Dear family and friends - Well, I promised someone in an email that I would blog about our first ever day trip. We had decided that after the holidays were over we would take a day trip on our P-day to a city that is about 2 1/2 hours away by bus. The only bus that goes directly to that city leaves at 4:20 AM. Not wanting to get up that early we decided to travel to Resistencia first [our mission headquarters] and then on over the bridge by some other means to our destination city of Corrientes. We chose the 6:00 AM bus thinking that would give us the most possible time at our desired destination. [Not much savings in time as far as sleeping in !!] We had figured that we would need to leave for the bus terminal by 5:30 AM in order to give ourselves plenty of time to get our tickets etc. and after a fitful nights' sleep the first thing I hear is Dad saying "it's five to five!" Anyone that knows me well knows that I can barely wake up in that amount of time [30 min] let alone be ready to be seen in public! I managed to hurry and cut a few corners and be "ready" by the time the remis [taxi] honked at 5:30. Did I mention that there was a raging rain storm going on and that the electricity had been off at least once during the night? When we got down to the remis the gutters were already flooded and I managed to get both feet drenched right off the bat. We get to the terminal in plenty of time and start the inevitable wait. The 6:00 AM bus never shows up and we end up waiting for the 8:00 bus. This was supposed to be a non-stop bus but no, it stops in the first little town about 20 min out and as we pass the side streets, most of them are totally flooded. We eventually make it to Resistencia but before we make it all the way to the terminal, we have to turn around because of flooded streets there. I guess we got the tail end of their storm which was quite a doozey. We dickered with a remis driver to take us across the bridge to Corrientes which is in a different Province from the one we live in [Chaco] more progressive and more modern. They have a Mall, Walmart and wonder of wonders, a McDonalds!! We of course had lunch there and it was like heaven!! The mall was mostly a casino, a movie theatre and a few Argentine shops, nothing fancy but at least something different for us. The Walmart was right next door, not anywhere near like the Walmarts at home but once again better than the stores that we have locally. Much to my disappointment the two things that I was anxious to find, Frenches mustard and peanut butter, were not to be found this time but there were some other things that I wasn't expecting to find so that kind of compensated, sort of. All in all it was more of an adventure than we expected but it was nice to "get out of Dodge" as they say. We took an earlier bus back than we had planned on but it was nice to be home again, safely. Following are a couple of pictures that we took of the flooding. [Well, the pictures aren't posting so we'll try again later.]
Meanwhile, we had another adventure of note last night.[Sun.] An older member of our branch had had a stroke but was back at home and we decided to make a short visit. We took some zucchini bread [still warm!] and when we had clapped at the gate [local custom] we were greeted loudly by a Rotweiler and a Pit Bull. My two favorite breeds of dog. NOT!! I was glad there was a fence between us! Pretty soon the granddaughter comes out and informs us that her G'mother is not up for a visit but she would go and get her mom. As we wait, the mosquitos start a vicious attack. We wait and wait being chewed alive and finally the mom comes out. We politely inquire about her mother and give her the zucchini bread and take our leave. We now had to call another remis and start the wait for that. Usually they are very prompt but not this time! During the wait I'm dancing around slapping at mosquitos and scratching at bites already received. On the way home off come the knee highs and I'm scratching both legs with both hands as hard as I can. Once home, I quit counting bites at 10. Such are some of our Argentine adventures!!
Love, Mom/Jan
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