Buenos aires to Chile, the month of January
Calling all Biddetts!!! Bit longer this one as i have been off the radar for sometime….dont worry if you get bored, the pics will be on fb soon!!! you do not have to continue!!!
Hola from Argentina!! I have had a very great start to my year, the last update I sent I was staying in Buenos Aires for a few days with a lovely friend I met in Iguazu. Well, a few days turned into two weeks and I got to see the north part of the city and go to places I would never have heard of without my native chica! Two weeks passed so quickly with pic nic s and swimming in a beautiful water park called Tigre in the north, wonderful food cooked in a proper kitchen, meals out and met some really great friends of my host. All in all such a fantastic time and I was sad to leave!
I dragged myself onto another mammoth bus journey and travelled 22 hours west and north to a town called Salta where I ended up staying for about a week. Had a fantastic time doing white water rafting, zip lining and horse riding and met some great people to while away the time with in this great little (its quite big actually but everything is small compared to Buenos Aires!) town. Plus, the vodka measures made my brain swirl....why do these argentines insist that half a litre of vodka is a single measure!!!??
I left to take another bus (this time only 10 hours, how easy!!) towards the Chilean border headed for the desert town of San pedro de Atacama. The drive was beautiful!! We passed though all the natural sights that I was too lazy to see from Salta so I got to see Argentina’s salt flats, the 7 coloured mountains (they have 7 colours btw!!!) and vast spaces of nothing like i never seen before. There is one proper road towards Chile here and every small road off it is a dirt road and I actually saw a lone cyclist, prob 3 hours drive before the border……where are you going!!!??? I think he must have crossed by now!!
Anyway, the town of San Pedro is the only place for miles and is the centre for such desert sights of salt flats, weird water holes, natural springs and crazy valleys that look like the moon. I stayed there for 5 nights and was joined by my host from Buenos Aires and we spend 4 days exploring this strange area of the country together.
On day one we cycled 60 kilometres (yes, i sound like a nutter like my sister!!) in the midday heat of the desert to a salt lake which was so blue and deep and freezing that i actually thought it was a mirage by the time we made there!! Like the dead sea you float because its full of salt and it is freezing in the middle!! Day 2 was a 4 am start and we took a tour into the mountains to see the Gayser del Tatio which is a geothermal field with loads of hot water spewing holes in the grounds. This is a national sight now and they properly control who enters but our guide told us that a few years ago, before the government monitored who went in and out any old tour company would turn up, people could walk anywhere and poor women who went off for a wee sometimes found themselves squatting over a boiling hot water hole, if you step on the wrong part you get a nasty burn!!! Sometimes its a good thing when controls and organisation are in place!!!
Well, it was minus 5 degrees when we arrived to watch the sunrise, we walked around and then west for a swim in the thermal baths there….man it was cold getting out afterwards!!! The tour got us back for an afternoon siesta and then at 4 it was to ‘Death Valley” for sand boarding!!! Such fun!!! (It the words of Miranda!!) Pictures to follow on FB!!! Anyway, following being completely covered in sand the day ended with a scramble up the Valle de luna (moon valley) after we sacked off our guide for a bit and got semi lost in the coolest cave ever through the valley floor). We found our group and ascended the climb to watch the sunset over this strange valley covered with what looked like salt, it really does look a bit like the moon (not that i have been there, next trip!!!)
So, after a packed few days in the desert I headed back to Buenos Aires and experienced the joys of being a standby passenger with LAN air courtesy of my travel pal (thank you for the rock bottoms prices, for putting up with scrabble and the standby experience Estefy!)!!!! We spent the afternoon missing flights due to unavailable seats but at 8 o'clock became confirmed passengers and ran through the airport, no flip-flops, mad dash through customs, to make our plane home!!! (It’s the only way to travel!!!) ha ha!!!
I am now in Buenos Aires for a month starting my spanish lessons here. Will blog when i have completed my school and we shall see how much i learn!!! hope all are well back in england. dont worry, summer is winding down here so i am getting rained on at least half as much as you all are!!!! Chou for now chicos y chicas!!!!!
