Miercoles y Viernes

Hola!!! Just thought we´d check in again and fill you in on our Wednesday. We woke up after a nice sleep in a bed at the hostel in La Serena. We rushed to return the rental car, went to the post office, and had a nice brunch at a cute little restraunt. We then just roamed around the city for a couple of hours. La Serena is such a great city...it´s very charming. After our brief romp through La Serena we went back to the hostel. Becka showed us around, and took us up onto the roof of the hostel where they have family barbeques. We decided that we want to have those on our roof too..hmm...no problema, ya? We then headed to the bus that would take us to Santiago. After seven hours, and three movies with muted english and spanish subtitles we arrived in Santiago. We then had to catch anther eight hour bus to Mendoza, Argentina. When we got on the bus, we noticed two of our fellow passengers. They were an old couple, the man was 107 years old and the woman was 103. They proceeded to scream at becka about how she is a horrible person because they wanted her to give up her seat for their friend. We were slightly annoyed until we found out that they were on their way to Argentina to die, and that they wanted their caretaker to sit in Becka´s seat...yeah....we felt like dying at that point. They calmed down though and their caretake still hung out with us. This bus ride was overnight, so we were supposed to sleep...this was hard for several reasons:

a. the bus was a refrigerator
b. two old people having a conversation with one another (imagine their hearing impairment....yes, we heard everything they were saying-screaming)
c. oh, and then there was the hour long customs process, which meant standing in line for an hour, in the Andes, at 3 in the morning....lets just say that the Andes are VERY cold...MUCHA FRIA!!!!!!!

Well, after we got back on the bus, we had a few more hours of sleep, then arrived in Argentina. We found a woman at the bus station who had a room available to rent for our stay. She lead us to her house, through the pouring rain, where we were greeted by a wonderful, enthusiastic old man, and a poodle named Bruno (yep, rach and erin were kinda excited). We all fell asleep until about 11 am. We then got up and decided to make our way to the shops. This proved to be a little more difficult than expected due to the thunderstorm, and the fact that rushing rivers now took the place of roads. We felt like we were on the show Survivor, and had to complete special missions just to figure out how to cross the street. Well, after braving the storm for a while (nothing stops our shopping), and a good lunch, the rain decided to give us a break. The sun came out and we continued with our shopping. We went to a Ferria and found several cute little souveneirs (no perros, de promiso). Then we went to dinner and finished with some helado, and that brings us to where we are now....sitting in an internet cafe in Mendoza, Argentina. Tomorrow we catch another 8 hour bus ride to Santiago, but we´re excited because we will be passing through the Andes during the day.....it is supposed to be very beautiful...we´ll take pictures. :) We love you so much and we can´t wait to see you!!! We´d like to dedicate the rest of this blog to a very special birthday girl........

Feliz Cumpleaños a tu
Feliz Cumpleaños a tu
Feliz Cumpleaños Juanita
Feliz Cumpleaños a tuuuuuuuuuu!

We all wishg we could be there to celebrate with you but we figured by going out tomorrow night anbd thinking about you the whole time we can send all are happy feelings North to you!

Love
Rachie, Erin, Carleigh, y Becka

P.S. mama Jaunita i would love to hangout with you on my B-day, rachie and i will call you when we get in and have all our stuff . . . we are thinking yummy mexican food that we miss mucho!!!!