Off to Brazil
12 June 2005 (Sunday) – Buenos Aires, Argentina to Porto Alegre, Brazil
I just had about 4 hours of sleep before I got up at 8am to start shoving the last things into my backpack for my departure. Although my bus is leaving at 1pm, I was heading over to Pablo’s apartment first and we had arranged to meet at 9am.
Despite being very tired as well, Claudia extracted herself from the bed to bid her farewells. Oh, always hard to say goodbye. But, provided I make it back to Buenos Aires alive, it is actually hasta luego (see you later) and not goodbye.
I buzzed the intercom at Pablo’s apartment at around 9:05am. I had feared he would not hear the beep as he had also gone out last night and might have overslept. Hey, the poor dear had returned home at 5+am last night but still remembered to set the alarm clock for 9am. Oh, how touching.
It must be quite a sight as both of us sat there for breakfast, yawning and yawning away, while we made intelligible chit-chats. He asked if I wanted orange juice. “I am going to Brazil”, I replied. 30 l-o-n-g seconds passed by before a simmering Pablo managed a comeback remark, “Well, their bifes are not nice… and they do not have TANGO!” Hahaha… Sunday morning, after only a 4-hour sleep, I admit it is a good comeback.
Wow, today is a beautiful beautiful day, truly cloudless and blue!!! It looks like a summer day again! Oh, as we made our way to Retiro, I felt a sense of sadness… Do I really want to leave this city?? Certainly not on this beautiful day! And certainly not with all the wonderful friendships everyone had shown me! But, oh well, I have to move on. I have to go. There is a whole wide horizon ahead of me.
Again, Pablo and I bid each other farewell at Retiro, not knowing whether we would see each other again. I had no idea when I would return and he would start working soon as a travel guide, so he might not be in Buenos Aires when I return. Well, ¡ojala!
This particular bus sending me to Brazil is superb… There are just 3 huge seats to a row, I practically melted into the luxuriously cushioned seat. They reclined nearly to the end and were super comfortable. It was heaven-on-wheels… The journey to the border of Argentina and Brazil lasted 8 hours of non-stop travelling on extremely straight and excellent road. I slept like a baby the entire ride. When we finally stopped, I thought we had stopped for a smoke-break and simply followed people down for a leg-stretch. Only when I saw queues forming in a small office, did I then realise this was the border and we were at the customs.
Usually for border crossing, the bus companies organised us such that we would be queuing by our seat numbers. That would make it easier for the customs officer to ensure everyone was accounted for. They called out our names to form the queue. Whenever there was pause as the person struggled with something beginning with ‘w’ or ‘s’, I would just voluntarily step forward and end their misery by saying “Yo” (me). And such was the case as well today.
Tags: 01) Imagining Argentina, Buenos Aires
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