The Santa Rosa Experience

Yesterday I set off from Mendoza for Buenos Aires having only had two hours of sleep. A quick lunch with friends John and Hannah and then I hopped on a bus to San Martin, a small town a few kilometres out of Mendoza. I asked at the petrol station how to get to route 7, the main route to Buenos Aires and a nice local drove me there in the back of his ute. It turns out that the road is actually a freeway, not the best for hitch hiking, and not many people were keen on giving a funny looking foreigner a lift.

The signs started at 999km to Buenos Aires and by the time it was dark I had only reached 965km. I had travelled not even 35km and about 25km of that was on foot. I considered setting up ´camp´ a little way off the freeway but then I had seen a sign a few k´s back telling me that Santa Rosa was only 14km away. I kept walking and found a petrol station. The attendant informed me I wouldn´t be able to get a taxi so I had a quick water break and kept walking. As it turned out, the sign meant that it was 14km to the Santa Rosa exit, not the town itself. I was seriously considering setting up camp when the petrol station attendant drove past, recognised me and offered me a lift. I got in, only too happy to be able to sit down and he drove me to what he said was the city centre.

I got out of the car and found that I was being stared at by everyone in the town. It was 10pm at this stage. I wrote down the name of the hostel and asked around until I found out that it was a further 2okm down the road. A friendly local offered to take me along with him on the bus as he lived there and could take me straight to the hostel. I apprehensively accepted his offer, and after an interesting bus ride and more stares we arrived at the hostel, who turned me away. I was introduced to another local, Fabian, who seemed to know everyone in town and asked around until he found a room for me. The people had been great so far, so I accepted and ended up staying the night with a working class Argentinian man who lived by himself in a tiny house.

The dinner he offered me was a sliced meat something like mortadella, and biscuits. I stayed in a surprisingly comfortable double bed, clinging to my backpack and had to flush the toilet with a bucket of water - no shower to be seen. In the morning (6am as he had to go to work) I paid him 40 pesos and he took me to the bus stop and saw me off. I managed to get from Santa Rosa, the town that I had stayed in, to La Paz (Argentina), and from La Paz to San Luis where I am now sitting in an internet cafe. My shoulders and legs are aching, my feet are blistered and I´m tired.

Needless to say I have booked a bus for the rest of my journey to Buenos Aires and won´t be hitch hiking again in a hurry.