Soccer, Bus, Bus, bad swimming experience, Soccer.

After I posted the picture of my visible distraction with a watermelon rhine, I had to jet to the nearest television to watch Argentina's opening World Cup Match against Ivory Coast. When I walked out of the internet cafe at 3:58 for a 4:00pm game, the city of Salta (and the rest of Argentina) failed to exist. At least outdoors. There was not a soul in the streets. I had never seen anything like it, so i went to the nearest (open) corner store, bought a liter of beer for $1 and found myself a seat in the back of the room at a local emporium equipped with a big screen and a less than clear feed. The 2 hour game went Argentina's way, and the 3 hours of celebrating in the street seemed to go Argentina's way too. It was round 1, game 1. Imagine Argentina is the state of Georgia, Soccer is NASCAR, and then multiply that by 12,000.

Since then, I hopped a bus back across the border to Chile where we crossed the Andes and 13,000 foot mountains. The buses climb the mountains on roads that zig zag endlessly up and down. This was my first experience with the high altitudes and just as we were entering the uphill "Z" formation of the road, I procured an altitude induced bloody nose. I grabbed some tissues, and made my way to the bathroom in the back, where I proceeded to be knocked around like a ragdoll for about 22 "Z's". At least my nose stopped bleeding. (My forehead found the door to be more forgiving than the window).

After the 12 hour daytime bus ride, My friend, Liz, and I made it to San Pedro De Atacama, and soon found out that none of the hostels have heat and the Desert is mindnumbingly cold at night. To combat the coldness, we made the illadvised decision to book a 4AM tour that took us to geisers and assured us that the sunrise would epic. At 4AM, it was 14 degrees (f), and I only had clothing meant for Autumn in the Berkshires. This, combined with the fact that it started with a 2.5 hour bus ride, I didn't locate the reclining lever on my seat until we pulled into the geiser parking lot, we were driving in the bus when the sun rose, and I went swimming in luke warm geiser pool in 30 degree weather, all adds up to a tour not worth taking.

In other news, the U.S. soccer team looked pretty pathetic today.. But it still pissed me off when the commentator shared those same sentiments over and over and over. Where does he get off making hurtfully accurate remarks like that.