Salta and San Pedro

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Hello again! We’re back with tales from the rest of our time in Argentina, and then into San Pedro in Northern Chile. We are well and truley back onto the gringo trail… here is what we got up to!

Salta was another night bus away from Cordoba, which again we got fully reclining seat/beds and enjoyed the food and drink service. Even if the movies were in Spanish, we had seen them before and so could at least follow it and maybe even learn. Its like entertainment education.

We were met at the bus station in Salta with loads of hostel touts, and finally gave in to the third one, which didn’t turn out to be too shabby at all. Even with a flat bed on the bus we were still a bit tired, so spent the day enjoying the sights of Salta town, and found a nice bar in the central plaza to sample the local Torrentes wine. After booking a tour for the next day, we met up with with a guy Hugh who we had met in Buenos Aires and headed out with him and our new Dutch/Bolivian buddy Diego for an argentinian steak.

The tour the next day was a crazy 500 km+ minibus ride around northwestern Aregentina. The first part acted as a much cheaper and quicker method of seeing most of the scenery covered by the Tren a los Nubes (Train to the clouds) which follows the Quebrada del Toro. The train is supposed to take about 13 hours round trip to Salta, so although we covered it in 2-3 hours one way, it was slightly uncomfortbale as there wasn’t a spare seat on the mini-bus full of 20 people!

Anyways we stopped at a few places on the way including Santa Rosa de Tastil and ended up in San Antonio de los Cobres (at around 4100m above sea level) for lunch. Our hostel receptionist had unexpectedly forced us to pay for our room the night before and so we had to borrow money from our tour guide to pay for our set menu lunch. Slightly awkward!

From San Antonio we headed off for another few hours drive across the VAST altiplano terrain of La Puna to get to one of the highlights of the tour, the Gran Salar. This salt plain covered approximately 200 square kms, and was heaps of fun to take some funny photos on the white blanket landscape. It was a really interesting place, where we got to learn about how they harvest the salt, let it replenish during the rainy season, as well as how they are trying to expand the area. They had even cut out some trenches to show that water sits only a few inches below the surface, not something you really expect up in the desert like altiplano. Just a tad too salty to drink though…

From there we entered the province of Juy Juy and reached our highest point of the day at 4170m! We definitely felt a bit tired from the altitude, but not too bad. Maybe the coca leaves we had been told to take with us were actually doing their job. The drive up over the range and back down was spectacular, with roads zig zagging up and down, hanging onto the hill sides and cut right through soome pretty soft looking rock. The last stop of the day was the tourist town of Pumamarca, where loads of people had stalls set up selling crafts and all sorts of fabrics. It was great for the people on weekends or holidays from Buenos Aires, not so good for us as we knew we would get these things half the price in Bolivia and Peru in the coming weeks 🙂

On the way back to Salta, we were talking to the tour guide, who was asking about our travel plans…. he then told us that our planned bus journey to Chile in a few days would take us up into Juy Juy, through Pumamarca, past the Salar and across La Puna! Doh! Maybe we should have done another tour in Salta, but at least we got to get out and enjoy the scenery rather than just see it pass by through dirty bus windows.

So after 12 hours on the road in a cramped minibus (with some rather large Agentinians next to us), we were defintely glad to be back. We filled the rest of our time in Salta with some more sightseeing, including the MAAM – The high Altitude Museum, where they have mummies of three Incan children that were excavated from one of the highest peaks near Salta. Slightly controversial that they have been removed from their burial site, but completely fascinating to see one of them (they only have one on show at a time) and to learn about the strange rituals of the Incans. You have to admire their determiniation to climb 6000m+ mountains to carry out these ceremonies.

The next day was time to say farewell to Argentina. We had some ups and some downs, and didn’t get to see everything we had hoped for, but still had a great time. Except it had one more surprise in store for us… just as we are boarding the bus, ther driver checked everyones documentation. When he saw Tolly’s emergency passport, he was adamant that she would have to pay 300pesos (about 60USD) on leaving Argentina, even though she had been told by the embassy she wouldn’t have to. After a panic trying to get cash out of the tempermental ATMs at the bus terminal, we were gutted to have this extra expense. So Tolly spent the first part of the trip using the guide book learning how to say “My passport was stolen.” “I have been told I shouldn’t have to pay” and even “I want to speak with my embassy!”. Lucky it was a false alarm, and she got through no problem by last minute deciding to use the tactic I don’t speak spanish and making no eye contact!

The whole trip to Chile took about 10 hours, which was filled with absolutely stunning strange and beautiful nothingness. Countless peaks towering above us and in the distance, and hours of altiplano levelness. The last 45 minutes was all downhill from the altiplano to San Pedro, almost like a plane coming in to land!

We had met a English-come-Argentinian named Matt on the bus, and we decided to combine forces to find soemwhere to stay. After checking out almost every hostel in the town, we finally found our little piece of hammock-strewn paradise and headed out for some beers and dinner together. We had the pleasure of meeting one of his acquaintances Jill (an American-come-Aussie… turned out to not be such a great combination!) and enjoyed the live music in the restaurant, and made plans for a day out the next day cycling the area.

After the best breakfast we had eaten since arriving in South America, we were ready to hire some bikes. We had a fun day out, visiting the atacameño people (pre-Incan) fortress ruins of Pukara de Quitor, as well as an awesome mirrador (viewpoint) which looked out to San Pedro and Lincancabur (along with a few other extinct volcanos) which tower over the area.

After a little cuffuffle over directions, Matt, Matt and Tols headed in one driection, Jill in the other (we think she said her “God feeling” told her to go that way… did she mean gut?). From here we cycled through the Quebrada towards Catarpe, cycling through a few streams and into a really deep narrow gully (our shoes smell really great now).

We finished the hard days cycling and sorting our outward tour to Bolivia with drinks and dinner at the same place as the night before. Except this time the music was put on by a random pan pipe band who had come into the restaurant without permission. They were trying to show everyone (the tourists) what the real San Pedro de Atacama is about, not just the bars and tours. But it turned out the leader of this Altiplano band was from (or at least had lived in for long time) Vancouver, and tried to hold a conversation with Matt across the room as they were being escorted out, Random!

The next day we soaked up the atmosphere in the touristy but nice town of San Pedro, with the only chore the boys had been given was to sort dinner and beer for later. There had been a lot of talk of thai food, but noone had thought this could be a viable option in the middle of the desert, until Matt and Matt stumbled upon a van sent from heaven, with all sorts of fresh olives, nuts, oils, honeys and syrups… and believe it or not, jars of green thai curry. So with only a little more shopping for some veg and meat we were set to go.

The three of us along with new arrival to the hostel Chris did an afternoon tour later that day out to the Atacama salar, where the first stop was the super salty Laguna Cejar. It is saltier than the dead sea, and so you can float completely effort free. It was pretty chilly, but we still took the plunge. Matt wished he’d brought a newspaper like he’d seen people do in the dead sea.

From there we drove to the myseterious Ojos del Salar (eyes of the salt plain) which are two near-perfect circle lagoons which nobody can really expalin why they are there and the shape they have. From the we finished the trip watching the sunset behind us light up the mountains behind the Laguna Tebenquiche with some great pinks and different shades while we sipped pisco sours.

It was time to head back to town and we were treated to (other) Matt cooking a thai green curry feast accompanied with muchos cervezas followed by (finally!) the litre bottle of vodka we had been carrying around since leaving NZ! It seemed an appropriate time to dust if off. In fact we polished it off which had some consequences the next day, but we’ll save that for another time!

The blossoms on these trees filled the main plaza in Salta with a great smell – Tolly was addicted!

Interesting church, Salta

Enjoying the famous local torrentes wine

The cathedral lit up at night – as seen through half a bottle of wine

The track of the “Tren a los nubes” – Train to the clouds

Enjoying the quebrada del Toro

Posing with our friend, bush

Fantastic colours in the bare mountains. Almost bare except for the giant cacti!

Capilla de Santa Rosa

Matt looking like godzilla about to go and destroy the little village

Our driver did have us worried for the whole trip, checking the wheels EVERY time we stopped.

Church in San Antonio

Cute. Obviously you could hold the animal for some money if you wanted.

Have you ever seen so much salt?

Show us your belly!

Salar tourists

Its not a halo, its just the sun

Yeah, that is an actual handstand

Matt’s effort wasn’t so elagant

I am Cornholio, need TP for my bung hole

The hills on the way up to 4170m

Great work Matt, but the poles actually holding the sign spoil it.

Driving FAIL

Babe, you’ve got something in your teeth

View of the Cerro de los Siete Colores (hill of 7 colours) from Pumamarca

Pumamarca market

Enjoying some mate courtesy of the Argentinian love birds on the bus

Great shot, post yawn, time to go home!

Matt tried posting some stuff home. Post Office was shut. He was not happy to have to carry this round all day!

The long road from Argentina to Chile

Caught this with a random snap from the bus, you can imagine our surprise when we reviewed the photo!

More unspoilt beauty (ignoring the road barrier…)

Beautiful nothingness

The “descent” down to Sand Pedro, past Lincancabur (the father, left) and Juriques (the daughter, right)

Strolling around Sandy Pedro trying to find a hostel

View of the hills near Pumamarca from the bus on the way to Chile

Hiking up to the Pukara

Matt #2 and Tolly

Matt #1. Awesome rock formations in the background

Three of the four.

Tolly in the gorge

The three musketeers

Cycling through one of the streams

Look mom, no hands!

Enjoying the salty floaty water. Not! It was freezing!

One of the eyes of the salar

Bald Jesus

The Atacama Salar tour group

Goodbye Chile!

The wind stopped just in time for some great reflections

You have to have some really cheesy photos sometimes.