Back in Argentina

With memories lingering of my last overnight train journey in Latin America, when the scheduled 12 hours became 36, and with rather less than pleasant travelling companions, both of the human and non-human variety, my expectations of an overnight journey from Uyuni to the border with Argentina were not high.  However, instead of cockroaches, we had pillows, blankets and proper reclining seats, we were awoken to an invitation to breakfast in the dining car, and we rolled into Villazon bang on time.

An absolute highlight of northern Argentina was Tilcara, which was essentially just a stopping off point to break the journey on the way to Salta.  But it turned out to be a real favourite location, and if anyone is ever in the vicinity, be sure to stop off.  Tilcara has the most amazing setting (I´m sure I´ve written that a few times now, but superlatives are appropriate, if only I could download the photos to back up my assertions), surrounded by mountains, in a gorge -the Quebrada de Huamauaca- with the most amazing rock patterns. 

We also stayed in our favourite accommodation yet.  We had a cabana to ourselves, which was more like a log cabin, tastefully decorated, and loads of space, and outside on our patio there were deckchairs and hammocks, and more of the same on a terrace up above with amazing views over the mountains and over the extensive gardens.  It was a real paradise, my only regret that we didn´t stay for longer.   It was actually a Hostelling International hostel, proving once more that hostels really have gone upmarket since I started backpacking rather a large number of years ago.

So to begin with the "hostel" was going to be in receipt of a llama award, but then we liked Tilcara the town so much, that we concluded the award had to go to Tilcara as a whole  for a combo of amazing setting, fantastic accommodation, perfecto restaurants and a great walk which we did the next morning.  So great was it that we decided it had to be a golden llama!

Next stop was Salta, where a considerable amount of eating and drinking took place, including sampling Torrentes wine, in Bodegas in nearby Cafayate.  Another gorge added to the amazing scenery we have seen on this trip so far. 





The best bit though, was a stay on an estancia - a ranch type farm.  Most people go for the horseriding, but memories from 1986 of Miss Clucas failing to stop my horse galloping away uncontrallaby, with me gripping the saddle in terror, reigns long gone,  remained too strong, and we were both content to just chill out and enjoy the estancia´s relaxing surroundings. This was helped by the most enormous amount of food, including possibly the best steak ever, and never-ending amounts of red wine.  A bronze llama to the estancia.

Lakes and volcanos

So we had no plans to go to the Salar de Uyuni, mostly because Chris had already been there.  But inevitably, with it being a highlight of Bolivia, everyone we met was talking about it, and couldn´t believe we weren´t going, which made me wish that we were.  So before I knew it, our plans had changed and we were off to the land of lakes and volcanos, on a three day trip.

"Salar de Uyuni" is a bit of a misnoma, the salt flats are an amazing sight, especially when you are standing on an island covered in catcus, but surrounded as far as you can see in all directions by the salt plain, which looks more like ice than salt. 

But there´s so many other things to see on a trip from Uyuni.  Most of it is close to the border with Chile, and as you drive along  you are surrounded by never ending amounts of volcanos and mineral rich lakes of amazing colours.  My absolute top 3 highlights were the flamingo lake, which was an incredible lake anyway, with huge amounts of flamingos flapping around, and snow-topped volcanoes in the background;

 

 then the natural hot springs

and finally the red lake, which really was blood red, with pink flamingos. 

Deciding on the llama awards for this trip was rather tricky.  Overall, we decided the 3 day trip warranted a silver llama.  Even though everything we saw was so amazing, it couldn´t quite get gold due to the freezing cold and rather skanky accommodation on the 2nd night, the fact I could barely breathe due to the altitude and the presence of Luis who snored so loudly not a wink of sleep could be had.  I´ve told Christopher that if he ever starts snoring like that, wherever we are living, he will be housed in an annex, far away from me, and he didn´t disagree.  However, in addition, we decided that the flamingo lake was so tip-top that it deserves a special award in a category all of it´s own, that is an honoury golden flamingo award.

There were lots of other cool things too, much too numerous to list her, but por ejemplo:  the fact on the first night we stayed in a hotel made entirely of salt - the floor, the brics, the tables and chairs, all made of salt.

And all the volcanic and geyser stuff.  I particularly like this photo, taken at the crack of dawn.

Condors and Coca

So we´ve been in Bolivia for a week now and what a splendid time we are having.  A highlight has been the absolutely fabulous pueblo of Samaipata.  We liked it so much it´s been awarded a Golden Llama award.  The exact critria for Llama awards has not yet been identified, but it has to be somewhere we find to be pretty special.  The town itself is set in a valley at mid altitude, surrounded by lush green mountains.  We stayed in a hostel on the edge of town, with a lovely garden and a balcony outside our room looking over the mountains. 

One of the best things about Samaipata is that we went on quite a few trips in the surrounding area, but also had lots of time to chill out and relax.  We visited some nearby Inca ruins, which Lonely Planet claims rival Machi Pichu, and although I suspect that is something of an exaggeration, they were very interesting to see and in a spectacular setting. 

The mountains surrounding Samaipata are supposed to be one of the best places to see Condors in the whole of South America, but the hike sounded far too hard core for me, and after a forecast of rain, Chris also decided to give it a miss.  Instead we went on a fantastic trip to "la laguna de volcan", which isn´t really a volcano at all, but the scenery was absolutely awesome.  And we saw condors anyway, along with toucans, hummingbirds and much other wildlife.  As we set off, we were warned about some of the dangers, which included micro jumping spiders, which although don´t kill you do give you very itchy and painful bites, poisonous snakes that would kill you and skunks.  Luckily it was only the spiders we encountered, along with being attacked by a pair of cormarants, who coninuously divebombed us in a really vicious way, as unbeknown to us we were right by their nest. 

We also went on a trip to the cloud forest, which was cool but involved far too much clambouring up and down cliff edges for my liking.  But at the end there were a couple of amazing miradors, with specatular views, which included monkeys swinging through the trees below, and another condor, this time viewed from above.

Sucre was also pleasing, officially still the nation´s capital, it´s a colonial town filled with whitewashed buildings containing lovely courtyards to chill out in.  Although the town itself didn´t actually merit a llama award, we found a favourite spot that did.  It was a mirador bar overlooking the town, with deckchairs sitting facing the afternoon sun, and an amazing selection of milkshakes and juices.  It was visited more than once, and has been given a provisional silver award (which may be amended when we have more to compare it with).

We had a really good day trip out from Sucre, going mountainbiking.  I was only a little bit scared of tumbling over the cliff edge.  The scenery was great, and the best bit about it was that it was nearly all downhill or flat.  The big hill was too much for me anyway and I walked, whilst my bike went on the back of the truck.  When we couldn´t go any further by bike, we hiked down into a canyon, where Chris and the others went in an inflatable dinghy up the canyon whilst I swam. 

All in all Bolivia has been extremely enjoyable so far.

I have loads of fantastic photos to accompany this text, which would be far more interesting to look at, but a variety of technical hitches are conspiring against me and I can´t post them at the moment, but will try to do so later.

More Buenos Aries

A second day in Buenos Aries.  It´s Sunday, so quite a bit of pottering round markets.  Went to La Boca, not to the football, but it was a match day so lots of people out and about, and we wandered round looking at the painted houses.  Quite a few warnings about security and it being dangerous to stray off the beaten track, but we survived the experience.

Went to Cafe Tortoni in downtown BA - old style cafe with lots of history attached to it- swiftly followed by an ice cream parlour.  Then off to a Milonga - a session of Tango - at a park bandstand, but this was strictly observational.  All in a all a most enjoyable day.  Off to Bolivia tomorrow morning.

We´re Here!

So we have finally arrived, and it seems slightly surreal to think that we have got the next 8 weeks off work.  Our first day in Buenos Aries was great.  We treated ourselves to a rather sumptuous brunch in a lovely corner cafe in Palermo and then hired bikes, cycled round the park and off to a market.  When the cycle paths stopped the 4 lane highways were slightly scary, but we survived unscathed.

We spent the evening in Palermo Viejo, a district described in Lonely Planet as "trendsetting".  Luckily I think we were there early enough for our scruffy look to not matter too much and we enjoyed a few beers sitting in the square.  Chris considered giving each day a "bickering rating".  I suspect doing that would only lead to a larger degree of bickering and a downard spiral of ever increasing scores.  After shunning Lonely Planet´s recommended restaurant we found a great local cafe where we had a very tasty and bargainous dinner before warndering back to our hotel in a by this time rather jet-lagged daze.