is... got my bag back! after a day of "your bag´s not here" from both sides (and one woman at the company´s brilliant suggestion that it was my fault that i didn´t get off the bus at every town we stopped in to check if my bag was still there!) i am so relieved and grateful at this juncture that marraige to a 22 year old argentian who barely speaks english would be a great idea if he thought to ask! i had written off all my stuff and last night was so tired and frustrated i actually burst into tears in front of my posse. (Which i think is what spurred them on to finding the bag).

I still don´t know how they found it, or where it was, there in lies the mystery. But i tell you what, the beers are definitely on me tonight. And before you ask... yes the cost of replacing everything in the bag, including the bag.. would still be cheaper than the travel insurance. Though the beers may not be!

So mystery solved, i have my stuff back (it all still desperately smells and direly needs a wash, but i´m hoping that will take care of itself in b.a.). I´ll probably get a direct bus down there tomorrow. i was planning to leave salta tonight but i think i´ll stick around one more day to show the guys my appreciation. then down to b.a. for a few days, up to the iguazu falls and across to rio.

so what´s news with you? do let me know guys. as one friend said to me "my life is just the same..." doesn´t mean i don´t want to hear about it!

anyway, i´m off to see what´s good in salta, talk to you soon guys,
love
simone