South America by bus

By Monday night, I will have spent over 46 hours on buses in a period of four days. Really, it`s not all that bad if you consider the distance I`m covering. Basically from the southern tip of Texas to somewhere in the middle of Canada via Chicago. I`m just glad I`m doing this at an age where my body can handle being almost completely immobile for 8-16 hour periods.

The ride from Pucòn to Santiago was relatively uneventful. It`s nice to share a seat with someone you know, who isn`t going to care if you rest 30% of your body weight against them when you curl up to go to sleep. Dan and I had the heater directly underneath our seat, though, which made for a slightly uncomfortable night of sleep. Better than being cold though, I guess. Also, to my surprise, the first time I woke up, I found that the curtains had been closed. Kind of scary for me, because if someone can lean across me to close the curtains while I sleep without waking me, I`m really in for it in Peru and Bolivia where people notoriously get their bags stolen while they sleep. Later that morning, as were pulling into Santiago, I realized the curtains had been opened again, also right under my nose. I`m gonna have to figure out a good security system for my pack.