(Almost) Driving the bus from Guayaquil to Montañita

Travelling by bus within Ecuador is not an easy thing to achieve, as we were forced to learn. After fighting over people for the last bus tickets from Guayaquil terminal to the beautiful little party town of Montañita, we jump on the first transport we found towards Salinas. That was ok. The bus left us in the middle of a dirt road, without any kind of signs or bus stop whatsoever. That was not ok. The next thing I know, we are running a rump old bus looking form of transportation with the "Montañita" sign stamped on the back. The bus driver let us in. We were 4 argentinian girls, so we manage to find our places through apologizes and "perdon, permiso"s, even though there wasn´t any sit left. I was last to get in, all perspired and agitated for both the run and the ecuadorian heat, so the driver allowed me to sit between him and the woman in the co-driver sit, making me move my knee every time he had to use the gear shift, which I learnt was often.
With a two hour rumpling and curvy drive ahead, I decided to try make some friends. I asked the woman next to me where she was from, but instead of answering me, she looked straight into my eyes and asked if I was from Argentina. I said that is correct. She got really exited and wouldn´t stop looking at me. I asked why she was so surprised, and she told me she had never seen an argentinian person face to face before, and that all she knew about Argentina was from soap operas, and that I sounded just like the star from the one she avidly watched with her daughter every day she went back from work. As she clearly liked the sound of me talking, which is rare since I have a really nasal tone of voice, I kept on talking. She told me she was a single mom, with 3 kids, two of then still in school. She drove this bus every day to and from her place of work, where she filleted fish non-stop from 4 am to 2 pm, got the 2 hour bus drive, arrived to her house, watch the argentinian soap opera with her children, cook, and went to sleep to get up again at 1.30 to catch the bus.I asked if her kids could get along without her being there most of the time. She said "they are good kids". I smiled. Does everybody in Argentina looked like you? Yes, I´m pretty average looking, I said. Which is true. She said she liked my eyes. Suddenly the gear shift knocked on my knee, hitting standoff. I left my invented seat, said the driver thank you, and the lovely ecuatorian woman goodbye. I guess bus travelling isn´t that bad after all.