From Bolivia we will explore Argentina via bus for about 3 weeks.
This will not be enough to see the entire country, so we will limit ourselves to the northern part of Argentina.
Bolivia/Chile/Argentina
Monday the 28th of August, around ten o'clock in the morning we reached the Bolivian border, after our tour through the salt plains of Bolivia.
Here Colin, Rolf and I said goodbye to Ralf, Barbara and Anabella, who would all return to Uyuni. We got onto another bus, which took us to San Pedro de Atacama (Chile), one of the driest placed on earth and located in the Atacama desert.
On arrival we could immediately get rid of our coats and sweaters since it was around 25 - 30 degr. here. This was a really nice change to the cold weather during our trip.
Next we went to several bus-companies to find the first possible bus to Salta Argentina. Of course the bus only goes three times a week and of course not on on Mondays! The lady in Uyuni had misinformed us, but what else was new in Bolivia!
We then booked the trip to Salta for the next day, before we went looking for a place to stay. We found a nice hostel just outside the centre of town. The 'town' was smaller than expected and consisted only of a few streets. They mainly live of tourism which has resulted in numerous tour-agencies, restaurants and bars.
Very happy (after a warm shower of half an hour), being back into civilisation, we enjoyed a great lunch. Of course we first had to get over the 'price shock' again.
After having spent 3 weeks in Bolivia with ridiculously low prices, Chile and especially San Pedro are quite a different story. But the only ATM machine in town was more than generous with giving us Chilean pesos again, so it didn't bother us too much! The rest of the afternoon we spent enjoying the nice weather, reading and drinking wine on the patio of our hostel.
At night we went out to dinner with Colin (from our tour), Maarten and Sander (two Dutch guys) and Mischa from Switzerland.
Salta
Tuesday morning the 29th of August we took the bus to Salta - Argentina, where we arrived at 22.30. We were immediately ambushed by tourist-pickers, who wanted to get us in their hostel.
After studying our possibilities, we chose one of the hostels and got a free transfer to it by taxi. The hostel wasnīt really in the centre but close to a very pretty neighbourhood with a lot of trendy restaurants and bars. Although it was already late (to Dutch standards), we did go out and found a nice restaurant where a band was playing, to have dinner. In Argentina normal dinner time is around 11, so we were being very Argentinean!
Wednesday we spent setting up our travel plan for Argentina and updating our site. We also walked around the centre a bit, leaving us with a pretty good feeling about this town.
The great difference with Bolivia, besides the fact that it is less dirty and less poor here, is that you donīt see any street-vendors here. No more tiny booth stalls with everyone selling the same stuff like candy, toilet paper, toothpaste etc.
This will take some getting used to on our part, to actually go to a regular store to buy it!
At night we tried out another restaurant where there also was a live band playing original Argentinean music (bought the CD). We took this opportunity to try out the (also) original Argentinean steak. Well, it passed our test, so this will be our food for the coming weeks!
Thursday and Friday we spent wandering through the city and enjoying the many beautiful buildings. The weather was beautiful (around 24 degr.C.), so after the cold we experienced in the salt plains, we could soak up the warmth of the sun again. We also booked a tour to Cachi (180km west of Salta) for Saturday. When Rolf asked for information on buses going to Buenos Aires leaving Sunday, they came up with an even better idea. Only Sundays they have 1 charter plane from Salta to Buenos Aires, taking only 3 hours instead of 22! and costing only a bit more than the bus. Lucky for us, we got the last two seats!
Around midnight that Friday, we received the great news that our niece Stella had been born and that all had went well.
Saturday the 2nd of September we were picked up at 7 in the morning by a minivan. We were supposed to get an English speaking guide, but guess what, she only spoke Spanish. Since the other guests were all only Spanish speaking as well, we didnīt understand a word from what was said all day!
The scenery on our way to Cachi was beautiful nevertheless, even without an explanation on what we were seeing. After the dry landscapes we had been seeing in the last few weeks, the green valleys we now saw were a nice change. In Cachi we got some time to ourselves to explore the tiny village and have lunch, before returning to Salta end of the afternoon.
We were dropped of at our travel agency so we could inform them on the situation with our tour-guide. After about half an hour also the guide joined us. She had the nerve to tel the agency that she did explain some stuff to us in English (one time she told us 'toilet here'). Then we called her a lyer and she left (which was right on time, else we would have strangled her). The agency promised to inform the tourist agency of Salta of this complaint and also gave back a part of money we paid for the trip.
Sunday morning our charter flight left at 8.30 in the morning. It was the same type of air-plane we had when flying to Rurrenabaque (from La Paz, Bolivia). Besides the pilot and co-pilot, only 20 passengers fitted in the plane.
The flight wasn't altogether comfortable. The noise the plane made was ear deafening and you felt every turbulence the plane encountered. But we made it to Buenos Aires in one piece, so it still beated a 22 hour bus-ride.
Buenos Aires
On arrival we first walked for about 45 minutes before we taking a bus into city centre. We noticed right away that people were really friendly and helpful, with giving directions and telling us which bus to take.
In an Internet café we looked up a few hostels and then went looking for them. After the third one, we finally decided for a hotel, which was recommended in the Lonely Planet, but had since then considerably increased its prices!
After having settled in, we took a walk through part of the city centre.
We immediately noticed the beautiful buildings, which you saw everywhere you looked. Also a great site, were the big old trees in the parks and even in the streets. We turned in early that night, since the flight and the walking around with the backpacks had worn us down a bit.
Monday morning, after having had a really good breakfast, we decided to leave the hotel and find a nicer and hopefully cheaper place to stay. Only half an hour later we checked into a really nice hotel, even in a better location than our first one. It is an old Victorian building, with an original elevator shaft in the middle of it. Our room is simply gorgeous (probably the prettiest so far), with a high ceiling, wooden floor, wooden furniture, our own little hallway, and a balcony with wooden shutters. It also only costed us 2/3 of what we paid for our first hotel!
OK, it didn't have free breakfast, but who needs that when you can buy a sandwich on each corner of the street for only 40 euro-cents!
The rest of the day we spent shopping for outdoor clothes. Buenos Aires is really heaven for those who love to shop and have a bit of money to spend. You can find all the famous brand stores here and every other shop is a leather shop (logical when you think of how much beef they eat!). After having visited every outdoor shop in town, we finally found an outdoor jacket in some sort of Action store, so well within budget!
Tuesday the 5th of September we went to the bus station to get some information on a tour and on buses to Cordoba (our next destination). When we decided on buying a bus ticket to a nearby village, they told us that we needed a passport to do so! We were amazed, like we have been so many times already in South America. We can get loads of money out of a cash machine without any form of identification, but to buy a simple bus ticket for 9 Eur, you need a passport! So we didn't buy the ticket after all.
At night we went to a different neighbourhood of Buenos, to find a nice restaurant. This isn't too difficult in this city and in Argentina for that matter. You can really tell by walking through town that eating out is a way of living for the Argentineans. Also the wine culture is really well noticeable. There are numerous wine stores throughout town and each restaurant has an extensive wine list. Prices on these lists go from 9 pesos (2,25 EUR) for a house wine to a few hundred pesos for the really famous ones. In the supermarket you can even get a bottle of wine for 2,70 pesos (and was still enjoyable, we know, we tested it!). We ended up in a really nice restaurant having a great steak dinner (of course, what else do you eat in Argentina) and enjoying a great wine.
Another difference we noticed between Argentina and 'the rest' of the South American countries we visited so far, is that here they have heating! They have heating in stores, hotel rooms and restaurants whereas in the other countries, no matter how cold it got, the only place where you could stay warm was in bed! We didn't need it in Salta, but in Buenos the temperature yesterday got as low as 10 degr, so you are happy to have a drink in a heated restaurant.
By the way Buenos Aires was originally called "Ciudad de la Santisima Trinidad y Puorto de Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires", or in English: "City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds".
Wednesday we visited some other barrios (neighbourhoods) of Buenos Aires. One of those, which is also the youngest, was Puerto Madero, which used to be BA's major port. The port was completed in 1898, but scandals and the fact that the amount of cargo already got too big by 1910, caused its downfall. You can now however see some of BA's most expensive real estate here. Alongside the boulevard there are many brick warehouses which are now converted into beautiful condos, upscale restaurants and businesses. They also placed numerous old cranes alongside the shoreline as kind of works of art.
From Puerto Madero we walked to another famous neighbourhood "La Boca", known for its coloured houses. We had to walk through some shabbier neighbourhoods to finally reach it however.
This neighbourhood became the home to Italian and Spanish immigrants mid-19th century. They mainly worked in the meat-packing plants. They started to paint the metal sidings of their houses with leftover paint, greatly determining the way the neighbourhood still looks today. All the different coloured houses, the numerous bars and restaurants with live music and people dancing the tango on the streets really create quite a different atmosphere compared to the rest of Buenos Aires. Since the streets around the famous ones are known as rough and dangerous however, we decided not to walk back but take the bus to city centre instead.
While staying in BA, we also noticed a very strange line of work. As soon as the trash is placed on the sidewalk, people start to sort out the garbage. They open the bags and make different piles for f.i. paper, glass, plastic and food (all by hand!). They then put the sorted garbage into new bags, stack them onto their little shopping cart and probably sell it to recycle companies. This is of course great for the environment and for the people who make money with it, but we couldn't quite get used to the sight.
Thursday the 7th of September, our last day in BA, we spent 2 hours riding on a bus (of which 1 1/2 hrs in the wrong one!), trying to reach the bus terminal. There we bought the bus-ticket for Cordoba, leaving at 23.30 that night.
We then took a bus to San Telmo, another barrio of BA, which we had only seen by night. This area is known for its colonial buildings, beautiful churches and its many antique stores.
That night after having picked up our luggage from our hotel, we took a taxi to the bus terminal. We had booked a 'cama' bus, which meant bigger, more comfortable seats and only 3 seats per row.
Cordoba
Around 8 in the morning on Friday, we arrived in Cordoba. We immediately noticed a big difference in temperature compared to BA. Even that early in the morning you could feel that it would become a nice warm day.
From the terminal we walked to city-centre, trying to find a nice hostel. Luck wasn't really on our side that day, the hostels or hotels were either completely booked or only had dorm rooms available (or looked too expensive!). When we finally got really fed up with walking around with our backpacks in the heat, we found a nice hotel just outside the centre.
The rest of the day we spent exploring the centre of the city a bit. Although the second city of Argentina, it didn't feel like such a big city to us. What we noticed almost straight away was the large number of young people walking around, which can easily be explained by the number of universities (7) the city holds. Cordoba is also known for its best preserved colonial architecture in Argentina.
Saturday we went on a city tour in an original English double decker. We got to see many of the historical sites and buildings and also got a lot of information on the city's history. Like a lot of other South-American cities, also Cordoba has many beautiful squares and parks. End of the afternoon we also visited a small artisan market, where you could see and buy all sorts of handcraft work.
Sunday we took a minibus to La Cumbre, world famous for being the best place for paragliding. The bus-drive took about 1 1/2 hours leading us past green hills, gorges and rivers. From the visitors centre we got a phone number to check the possibility to go paragliding. They informed us that we should wait for a couple of hours since the wind was too strong. At 1 o'clock we called again and were informed that we should wait till 4 o'clock, since the conditions had still not improved. We then basically gave up on the idea that we would jump of any mountain that day, so we bought our return ticket to Cordoba. Maybe we will get another chance in Mendoza!
At the bus terminal we bought our ticket to Mendoza leaving Monday the 11th at night. We decided not to go with the 'cama' bus this time, but chose the most luxurious one, 'the suite'. In this bus the chairs can be made into a bed, you will get dinner (at 12 at night!) and breakfast (probably at 6 in the morning!), wines, beer etc. etc.
Monday morning, while doing some last work on our site and writing some e-mails, we received an e-mail from Luke and Laura, the couple from London we met on the Galapagos. They had just arrived in Cordoba that morning and wondered where we were! We decided to meet for drinks on the main square that afternoon. We catched up on each-others travel stories while enjoying a few beers and having lunch. That night we also got together (for our last night in Cordoba) and had a great dinner and of course a really good Malbec (typical Argentinean red wine).
After dinner we said goodbye to Luke and Laura, picked up our backpacks and went to the bus station. Our 'suite' bus was indeed as promised very luxurious and had the most spacious seats. Unfortunately we had the last two back seats on the bus, placing us with our heads directly under the loudest air-conditioning you have ever heard! With our headphones on and the pillows placed over our heads and a few wines (we skipped the bus dinner), we managed to get some sleep that night.
Mendoza
We arrived in Mendoza on Tuesday morning around 7. After having checked availability with a few hostels mentioned in the Lonely Planet, we ended up in a cosy Bed and Breakfast just outside the centre. Since my cold (Linda) was getting worse with the minute, we first decided to get a few hours rest/sleep before hitting the city.
Later that day we walked around town a bit. Although situated at 700 mtrs and really close to the Andes, it still doesn't feel or look like a mountain village. Mendoza lies in a really big valley, so all around the city the landscape is flat. It is also fairly dry. The city itself is pleasant and feels very safe but doesn't really have very remarkable features (besides a really big park and a few nice buildings).
Wednesday and Thursday we spent preparing for our trip to Los Penitentes. Our hostel really helped a lot with finding ski rental shops and calling agencies about accommodation.
Since you cannot visit Mendoza and not visit a winery, we visited one bodega on Thursday afternoon. Because of our other experiences with wineries, we had expected a more pretty scenery with the vineyards and the mountains at the background. The area with wineries we saw however was close by an industrial area, so not as romantic as pictured beforehand. We got an extensive tour (in Spanish!) through the bodega's museum, the vineyard, the production and the storage area. We also got a glimpse of the owner's private collection, which was quite extensive (and made us a bit jealous). The tour ended with (of course our favourite part), the tasting of the wines. We really enjoyed their Malbec and thus we bought a bottle to take back with us to our hostel.
Los Penitentes
Friday the 15th of September we took the bus to Los Penitentes at 6 in the morning. About 3 1/2 hours later we checked into our hotel Ayelen, which was situated about 100 mtrs from the ski slope. Lucky for us there was still just enough snow on the slopes.
The village itself didn't amount to much, it only consisted of a few hotels and restaurants. After having rented our skiing / snowboarding equipment (we had already rented our clothes in Mendoza), we went up the slope. Since it had been three years ago when we were on skies last, the beginning was really difficult, especially for me (Linda). It seemed like I had to learn the basics all over again! After about an hour, it all came back to me, so I could also start relaxing and enjoying myself.
You could really tell that it was the end of the season, since we had never seen such deserted slopes. No waiting lines, no one to bump / ski into when going downhill and very peaceful. The weather was also just as we had hoped for, clear blue skies, sunshine all day long and not too cold (around 7 degr. which of course didn't do the slopes much good).
At night we had dinner in the restaurant of our hotel. Just like in the rest of Argentina, they have dinner pretty late (after half past 8). Having spent the day outside skiing, it costed us quite some effort to stay awake until it was that time! But the food was well worth the wait, we definitely had the best steak ever.
Also Saturday and Sunday we spent our day on the slopes and having dinner in our restaurant. The skiing area in Los Penitentes isn't all too big, but enough for a couple of days. For us it felt like we were having a holiday in our holiday! After having visited so many cities and looked at so many buildings, the snow covered slopes and the skiing and snowboarding were a very welcome change. This excursion has definitely been another highlight of our world trip!
Monday the 18th, our last day in Los Penitentes, we didn't go skiing, but we spent sitting outside in the sun on a terrace, reading a book and looking at skiers coming downhill. It would probably be one of the last days you could ski here, before they would close the area due to lack of snow.
Mendoza
At 5 that afternoon we took the bus back to Mendoza, arriving there at 8. We dropped of our backpack at our new hostel, returned the rental clothes and picked up our other backpack which was still in storage at our previous hostel. At 10 that night we could finally enjoy a nice bottle of Malbec and some cheese in the privacy of our room.
Tuesday we spent a few hours in the post office (as always) to try to ship a package back home. We got a lot of help from Carlos, a customs officer, who was kind enough to explain us the Argentinean rules (which of course are different from all the others we had encountered before). But with any luck, the package will arrive somewhere at some point.
When we return to Mendoza someday, we are invited to join him for a trip to the mountains in his Landrover. That's of course a offer we can't refuse!
The rest of the day we will spend updating our website, so we can start fresh when arriving in New Zealand.
Wednesday morning the 20th we will take the bus to Santiago de Chile (yes, again!) and from there we will fly Wednesday evening to Auckland, arriving there the 22nd at around 4 in the morning.
Here ends our Argentinean adventure. We hadn't originally scheduled to stay here, but are very glad we did. You would need at least of few months to get to know the country and the people, but in three weeks time we did manage to get a general impression of some parts of the country. We enjoyed the cities we visited, our skiing trip and were also very much impressed with the kindness of the people. Adding to that the ease of travelling through the country, the great (cheap) food and wines and the sense of safety we experienced (which was sometimes lacking in other SA countries), we are definitely coming back to explore the rest of this great country.
Here also ends our Central & South America adventure. Before our trip, we only had a vague idea on this part of the world. We are very happy to have finally seen and experience so many different countries and cultures. There is still much more to see, so enough reason for us to return one day. Besides the numerous things we will miss, there are naturally also things we will not miss; like f.i. the extreme poverty of so many people, the dirt, the trash in the streets, the lack of clean toilets, not being able to drink the water, the fact that no-one understands you but they still manage to rip you off since you are a gringo and not to forget ham&cheese sandwiches.
On the other hand we will definitely miss; the colourful people with their culture and habits, the Indian markets, the contrasts in sceneries, the beautiful colonial cities, the price level of just about everything, the kindness of the people (even when they are ripping you off!) and the fact that everything in these countries is completely different from what we are used to in Europe. This has made our adventure in Central and South America an ever changing, surprising and learning experience.
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