Salt Flats Tour

After beeing in Tupiza we decided to start our Salt Flats Tour from here and not from Uyuni, where it would have been much cheaper, but refeering to other travellers also worse.
So our tour startet at about 8.30 in the morning with our driver Mario and two belgium girls and another car with two israeli guys and Claire and Kristell, two french girls and our cook, Jeanette.
After packing everything on top of our car (a Toyota Landcruiser) the journey began. At our first stop, Mirador de Sillar, we had a great view of different
mountains and valleys. It was about an hour drive from Tupiza and this was the place where the first car from a different tour already broke down with a leeking power steering...
After some difficulties passing a truck on the narrow mountains roads and at least one indicator less at the truck we stopped at a small village in the mountains for lunch. We had some chicken milanesa, rice and potatoes.
Some lamas, nandus and mountains later we had another stop at some ruins of a spanish settlement (San Antonio de Lipez) which was abanoned in the 90's and was relocated to a place which is much easier to access.

We passed the Lagoon Morejon with the Volcano Uturuncu in the background at an altitude of 4.855m. After that, we arrived at our night stop at Quetena Chico.

The next day started with lots of lamas and flamingos at the Lagoon Hedionda Sur and even more at the Kollpa Lagoon.

Lunch break was at the hot springs Aguas Calientes, where we could relax in 37° warm water and some nice lunch afterwards.

Next stop was at the Laguna Verde, which is surprisingly green, the desierto de Dali, which reminds one of the paiting with the burning giraffe and the geisers Sol de Manana.
After we brought our stuff to our sleeping place we drove to the Laguna Colorado, where there were some more flamingos and a nice colorful lagoon. We walked around a bit and when we came back to our car, the belgium girls and the israeli guys had already gone back to our hostel. So we drove back with Claire, Kristell and Mario, who allowed Claire and Sandra to drive the car back.

The next day we were asked if it was okay for us if we continue with the two french girls in one car, so the other four can be in one. And to be honest, it was much nicer to be with them.
So we started with passing five different lagoons, stopping at the Arbol de Piedra, and passing on to our last night stop at the Salar de Uyuni. A hostel built out of salt.

We had short walk around mountain, a nice dinner and played a french card game with Claire and Kristell before we went to bed because we had to get up at 5.00 the next morning to see the sunrise from the isla del pescado (Isla Incahuasi) in the middle of the Salar. It was freezing cold, but we had really nice view, a good breakfast with selfmade cake from Jeanette and met a puppy living on the island.

On our way to Uyuni and our end of the trip we stoppend in the middle of the Salar to make some touristy photos, stopped at a former Hotel, which is now a museum, a salt mine on the Salar and had lunch next to it where we also bought some cloth, beanies and other souvenirs.

At the end we took a bus to Potosi, which was quite interesting. Mario, our guide, went to a ticket office and asked how many seats they still had available for the bus to Portosi. The woman said she had two, he said we need six and suddendly there were six... After beeing in the bus we knew why: She just sold us seats she already sold before, so we ended up discussing with some bolivians why we were on their/our seats... In the end I could sit on seat, Sandra on my lap and after about two hours so many people left the bus, we both could have our own seat!
Claire and Kristell also went to Portosi and we met again for dinner for some lama and different bolivian food.

Rural northwest and border-crossing to Bolivia

We left Salta to see a little bit more of the small towns on our way to Bolivia. The diference between Salta and the countryside became obvious when we arrived in Tilcara, a small town about 2,5 hours north of Salta. No paved roads, lots of cactuses and it is very obvious to everybody that we are tourists. Still we had a really good time there as we got to know some people on the bus already and - as we were only 7 people in the hostel - everybody else as well. We visited the ruins of Pucara together, which were unfortunately not as impressive as the ones we had seen in Quilmes last week.

The owner of the hostel did the best to please all his guests, he cooked a delicious llama stew for everybody at night and we all sat at a big table eating and drinking together. He also plays some traditional instruments, so he entertained us the whole evening with songs and stories. An extremely good evening!

The next day we went to Humahuaca which is unfortunately pretty touristy and therefor expensive. Still our hotel was nice despite the fact that they didn't have wifi, but I thought as we're going to Bolivia we should better get used to it. In Humahuaca we didn't really do a lot exept eating and having a huge siesta (you can feel that we are getting higher already (3000m), so everything is more exhausting).

When we arrived at the bus station the next morning we met a guy that we had already met in Cafayate, he was going to Bolivia as well, so we decided to cross the borer together. The bus to La Quiaca needed another 3 hours and then we had to walk to the border. When we arrived in La Quiaca we found out that we have been really lucy because the border had been closed for 3 days due to demonstrations on the bolivian side and the day we crossed was the first day they opened it again. The town on the bolivian side of the border is called Villazon and from there we took a bus (1B=0,11€) to Tupiza where we booked into what looks like a luxury hotel to me, but actually just cost us 22€ per night for a double with private bathroom. They even have a pool, sowe decided to stay one day longer than planned and just enjoy the fact that in this country we can live like rich people.

We went on a horse ride the other day which was really nice and visited a canyon and stone formations. As every internet connection in this country seems to be extremely slow, we can not upload any pictures at the moment, we'll probably have to wait until we get to Peru, but I'm not entirely sure if it will be much better there.

-Sandra

Salta - La Linda

After arriving with the Andesmar bus company we went to our host Martin. There were still two other Surfers who actually wanted to stay a day longer but since we arrived one day earlier they had to go to a hostel...
The rest of the day consisted of buying food in three different shops (there is a whole shop that sells only eggs!!), cooking and in the evening driving around with a Gaby, Sandra's host sister from ten years ago and taking her dogs for a walk.
We had an appointment the next day with Jonny and Chelsea (Joneb) to walk up the Cerro San Bernardo. Unfortunately Jonny had, what he called a stomach bug. So we walked up with Martin and Clementine, one of the other Couchsurfers. Even the weather wasn't very good, we had a nice view over the city and Sandra finally found a dog which liked her treats.
Being back home Sandra started feeling bad as well and had stomach ache. I went to the pharmacy with Martin to get some pills which seemed to help a bit. After Sandra felt better I started feeling bad. But even worse... (Of course men suffer a lot more) In the evening Sandra's friends from ten years ago came to go out for some drinks. I stayed home and shortly after they left I had to puked some much as I never did before! To be more concret, everything I lost that day was liquid...

I didn't leave the bed the whole next day and we are convinced Andesmar is the one to blame! The cheese and ham sandwich had a surprisingly strong cheese on it!
I could eat and drink again the next day. Which was good because Sandra's former host familiy invited us for lunch. We had some nice Tamales and Humitas!

Afterwards we went in to the city to see some frozen mummys in the museum, the monestery - the oldest building in town - and two nice and colorful churches. In the evening we met again with Joneb to walk to the handcrafts market and for a beer.
We had a rental car for the next two days with the two of them to drive down to Cafayate. On our way down we stopped at about seven different stone formations with names like "The Devil's throat", "The Amphitheatre", "The Toad", "The Monk" or "The Castles".

We stopped at our Hostel, checked in and went further south to see some ruins of Quilmes people who managed to resist the spaniards the longest, for about 100 years, but in the end were defeated and most of them died when they were brought to Buenos Aires.

Being back in Cafayte we managed to visit a Bodega, the Domingo Hermanos, and had a wine tasting. They have a really good white wine called "Torrontes" which is typical for the region. And normally I don't like white wine...

We ended up buying two bottles Malbec which we then enjoyed in the hostel. The second day we decided two make a four to five hour track with a local guide up a river to some nice waterfalls. Together with two Argentiniens (portenos to be precise) who obviously haven't been much in nature. They just managed to not fall in to the water but had both wet feet in the end. It wasn't really a complicated track but you needed some balance.. It took us some time to reach the final waterfall where Jonny and I went for quick "swim" (=jumping in and getting out again as fast as possible! It was freezing cold!) and then walked back again. This is where we decided to pay our guide and just walk on our own because the two argentiniens where just too slow! They probably needed one hour more to get back to the car park.

We had good, big steak in Cafayate and went back to Salta, dropped off Joneb in their hotel and went up the Cerro again (by car this time) to see the city at night. The last day in Salta we drove to San Lorenzo with Gaby, Diego and their two dogs Olivia and Kiara after having lunch again at their home. In the evening we met again with some of Sandra's friends and had a chat with Martin and his mum back home.

Wine in the Andes

We didn't find a couch in Mendoza so we checked into a hostel that just opened to months ago. It was extremely cheap but surprisingly clean and empty (probably due to very few references on the hostel booking pages) plus the guys did a great afford to help us and they adopted a cute street dog.

Mendoza is a very pleasent small town. A hundred years ago, an earthquake destroyed most of the city so when it was rebuild, they build it with wider avenues and lots of small plazas, as evacuation point and today they are just very nice places to hang out and take away the feeling of being in a big town. On our first day in town there was also a free tango and wine tasting event on the main square, so it was a nice welcome.

After checking a few agencies, we picked one for a full day trip into the Andes, until the chilean border. On our way we stopped at several places, an old spanish bridge, a natural stone formation where iron and calcium oxidate and make it look really nice and finally a christ redeemer statue at 4000m height right on the border with Chile.
The next day we took a tour to vineyards with rented bikes which was unfortunately not how we had imagined it before, because the tasting at the single vineyards was not included in the tour price so we just visited very few and in the end just relaxed in a nice beergarden.

-Sandra

Buenos Aires

Arriving in Buenos Aires our Host Tomas picked us up from the Bus Station and brought to his home. He lives in a really nice house with a big garden, a pool, a labrador and his (the lab's) friend the cat.
So on our first half day we just stayed in his house, played with the dog, which loves to run around the pool barking and then jmuping in the pool trying to eat as many leaves as possible while he's swimming aroung. Just to nearly puke afterwards because of all the water he swallowed while trying that...
It rained a lot that day and the next day we tried to get into Buenos Aires, which is an hour by train from Tomas place. But because of all the raine lots of streets and tunnels were flooded so that our train didn't go into the city. A nice old Lady offered us to guide us from one of the train stops by bus to a different train. Arriving there we just got told that this train  doesn't go as well... So in the end our whole day was about driving around in trains and buses just to get to the point where we started.
At that point we already had another couch in the city. So next morning we started, again, into the city and brought our stuff to Mariana and Gaston.
From there it was easy to go to the center by bus and there was no more no rain.
We visited the Casa Rosada, the Museo de Bicentenario, went to see some Tango dancing on the Placa Dorrega and then we met our Hosts at the Torquato Tasso to see some Tango
live music.

The next day we went to see the Teatro Colon, which was really impressive, went to vist Evita at her grave and in the End to the Planetarium to see some stars and the history of the beginning of our planet.

The last day was quite colorful because we went to La Boca. We saw "El Diego" lots of colored houses and tourists...

So in the beginnig I wasn't convinced of Buenos Aires but in the end I have to admit it is a nice city, even though which I forgot to mention, we got robbed in the subway (Somebody stole our written postcards, ready to be sent) and it does have a lot to offer and see.
Thanks to our hosts we saw some goog live Tango music which we never would have seen
without them.

First border crossings and lots of water

The town Foz do Iguacu lies on the brazilian side of the Parana and Iguacu river, on the other sides, there are Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and tiny Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. In the 4 days we've been here, we visited all three countries, although we only got stamps from two of them as day visitors in Paraguay don't need to get their passports stamped. 

On our first day we visited the brazilian side of the falls and on our last one we went to the argentinian side, which was unfortunately very crowded due to Easter holidays.

View from the brazilian side

Devil's throat from the argentinian side

A few advice for everybody who wants to come here and visit the Cataratas: 1. The bus to the brazilian side of the Cataratas costs 2,90R, do not ask for the tickets in spanish (especially not with argentinian accent) if you don't speak portuguese, otherwise you might end up paying 50R like that couple from Buenos Aires. 2. Go to the brazilian side first, as they give you a large overview. 3. if you want to go on a boat ride wait until you're on the argentinian side, it's cheaper there and you get just as wet as on the brazilian side. 4. on the brazilian side, everything exept one walk costs extra (about 140R), so plan well what you want to do. (If you want to do something quieter with less people around you, I'd recommend the poco preto-trail instead of macuco safari) 5. when being on the argentinian side, go to Carganta del Diablo first and then do the other walks, as most people do it the other way around. 6. plan about half a day on the brazilian side but a whole day on the argentinian side, as there are much more free activities.

Apart from the waterfalls we went to check out the market in Ciudad del Este which gets invaded by Brazilians and Argentinians who seem to be crazy about woollen blankets (ok, winter is coming, but it was still 30°C outside and everybody was buying these thick blankets as if it was -20°C) and any electronic device you can imagine including Labrador-size Rolls Royce cars with remote control. I wouldn't really say that we saw anything of Paraguay on that day because this market is really just full of tourists and people who try to sell you all kinds of things, but it was still nice to be able to communicate without problems for one day. The first girl I talked to said: "Thank god, finally somebody who speaks spanish" and that's exactly how I felt as well.

The next day we went on a tour at and inside the Itaipu dam, the most powerful dam in the world. The three gorges dam in China is actually still bigger, but the Parana river has more power so that the power plant can produce more electricity than the one in China. The project itself is very interesting especially the fact, that Paraguay paid half of the dam, but only needs 9% of the produced power to cover 75% of all the electricity needed in their country, so they sell the rest of their 50% to Brazil which with these 91% of the produced electricity only covers 17% of their total. But on the other hand Paraguay has only 7 million people while Brazil has about 200 million. But it was a very interesting tour which made me wonder why we still have only about 10% of renewable energy while so called "less developed" countries like Brazil and Paraguay cover 75% and 100% of their energy by renewables.

We then crossed the border to Argentina, our first official border crossing with control and stamps in the passport. I was very nervous before but it was much easier than expected and unlike other people in the bus at least we knew that we had to get out at the brazilian customs first and then take the next bus to the argentinian checkpoint.

We stayed one night in a hostel which again reminded me why we normally don't stay in hostels. One shower for about 30 people, one working toilet (there was another one in the same bathroom as the shower, but it didn't flush. As people used it anyway, you always had this nice smell of urine while you were taking a shower. delicious!), breakfast consisting of two tiny croissants and a small pack of butter, internet - of course - not working for longer than 2 minutes before you had to restart the router. We were very happy to leave after one night. Luckily the rest of cure little Puerto Iguazu was beautiful so we could enjoy our stay there and are now heading south to Rosario.

-Sandra