Salt Flat Tour

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
24-26th May (Thur-Sat)


On Thursday morning Jonathan, Chris, Sian, Grace and myself set off from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile on our Salt Flat tour, ultimate destination being Uyuni, Bolivia. We had shopped around and were able to get a discount because there were so many of us as we'd be able to fill a jeep ourselves. Even though this is how it was promised to us, inevitably it wasn't to be so when we got to the Bolivian border. The legal capacity of the jeeps is six, but we had seven. Immediately we had all made up our minds to write terrible reviews of the tour company on the Lonely Planet forum but in the end despite being terribly cramped for the 3 days we were overall happy with our trip! It was bloody freezing most the time but an absolutely unforgettable experience, best described by the following photos.

Day 1. Casual volcanic activity.

Day 1. I <3 Sulphur

Day 1. Day of lagoons; red lagoon and first flamingo sightings.

Day 2. Early sunrise at our truly terribly hostel.

Day 2. The morning after the worst night sleep in the world. 5 of us spooned in those 2 beds at the end,  we stole blankets from the empty room next door so one bed at 18 blankets and the other 16 or so. To bed I wore 3 pairs of leggings, two thermal tops, a thermal jumper thing, two hoodies, a scarf, gloves and a hat. It was miserable.

Day 2. Random rock collection in the desert.

Day 2. Dali rock tree

Day 2. Frozen lagoon with more flamingos.

Day 2. Lagoon number 7 with flamingo number 2,000.

Day 2. Fiat tractor in a tiny village whose economic activity was based on quinoa and llama.

Day 2. VW hippy van.

Day 2. Dinner on the line at our salt hostel.

Day 2. Tea time with the team in our salt hostel, which was in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Day 3. After a good night sleep we woke up to catch sunrise over the salt flats. This was the view  from the salt flat hostel while I was brushing my teeth outside, using bottle water.

Day 3. Baby blue sun rise!

Day 3. Hello llama!

Day 3. Salar de Uyuni - 170 km x 30 km

Day 3. Ninja time!

Day 3. Hello dinosaur!

Day 3. Uyuni, at least this kid had something to there.

Day 3. Train from Uyuni goes once a week.

Day 3. Train wreck, with an ode to dubstep.

Day 3. Train wrecks.

Day 3. Doggy in Uyuni, thought at the time it was unique to find him lazing about like this but I'm now aware that Bolivia is full of dogs like no country I've ever seen before. Ever.

Sandboarding & Star Gazing - Chile

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
21-24th May (Mon-Thur)

New country and a lovely shiny new currency, literally - Chile must be doling out new notes because all my Chilean pesos were crispy copies of the Australian waterproof dollars. The border crossing was so simple we almost didn't realise that we had actually landed into San Pedro (2,407m) because I hadn't quite anticipated how deserted in the desert it was! The Atacama Desert is one of the driest deserts in the world, except for this year when they had 30 days of rain instead of the usual 5. Some parts of the desert haven't seen a drop of rain since record keeping began! As such all bricks are made from mud and sand, no need for concrete. The biggest building in the town was the police station, apart from that and the church nothing else was particularly aesthetically pleasing. The entire town essentially consisted of extension after extension of small wattle and daub makeshift rooms which were then turned into tiny restaurants, tiny bars, tiny mercados and tiny tourist shops. With all the sand and dust and hundreds of dogs roaming around I found it all to be quite quaint.

Day One was spent searching for a hostel which was extremely difficult as no map had all the streets on it, but thanks to my new Spanish skills we eventually found our way. That night we had our first Pisco drink in a very cool reggae bar complete with a Rastafarian DJ mixing his own iTunes with YouTube! Day Two we met the girls, Sian and Grace from London and moved to their hostel and spent the day organising our Salt Flat Tour. Day Three was activity day! San Pedro is a backpackers favourite for it's proximity to all things geysers, volcanoes, hot springs, salt flats, salt lagoons (buoyancy), deserts, sand dunes, and Andean peaks. Fortunately all of us had the same two activities in mind - sandboarding and star gazing!

For 8,000 Chilean Pesos (divide by two and multiply by three for Euro) we set off with 'Pirate Adventures' to go sandboarding in Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley) followed by Pisco sours over sunset in Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). Sandboarding was such work, hiking up a hill in soft soft sand is such work when going down takes no more than thirty seconds. Old snowboards and bindings were matched to each gringo with little attention paid to height and then long white candles were broken up and divided out between us all. It was absolutely essential to 'wax' the board before each run. After a brief demonstration from our 'sandboarding instructor' everyone was left to their own devices and fresh tracks in the sand were made by about 3 or 4 who had snowboarded before.. everyone else fell head over heels down the 'slope' with the instructor shouting out helpful advice like 'close your eyes' or 'close your mouth'! The entire thing was hilarious and we all had sand in every nook and cranny because it took one or two runs to get used to it. We had to rush then and leave Death Valley to get to Moon Valley in time for sunset.

If you can imagine San Pedro to be like the desert planet in Star Wars then Death Valley is where they raced those land pods things. Crazy and often unworldy rock formations with only one path which was completely dug out to make the area passable by 4x4.. The name actually comes from a mispronunciation by a Belgian priest who thought the landscape looked like Mars, or 'Marte' and the locals misinterpreted his pronounciation believing he said 'Muerte'. Moon Valley is so called because the landscape resembles the moon's surface and after a 15 minute difficult hike we reached our viewpoint for a beautiful sunset. Beautiful not where the sun disappeared behind a very high rock plateau, but for the change in the colours of the rocks and soil as the shadow creeped towards the Andean mountains behind the Valley. Unfortunately I had left my battery in the charger so my photos were taken on my iPhone.

San Pedro is apparently one of the 'World's Top 10 Stargazing Spots' and neither the girls nor I wanted to miss out on the tour led by French astronomer Alain Maury which came recommended in the Lonely Planet. We were so so cold for the two/three hours that we spent outside looking through the huge and incredibly valuable telescopes, listening to his explanation of the stars and their movement but it was well worth it. The Milky Way down here is so clear at night that to see it through the telescope is incredible!

Me bundled up in layers with stars!

Took a photo of Saturn through the telescope, didn't turn out as well as what we actually saw but it's still cool!

Gringo Trail #2 Argentina

Markers: Puerto Iguacu, Buenos Aires, El Calafate, El Chaltén, El Calafate, Bariloche, Córdoba, Salta and San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Distance travelled: 9650 approx (5 days and 9 hours of driving according to google)

Argentina has been amazing, after almost a month here I've only scratched the surface. I'm so so glad I went to Patagonia, I feel I've seen the length and breadth of the country and my goodness there is so much going on. I'm sad I didn't get to properly dance salsa or tango but I've really enjoyed the places I've seen and all the food (lomo, choripan, empanadas, chimmi churri, even the dodgy lack of sea food sushi etc). It's all so different from Brazil whose countryside was so lush and dense in vegetation and cities so European with the security measures of Cape Town. Argentina has it's own distinct laid back feel, everything is so much more barren and disorganized. You can really feel a different pace of life in the cities and towns alike compared to the quickly developing Brazil. Mad really.

In the desert in Chile right now and it's an entire world apart again.

Don't cry for me Argentina!

Córdoba, Córdoba Province & Salta, Salta Province
14-20th May (Mon-Sun) 


Woops, it's been a week since I've even thought about doing an update and such a busy week it was. I thought I wouldn't have any news of interest this week but I've done a lot more than I intended! I arrived into Córdoba on Monday morning after a 22 hour bus journey up from Bariloche and had organised to call into a language school to finish registering for a week of Spanish classes. I had done my research and picked a school and a hostel which were close to each other, which is most convenient when class is at 9am. Córdoba is a lovely university city. So far it's the only place where I've thought that I could actually live here, for a time anyways. Huge compliment. My hostel was in the 'new, young and hip' district just a few blocks south of the pedestrianized city center. It didn't take too long to explore the old town, home to a dozen lovely old colonial buildings and churches so most of my days I spent lazing about in the park, trying to take in a bit of the sun.

1) Playing with ISO - I spy men hanging out in the tower!

2) Playing with ISO

3) Playing with ISO

No seats?

Don't know what's worse - the fact that lunch was a pack of
crisps or that the teacher was stealing her lunch!

I'd quite a few bunches of different people coming and going from my hostel all week, some English gap year girls, Swiss kids my age and some older Australian guys who were just the most clueless travellers I've ever met. The hostel cooked some lovely family dinners for us, the night they had planned to cook an 'asado' BBQ was called off due to a lack of numbers but fortunately the big group of 5 Irish lads who I'd met first in Iguazu and then again in Buenos Aires had an asado in their hostel. Suited me perfectly as I've really grown to love the 'choripan' here - chorizo sausage in fresh bread with salad and chimmi churri salsa dressing. Asado meant all you cant eat of those and some delicious steak, with barbecued banana and dolche de leche for dessert! I checked out the next morning but other than a quick venture to the market I spent most of the day in hostel TV room with a few others watching the All-Irish Heineken Cup Final and then the Champions League Final. Shared a cab to the bus terminal with one of the Aussie's and made my way overnight up to Salta where I'd booked into the same hostel as Johnathan from home and his travel companions.

It didn't take long at all to discover Salta, it's a tiny quiet white wash town with a few museums. Most of what is to be seen from Salta is outside, so it's really just a base to sleep and go out. I made an attempt to see a museum made famous for it's controversial display of child sacrifices, unfortunately because it was the 20 de Mayo weekend all the museums in the town were free in. Unfortunate because this meant a queue of 400 people were lined up for that particular child sacrifice museum so it didn't take me long to leave the town center and join the boys lounging in the sun out the back of the hostel for some reading in the sun.

I made the call that night to leave with Jonny and Chris in the morning to get the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. It was a tough call because I'd only been in Salta the day and felt like I was moving on too quickly however the problem lay in the fact that few buses leave from Salta to Chile (3 a week) so co-ordinating a bus time to catch them in San Pedro before they'd left for the Salt Flat tour in Bolivia would be impossible. It was either move on now or wait until possibly Friday to get to San Pedro as I'd have to wait until the Irish lads caught up with me and do the Salt Flats with them or else strangers (not ideal as I could be landed with 72 hours with creepers). I felt bad that I'd miss out on some sights, but after pricing the tours from Salta (and a long conversation with Mum) I realised I'd prefer to spend the money on the tours in San Pedro. Turns out my decision to leave the next morning was the right one because we'd an incredible 10 hour bus journey climbing into the Andes, through the cacti covered desert on a dodgy narrow road cuting in and out of the mountains and into Chile. Most importantly, I got to see the peculiar colourful mountains that Salta is famous for. Yay, I'd managed to not miss the only thing I'd really wanted to see in the Salta region!

Patagonia - The Lake District

San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro

16-20th May (Wed-Sun)

27 hours (just over 3000km) is how long it takes the bus to get from El Calafate to Bariloche. Not at all like 127 hour, which is a terrifying movie about how long it takes to cut off your arm. Instead, it's enough time to dip south to Rio Gallegos and then head north on the famous Ruta 40 which runs along the Andes from Southern to Northern Argentina. An amazing drive through the barren landscape of Patagonia which turns into lush countryside in the final few hours only. And I finally caught sight of the wild horses and llamas that roam freely down here! There were only two of us who stayed on for the full journey, a German girl and myself so we'd a choice of seats. They must make enough money during the summer months to support the business because the winter schedule (reduced to 2 trips a week) has to be running at a loss; full food service run by a little an who sits by the driver, a selection of movies and all the seats (remember, double decker) heated for only a handful of passengers.. seems a bit ridiculous. Not surprising so that by the end of the trip I'd thought of a new business plan for them.

Bariloche, which sits right on windy Lake Nahuel Huapi, feels like a Swiss/Austrian town in the Alps; ski rental, chocolate and souvenir shops absolutely everywhere. Wouldn't really expect much from the local ski resorts after seeing all the super old-school videos advertising them in the ski shops. Not the same branding power as Whistler. And the selection of skis and snowboards wasn't the greatest, the widest underfoot was a 98 Volkl so can't have much powder here. Enough snobbery, they are still not to be dismissed after all where else can you find in just one country huge cities, tiny villages and thousands of acres of beaches, jungle, desert, salt flats, geysers, glaciers and mountain ranges suitable for walkers to extreme climbers and skiiers. Something for every Tom, Dick and Harry.. or Tom, Dick and Anne as I'm known to say (doin' my bit for equality).

My hostel wasn't terribly sociable, but the breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs more than made up for it and I finally had a chance to catch up on Home & Away. Poor Romeo, did his ACL in thus jeopardises his surf career. Shock horror. I was up early every morning (not to just for the good breakfast) to fill my days with activities. Busy, bus, busy with a boat trip to Isla Victoria and the Arrayanes Forest and the following day a bus to Cerro Tronador and it's 'Black Glacier', all in the Nahuel Huapi National Park. 

Was really happy with some of the photos I took here, wanted to start taking more in black and white but when the colours are just so vivid I feel I'm doing a terrible injustice to them. My favourite photos are the first and last. Onto Córdoba next, right smack in the middle of Argentina where I'll stay for a week and enroll in a Spanish course. It's so bloody difficult to understand the accents in this country, I wish they'd enunciate more. I swear I'm not nit picking and missing the bigger issue here...

Dock on the island where the Arrayanes Forest was.

Being a bit arty under the dock.

The 'Black Glacier' - at the base of Cerro Tronador (a volcano) is what remains of the glaciers (right) which has almost entirely eroded, and is so called due to constant landslides and basalt rock that the glacier picks up along the way. Or so I gather from the strictly Spanish speaking guide. I saw ice break off from the top right and a small landslide on the left occur whilst was there... #globalwarming, #orsomeshit

I don't know why but people kiss these trees for luck, or why the branches grow vertically.

Took this with the wrong ISO and wrong aperture, but I like it!

Yaaaaay, finally reflection times!

Calender perfect!