h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have just been through the bus journey from Hell, and am not impressed.

The original plan was to go from São Paulo, Brazil to Santiago de Chile. This should take (according to the women at Pluma buses) 52 hours. Indeed it probably would have taken this long, all things going according to plan.

The bus journey started out in the usual awful way, what with the kick-monster children behind me attempting to realign my spinal column by way of their feet, and the snoring-yeti in front of me; a man who fell asleep the instant he got on the bus and spent the entire journey that way, snoring so strongly I'm surprised he didn't inhale the curtains. All the movies they showed were dreadful and all seemed to involve lots of guns and explosions, and all were of the 'America Saves The World' genre. Typical!

Well, after about 35 hours, we arrived at the Libertadores border point for Argentina/Chile were the armed guards at the bottom of the mountain told us that there was a hige snow storm at the top which had buried the border station completely (again). What's more, the sorm was not expected to clear for about a week. Wonderful, especially considering I have a flight to Cuba from Santiago on Wednesday.

In the end, the bus drivers had to drive down south to Bariloche and cross to Puerto Montt from there. In total, the drive took 100 hours (yes, 5 days).

Suffice to say, I was not totally happy about this, and am hence a little miffed (not to mention tired) now. Just imagine being vertical for 5 days solid. Now imagine that the seats were designed for people no bigger that about 4 foot and you are 6 foot.

Fun, don't you think!