I'm in heaven!
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
21
155
Trip End
May 27, 2008
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Salta,
Argentina
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Went to check out of Valle Hermaso hostel and they tried to charge me for an extra night as I arrived at 5am, although this wasn't explained to me at the time...apparently if I arrived at 6am they wouldn't have charged me. I explained that I got a night bus to save paying for accommodation and I would have stayed at the bus station until 6am had I have known and asked to pay for half a night but they said no. I told them I was going away for the tour and needed to leave my bag...when they found out I wasn't going with their company they said I couldn't leave it there which was really pathetic I thought!
Took my bag to the hotel where my company was based (Hotel Mitre, Tupiza Tours) and got sorted. Last minute an extra aussie joined the group so we had Michael from Holland, Lucy and Antony from Oz and Peter from Oz who was much older than the rest of us. All the Aussies spoke fluent Spanish as they'd travelled for ages and Lucy taught Spanish, and even Micahel had taken lessons before he came so they all understood the guide well and had to explain everything to me.
01 Our accommodation
The group was OK though and everyone was sociable and we all had a good time. The first 3 days we saw lots of lagoons, hundreds of pink flamingos, swam in a hot thermal spring and saw some sulpher geysers. Passed through lots of similar looking villages, mud brick buildings, a church, a sports court and not much else. The first two nights we were in dorms, absolutely freezing, around minus 10 outside. The last night we stayed in the salt hotel (made of salt suprisingly) and despite them trying to put me in with Michael after paying for a single room, I finally got a double bed to myself (don't think his girlfriend bak home would have approved either). We had a good meal that night with alpaca meat and there were lots of other groups there but were interrupted by a group of kids who came in, played some music, did a dance and wanted money (not much suprise there). Unfortunately they were bad, but IŽd left my wallet in my room anyway. A lot of kids in Bolivia are taught to get money from tourists...we heard that a girl was asked if she wanted to take a photo for money by some kids and when she said no they threw stones at her, plus when we stopped in a village some kids asked Antony to join in their marble game but when he lost they said he had to give them money. It's not their fault but a lot of people I speak to don't like the fact they just see them for money and don't want to talk to them for anything else. Anyway...the last day we had to leave at 5.30am and headed off into the Salar de Ulyni.
02 kids and adults playing
Basically this is a huge area of salt, 40m deep. The locals who extract it get less than 1 pound for 50kg which is dire! It's renewable though which is grea. We stopped off at this island in the middle of nowhere covered in cactuses, which had a restaurant and possible hotel built on it which looked new. We had a great breakfast there and did some exploring...found a huge cactus that was over 1000 years old apparently. We then drove off and stopped now and then to take some silly pictures and finished in Ulyni in the train graveyard...Rod, I did take photos but they were so old they were rusted away. I bumped into Maggie and Sean though there from my Pampus tour group which was weird! My group stayed in Ulyni but I went back to Tupiza, where we picked up several waifs and strays along the way. I booked into Hotel Mitre which was less than 50p more than Valle Hermaso and I got my own room (they alse had a pool but I didn't have time to use it...bargain for less than 2 quid!). Got the 4am bus to Villazon which is at the border. Bumpiest ride of my life....like being in one of those massage chairs so again, didn't sleep. Went to Bolivian immigration then went to get into Argentina.....been told the border was open at 6am......it opened for about 5 minutes, then closed until 9:30 and god I was cold! It was freezing and I had no idea why we were waiting, what was going on or anything which was frustrating and I was losing feeling in my extremities, plus I was staving for breakfast which is not a good combination! Got to see these military guides parade and raise the Argentinian flag next to us which was cool.
03 llamas and alpacas
Eventually, I got pulled aside along with another English guy (Chris) and eventually they took our passports. They then told me I didn't have an exit stamp for Bolivia......what had happened was that they thought I was going into Bolivia so they gave me an entry stamp so back to Bolivia I went and got it sorted.Got chatting to Chris and we headed across the bridge into La Quiaca, Argentina to get a bus to Salta. He had a ticket but I then told him he'd missed the bus as we were now 1 hour ahead. He changed his ticket and thy tried to rip me off on the price for mine but now I'm one step ahead and they didn't get away with it. We got breakfast....less than 2 quid for scrambled egg, coffee, juice, croissant, bread and a plate full of steak...oh my god but i was so hungry and we had a 7 hour journey ahead so it was great. Watched ladder 49 on the bus which was rubbish (about a fireman, and in spanish again), but at least the bus was nice, although I didn't appreciate being blasted with air con so sat in my hat and gloves despite it being hot outside!
Arrived at Salta and was approached by a guy from an HI hostel offering a free taxi and reduced rates (Backpacker City) so off I went with an American girl from the bus. It's so posh...we have bidets (although couldn't get it to work) and soap and a hot tap in the sink! Me and the American (Pauline) headed out into Salta....the most beautiful city I have seen in a while, possibly ever! (I can hear Shakira playing somewhere again in this internet cafe!).
04 my tour group
We had a great tea and some shoe shine lad came and told me I was very pretty (I still didn't want a shoe shine tough as i had trainers on). The main plaza always has entertainment every weekend...they had a guy on guitar who was a great singer, followed by an old guy singing tango who wasn't so great, followed by these kids dressed up in what I can describe as Antonio Banderas in Zorro for the guys, followed by amazing dancers...however....they grabbed people from the audience, including me and I didn't have a clue what to do, went bright red and felt like a prat, but knew that I wasn't the only one dragged up so that wasn't so bad......however...the dance was folklore and soemthing they all learn at school so I was the only one looking like a prize idiot! Good fun though.Today I headed out to do some shopping (Sue and Leanne you would love this place). I've never seen so many shoe shops and they have a good range of stuff. Bought a skirt as I'm sick of looking scruffy and not feeling girly! Booked a rafting trip for tomorrow and the guy at the company wanted me to check a letter he'd written in english so I felt like an academic again to some extent! Off to a BBQ tonight organised by the hostel and ran into Chris and his mates and they are off to the BBQ also. He's a bit younger than me and sounds like he's just here mostly to go out all night and hungover all day wich is OK as his parents are lending him money to do it! The BBQ is on at one of our hostel's other branches so should be busy. Found a great supermarket with soft fresh bread and nice fruit, had great ice cream for lunch stupidly cheap and a nice custard pastry thing as bakeries, sweet shops and ice cream parlors line every street - dad you would also be in heaven here. Also booked a ticket to se Robbie Williams wich i'm really excited about! He's playing in two weeks in Buenos Aires, only standing left but only 20 quid roughly so seemed a bargain and will be pretty cool as i've heard he tries to do some songs in Spanish but is not that good at the language!
As much as i liked Bolivia and Peru it is nice to be back in a more modern society with clean toliets, safer food and where more people speak english, although I still want to enhance my Spanish a bit more before I go.
So Salta is great, I'm back on the gringo trail with lots of tourists and tis is the first place I could imagine living in! Looking forward to tomorrow then heading off to Mendoza to hopefully see Aconcagua (south america's highest mountain) and do some biking or something before heading on a day long bus to Buenos Aires.
