Bus Survival Guide

After two 12 hour bus rides to and from Cordoba a couple weeks ago, I'm pretty much a pro at riding Argentine buses. I'm going to Malargue this weekend, which is a 6 hour bus ride, and my bus rides during spring break will be 20 hours each, but based on my past experience, I know exactly what to bring this time.
1. Audio book and headphones: I can't read on buses because of my motion sickness, so instead I've been slowly conquering the Game of Thrones books on audio book. Each one is like 50 hours of audio.
2. Camera: to take pictures out the window. I snagged a seat in the very front of the bus so I can see the whole countryside.
3. Warmer clothes: the bus ride over night was actually pretty cold while trying to sleep.
4. Neck pillow: I don't have one of these, but it sure would make sleeping a lot easier.
5. Fruit: for a great mid-bus ride snack that is something healthy.
6. Trail mix: with nothing to do on the bus, all I can think about it food, and start craving something sweet, something salty, chewy, crunchy.
7. Sandwich: We didn't get fed on the bus to Cordoba. They gave us an alfajore at the end of the trip, but we needed our own lunch. At one of the stops along the way, a food vendor got on the bus selling milanesa, but who knows how risky that is to eat. Bringing food is the way to go.
8. Pen and notebook: a lot of random thoughts go through my head sitting there for 12 hours. This is a great time to organize my life into lists and maybe doodle some pictures of the desert.
9. Toilet paper: after a few hours on a bus, the toilet seat was absolutely disgusting and there was no toilet paper. 
10. Water: there is definitely a balance between wanting to keep hydrated and not wanting to have to use the bus bathroom more than once.
11. Lock for backpack: while I'm sleeping on the bus I want to make sure nobody takes any of my stuff!
12: Hand Sanitizer: I just feel gross after spending multiple hours on public transport.
13. Earplugs: during the daytime bus, they played movies out loud while I was trying to sleep and my seat was directly beneath the speaker.

And... if you're really brave and have an early morning bus ride... you can go out to the boliches the night before and just go straight to the bus stop. I didn't try this myself, but it sure made for an amusing bus ride when one of my friends showed up to the bus terminal a little tipsy at 5 am.