Bolivia Altiplano

After crossing into Bolivia (which involved a small adventure where we were directed to the take-your-shoes-off-and-walk-across-the-river border instead of the international-bridge-with-immigration-police border), it was straight to Tupiza where we wanted to start one of the classic Land Cruiser tours of the altiplano and salt flats. Although it's a lot of hours spent in a car, we had a great guide and the landscape is enough to make up for pretty much anything.

Gaining altitude out of Tupiza. Most of the tour was at 4000m or more.

Lunch stop with lots of (not pictured) llamas.

The second morning we woke around 4:30am since we had a long way to go. Also, since the accomodations are really isolated, it's impossible to make reservations so all the drivers go as fast as they can to make sure they get there first and we have somewhere to stay.

Colonial ruins.

The early wake up meant explored some colonial ruins as the sun was rising. The Spanish founded this town, probably in the 1500s, to exploit the mines in the mountain above it. The last inhabitant only abandoned it about 20 years ago.

One of many lagunas.

The general rhythm was in the land cruiser for a couple hours, bumping around with a minor headache due to the altitude, gawking over all the sights, yelling 'baby llama' every time we saw a baby llama (our driver Carmelo was really into this) and then stopping for 10 minutes to stretch and take lots of photos. And then repeat.

Volcan Licancabur, marking the border of Bolivia and Chile.

One particularly cool stop were the 'fumaroles'. You get out of the car to the pungent sulfur smell, and there are these billowing clouds of steam getting blown along by the wind, and then pits of mud (or whatever it is) are bubbling and boiling everywhere. Plus it's Bolivia so you can just walk around wherever you want, although our driver did advise to maintain at least 1m of distance!

Mud pit #1.

Mud pit #2.

Laguna Colorada (with flamingos).

Our second night we slept nearby the above Laguna Colorada.

Sunrise.

Not sure what the idea was here.

Flamencos!

Next day we passed more crazy lagunas with tons of flamingos. That night we slept in a salt hotel right next to the huge Salar de Uyuni. We woke up early (as usual) and were the first out on the salar to watch the sunrise. Once it warmed up a bit, and we ate breakfast, it was time to take lots of crazy photos! Carmelo was very enthusiastic and insisted on taking all kinds of photos of us.

Big beer!

Big Oli!

Yum!

Then, it was over! We got to ride on the roof heading off the salar. After one night in Uyuni, Virginia and I headed to Potosi, and then Sucre. Which, may or may not ever be blogged about.

On the roof!

Northern Argentina: Cordoba and Valles Calchaquies

After a night bus from Buenos Aires to Cordoba - the Culture Capital of the World (?) - Ross, Oli and I (Virginia) spent the first of 3 HOT days relaxing and taking long siestas in the local style, from 1 to 4:30 PM. The next morning, we were ready for a bit more activity and went to Alta Gracia, both the site of a Jesuit Estancia (ranch) and Che Guevera´s adolescent home.

We rented bikes for the afternoon, biked around in the hills, swam in a little laguna, and then visited Che Guevera´s adolescent home. It was cool, and there was stuff like the motorcycle Che rode across South America in (like in The Motorcycle Diaries).







A couple of days later, we had made it into las Valles Calchaquies, and, with a group of friends, found a nice man to drive us from a small town that I don't remember the name of to Quilmes, a really big complex of pre-Incan ruins. The Quilmes people resisted the Incas, then the Spanish for something like 100 years, until the Spanish forced them to march from Quilmes all the way to Buenos Aires (something like 1500km).  There, they created Quilmes, the typical Argentinian Beer (see previous post, part about Choripans). 


Cacti are large.

Ross and Oli eating a grapefruit in the shade.



In the ruins, there were lots of cactuces, they were really big. Round these parts, they make churches out of cactus wood, how cool is that?



Vinyards.  Good wine.  Irrigated by canal below (maybe).











Cafayate is the second largest wine producing region in Argentina.  There are lots of vinyards, and lots of wine.  We went horseback riding for an afternoon, and saw a pre-incan irrigation channel that is 12 km long, bringing water down from the mountains, that they still use to irrigate vinyards.

Horseback riding next to vinyard watering canals.

 






The next day, with lots of dutch friends, we rented bikes, put them on a bus up the Quedebra de las Conchas for 50km, then got off and biked back to Cafayate.  We saw lots of cool rocks, most of them were red like the devil, and the bike ride was really fun and scenic (and mostly downhill).

This is the Garganta del Diablo (Devil´s throat).  There are many Gargantas del diablo in Argentina, and some deserve the name more than others, but this one definitely deserved it.  WHERE AM I?

Photo taken while biking!

After this adventure, Oli and I continued up the Valles Calchaquies, taking a bus and pick-up truck to Los Molinos, then to Cachi, closer to Salta.  The sidewalks there are really high off the ground, and all cobbled.

Cemetery in Los Molinos (halftway between Cafayate and Cachi)

 Bike - o - phone

BIG sidewalks.

Oli thinks that the best thing about Cachi was this contraption to the left, a megaphone-bicycle.  Later that day, we saw it in action, playing andean flute songs at full blast. We did not see anyone riding it, though.  The next morning, before catching a bus to Salta, we hiked up some cerritos (small hills) close to Cachi.

  yummy!

Our 2 days in Salta, were not that eventful.  We ate really good empanadas (the best I've ever had), saw an Incan mummy found at the top of a 6700m mountain, and visited a colonial town hall type of building.  We also looked at some crazy-painted churches.

Church

Oli in front of the Cabildo (town hall)  in Salta.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires! We walked around lots, went out to eat delicious food and drink cheap wine, and generally enjoyed the good things in life.

Congreso de la Nación Argentina.

A lot of the streets look like this, but often with more trees!

Happily, when we first got to BA a couple other friends (yes you, Ben and Arden) were also vacationing there. We went out for good dinners (including one where we actually sat down to eat at a nice restaurant at 1:30 AM... crazy city...) and visited Tierra Santa, purportedly the world's only religious theme park. When Ross arrived we all met up in San Telmo, wandered the huge flea market (I think Arden almost fainted) and drank lots of beer!

Friends!

The day after my birthday was a bit of a slow one. We spent a while lounging in the big parks of Recoleta, and then decided we needed a choripan. Virginia and I had gotten one next to the zoo a few days earlier, and we knew it was just what was required. And Ross had to try one of course. The choripan (chorizo + pan, ie sausage and bread) is the South American equivalent of the hot dog, except with a lot more gristle and more like a sandwich. After some wandering (and asking) a friendly security guard gave us excellent directions to a small parilla that might satisfy our needs.

Open up! Please!

It looked closed up, but with a bit of pestering, Ross managed to get the owner to open for us! Hurrah!

Mmm choripan.

Choripan completo: with onions, lettuce, tomato and a fried egg.

We also took a walk around the Recoleta cemetary, where lots of the Argentine rich and famous are buried. Although the two photos below look kind of empty, it was fairly packed with tourists and stray cats.

On our last night in BA, we took the metro out to a neighbourhood called Belgrano. We had read about an outdoor tango dance in a park near here, and we (or at least I) wanted to see some tango before we left. I thought we might have a chance to learn a few moves and try it ourselves, but once things got going it was clear we were out of our league. Still, it was great watching couples,  young and old, casual and dressed up, spin around the floor.

Tango in the gazebo.

Road trip part 2: Ruta 40

After crossing into Argentina, we passed through Los Antiguos and reached Perito Moreno, on Ruta 40. Here we started the long drive south towards Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, in the hopes of seeing Cerro Torre and Monte Fitz Roy.

Los Antiguos has delicious cherries.

The pavement petered out soon after we turned south and things got empty and flat. It was impressive how quickly (within a day) we had gone from being next to the Andes to all of a sudden being right in the pampas.

Our friends the guanacos. (Photo cred: Virginia)

We camped out just next to the road, and the next day started driving around 9am to arrive in El Chalten at 7pm. Our fairly small selection of CDs was starting to run out by the end, but we made it managing to stay mostly sane.

First view of the mountains!

El Chalten is a pretty odd town. After driving through hundreds of kilometres of emptiness we were all of a sudden surrounded by hordes of quick-dry pant wearing European tourists. Slept one night in town and then hiking! We were ridiculously lucky with the weather, since the mountains are almost constantly cloud covered. Our two days of hiking were both blue-bird skies.

Cerro Torre (pointy one on the left) and Fitz Roy (on the right).

Cerro Torre from Mirador Maestri.

Self-timer photo in front of Laguna Sucia and the glaciar that drops icebergs into it.  We ate lunch here.

The mountains were really big, and quite astounding after lots of FLAT (see below).  After this brief stay, it was back to the pampas. We drove up to Bajo Caracoles, this tiny (tiny!) town on the way back north. There are 30 people who live there. And lots of cats.

 A sweet sunset, so we stopped to take "artistic" photos.

Sunset #2.

THE ONLY tourist attraction between El Chalten and Esquel, a LOT further noth - Cueva de las manos.
It was cool, there were paintaings of all left hands from 8000 years ago, they were everywhere!

After numerous hours of driving, about 12 more from the Cueva de Las Manos, we arrived at Parque Nacional Los Alerces, and drove on scary windy roads, stopping for lunch at a really nice beach next to a glacial lake. It was really hot out so the water felt refreshingly ice cold.

The next tourist attraction that we saw: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid´s Patagonian hideout.  They lived here for a few years before eventually robbing banks again.  This nice dog showed us around.  It was cool because there wasnt anything there, so you could explore all on your own.

Canine tour guide.

Note the overlapping log construction, rarely seen in South America!

After visiting Butch and company we followed some signs towards a teahouse, the Casa de las Piedras. There was a lot of Welsh immigration to this area (says Lonely Planet...) and so there is a tradition of big afternoon/evening teas. This place was a beautiful stone farmhouse, where we served unlimited tea and cakes upon cakes by a warm elderly couple. A more calm relaxed afternoon would be hard to imagine.

'Te Gales' in Cholila valley.

Next day it was back to Chile for a couple days recuperating in Osorno, and then a 27 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires where we are enjoying life, eating lots of cheesy pizza, choripans, and, best of all, Klubbin' with Kurtner (see rock climbing posts).  Love, Virginia and Oli.