Translation of Marionettenregierung

The lack of political stability is not new to South America and I believe that the different views among them added up so much that conflicts are not avoidable anymore. Look for example what happened.
The bus was supposed to leave at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so that I still had two to three hours to organize. I went for lunch at some strange place and hardly ate as it was too ugly.
We booked a tour for the next two days, one on a boat and the other on foot. In one of the agencies we met a nice couple and decided to stay in touch with them and have dinner together.