Bus to and afternoon in Mendoza, Aug 4th.

FRIDAY 4th August 

Bus to Mendoza

After some fitful off and on sleep I checked the time and it was 6am.  Happy with that.  The bus made a stop at 7am. I checked the map.  It looks like 150km to go, in a straight line.  That could easily still be three more hours.

Now I await for sunrise and breakfast.  Moved seats again to look out the window.

The sun started to appear at 8:30 am.  That's late.  The one hour time change from Bolivia and Chile must suit the East coast but it seems pretty tough on the Andean side of the country.

The interior lights came on to coincide with the sun rise.  Maybe breakfast will appear soon.

I'm amazed. We are still in desert.  The land is flat and dry except for the foothills of the Andes out to the West. I have my first sighting of Mt Aconcaqua, the highest mountain in the Americas at 6962m. Mendoza grows 75% of Argentinas grapes but only because of an irrigation scheme running down from the mountains.  The climate of warms days, cold nights and minimal rainfall apparently forms a good combination to make wine.

Our 18 hour bus ride came to an end at 10am.

We transferred by taxi to our hotel who thankfully were able to check us in early.

I then discovered that I'd lost my keys to our suitcase padlocks - oops.

Luckily (for me) I had half a back up plan.  I'd had the forethought to stash a spare key to my bag somewhere else.  However I was now really wishing that I'd had the forethought to do the whole job and have a spare for Lindsey's case too. :0

Someone was sitting on my shoulder.  Two of our team had decided to avoid the overnight bus, stay in Salta an extra night and then fly in today.  After a quick text we discovered that the hotel had already found our keys and had given them to our Aussie saviours.

Our group got together again half an hour after check in and we were taken on an orientation walk and then to a cafe.  Lindsey and I had a "Submarino".  A mug of hot milk and a chocolate bar. One plunges the chocolate bar into the milk and it then melts to become a hot chocolate drink.  It was pretty good.  We also shared a ham & cheese toasted sandwich, which became our lunch.  Their Tostadas aren't really the toasted sandwiches that we know.  It appears that they toast the bread first and then throw the filling in afterwards. First the cheese fails to melt and second the toast is never quite hot enough.

After this the group dispersed and we went caching.  Two finds out of five wasn't the best of days.  The hides were mostly park benches with many muggles.

Lindsey and I have been bored since leaving Bolivia and are looking forward to coming home. Salta and Mendoza are "just" two Argentine cities in the back blocks with not a lot going for them.  I am going on a wine tour tomorrow so that may unexpectedly change my mind about Mendoza.  Lindsey is hoping for our guide to arrange a food cooking tour for her.  He is yet to make much headway on that front so she will probably just head off to a park two kilometres away where there are several geocaches.

Salta followed by an overnight bus to Mendoza Aug 3rd

THURSDAY 3rd August

Salta followed by an overnight bus to Mendoza.

We had a planned 9am departure with our guide to walk to a gondola and catch a ride to the top of a nearby hill that overlooks the city.

We felt our frustrations rising with our guide.  Most of the wine tour crew were shattered after two long days in a row and so those that were coming were late.  We eventually left at 9:30.  The gondola was good and the views just OK.  But there was a cache to be found at the top :). We had a nice walk back down the hill with another couple while the rest caught the gondola back down.

It was around midday by the time we arrived back in town and we had three hours to kill before we were due to transfer to the bus station.

After finding an ATM and some popcorn we sat on a park bench for nearly an hour across from the cathedral in the main square to people watch or in Lindsey's case to have a bit of a zizz as well.  It intrigued us that many people crossed themselves as they walked past the cathedral even though they were on the other side of the road some fifty plus metres away.  As I was so intrigued I took a survey.  The majority of older women paid their respects.  Less than half the older men and very few of either gender in the 20 to 30 range.  However, of a group of five teenage school children three did without missing a beat in their animated conversation.

We returned to the hotel feeling a bit flat and aimless.  After the high of the salt flats and with no perceived comparable highlights on the horizon we are ready to come home.

At 3 the taxi transfer to the bus station went a lot smoother and our overnight (18hr) bus left a little after 4pm.  Another comfortable bus.  Three big seats across.  Almost fully reclining and most importantly an unlocked fully serviceable toilet.

As the bus left, the first thing the hostess did was close all the curtains.  Hello? I'm a tourist on the top deck of a double decker bus.  All I want to do while it's daylight is look out the window.  Apparently it was something to do with people throwing stones at the windows if the curtains weren't pulled when we passed through towns.  Maybe something got lost in translation because I certainly don't understand the logic.  If you want to throw stones at a moving bus I fail to see how a curtain would stop me from doing it.  Anyhow, I shifted to a window seat behind Lindsey and got to see out that one window for what it was worth.

We stopped at a town about four hours later to pick up a few more passengers. By this time it was nearly 9pm and I was wondering when our meal was going to arrive.

Next thing I know we are getting dished out Bingo cards as a precursor to dinner.

The lady behind us was first and won a bottle of Chardonnay for her troubles.

Finally dinner was served at 9:30. A lump of chicken in mashed potato, heated, a carrot and tomato salad and a cake in a wrapper.  It wasn't too bad.  Lights out at 10:30 to try and get some sleep.

Salta Aug 2nd.

WEDNESDAY 2nd August

Salta, Argentina.

We have been unimpressed with our guide so far.  For some reason he told us yesterday that there wasn't much to do in Salta and he didn't know why Intrepid stopped here.  He believes that we should be staying in a small town 170 km further south. So... he offered a wine tour at this town for any takers and six of our group took him up on his offer even though there is also a wine tour in Mendoza in two days time for those that want to go on one.

After a twelve hour bus ride the last thing I wanted to do was get up for a 7am departure to drive another 340km return in order to go on a wine tour.

Lindsey and I rose around 8:30, had breakfast and headed into town to find some geocaches.  The first one was called the Cloud Train.  It turns out that there is a wonderful train journey through the Andes that used to leave from here.  It now leaves from the same town as mentioned above, 170km south of here.  They decided that the first sector was too boring!

On another km or so and we found a park with military hardware placed around it.  A tank and a few guns.  Our next find was on one of those guns.

2.5km later walking through a poorer part of town we came to some small hills where the houses had views.  There were some really flash, well kept ones here.

Another cache bagged and then we walked a further km for a Dnf.  

We then caught a cab back to our hotel.  The taxis are cheap.  We negotiated our ride for 70 pesos, about 6 kiwi.

Our plan for the afternoon was to go and find two geocaches in a suburb or town called San Lorenzo about 12km from the city centre.

To add a bit of spice to life, we sussed out the local bus route and how to get bus card.  The drivers won't take cash.  We walked to where they sold the cards and I put 25 pesos onto it.  I thought our fare would be six pesos each way but it appears that it may have been seven.

Our first cache was at the very end of the bus route in quite a nice forest park.  There were families picnicking by the running stream.  We thought that a clean free flowing stream was rather special in this part of the country.

Another cache ticked off and we walked 1.5km down the road to our last cache.

This one was outside a restaurant and the hint said to ask the manager about it - Esteban.  At this stage we weren't even sure if it was inside or outside the restaurant.

We went inside to talk to the staff.  They had no idea what I was talking about. Eventually we were taken to the manager who turned out to be the owner.  He's only owned this place for three months and he also had no idea about any geocache.

Back outside and we began our search.  Lindsey quickly unearthed a likely spot and I found a lid.  Then I found a bottle further into the hole.  It's contents were a soggy mess.  I then checked the logs and it hadn't been found for over 13 months.  We replaced the container with a watertight one that I had in my bag and added a nice new log.  When I looked up the restaurant staff were hanging out the window still trying to work out what on earth we were on about.

Mission complete we waited at the next street corner and hailed the next bus to take us back to town.  That's when I discovered that I didn't have enough money left on the card for two fares.  If the bus driver even noticed he certainly didn't care.  We find that it affords some of the best people watching sitting on a public bus.

Back to the hotel late in the afternoon for some rest and Internet time and then to meet our guide at 7pm for a briefing.

At 7 the wine tourists still hadn't returned.  We got our briefing and walked around the corner to have a steak dinner at quite a nice looking nearby restaurant.  A good plan except we were told at the restaurant that they don't start taking dinner orders until 8pm!!

We returned to the hotel to kill another half hour.  As we were about to head out again at 8 the wine tourists appeared and we all decided to go to a BBQ beef restaurant as a group.

We got three plates of grill to share between the eleven of us.  The plates were massive and contained beef steak, beef rib, kidney, sausage, chorizo and chicken.

All washed down with some local Malbec. 

All very nice but we found it pretty heavy in the gut when you don't finish until 11pm and then all we wanted to do was go to bed.

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile to Salta, Argentina Aug 1st.

TUESDAY 1st August 

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile to Salta, Argentina.

7am alarm. 8:15 walk to the bus station.

The 9am departure turned into 9:30. Another comfortable bus. A double decker with four seats across. We scored upstairs one row from the front so we had good views.

We climbed out of San Pedro de Atacama back up the road that we came out of Bolivia on and we were soon back up at 4000 plus metres.

Three hours later we reached the border.  At least the Chileans and Argentinians talk to each other. The exit and entry stamps were acquired in the same building.  That doesn't necessarily mean that it was by any means streamlined or efficient but it was a step up from our previous experiences.

However.... they can only accept one bus load at a time and there were two buses in front of us. 1 hr 45 later our bus moved into the customs area and we walked into the customs hall to queue.  The line moved fairly quickly. At the first window we received our exit stamp and then back in a second queue and at the second window, right beside the first window we received our Argentine entry stamp.  Now back out to the bus where one of the two drivers had been unloading all our luggage.  Grab the bags.  Back in the same door and around the corner to queue for the X-ray machine.

No paperwork at this border to declare or not declare contraband. One quick sweep through the X-ray and outside again to find that our bus had moved two bus lengths forward and was now firmly established in Argentina.  Re load the luggage and all aboard.  The whole process for about sixty passengers took 45 minutes.

Total time at the border 2hrs 30.  This border outpost was once again high up in the Andes at 4400m.  One hell of a place to work.  At least there was no sign of corruption here, unlike the Bolivian border.

On our way again and about five hours later we were finally leaving the Andes as we started a slow descent to below 3000m.  We descended through an amazing gorge. Many hairpin turns which continued for a total of over 2000m down.  It reminded me of the roads in the movie The Italian job but twice as steep.

We put our clocks forward an hour and arrived in Salta at 8:30 pm.
We checked in to quite a nice wee hotel.  Our room had a king bed and a single bed.  I managed to talk Lindsey into having a bed mate as the bed was "just" big enough!

San Pedro de Atacama July 31

MONDAY 31st July

San Pedro de Atacama.

After the best nights sleep either of us have had for weeks we strolled into breakfast around 9am and then the group met at ten.

The plan was to walk nearly 3km to an archaeological ruin.

We weren't interested but I had already worked out that there was a geocache nearby so we went on the group walk.  Our guide got lost momentarily bringing us along a gravel river bank to get us back on track.  As we approached the ruin I checked my map to realise that we'd missed our turn off.  The others all paid to enter the site and we walked back 400m and turned off up another road.  A short climb later and we were on top of a hill with a neat view over San Pedro de Atacama, geocache in hand.

Lindsey cleaning out the geojunk from the geocache.

San Pedro de Atacama in the middle distance with the Andes on the horizon.

Rather dry around here!

Behind us across the valley we could see the rest of our group climbing a ridge to another view point on a higher hill.

We continued making a circular walk back to San Pedro to head for one more cache.  We passed an artisan market and found some gifts for the five girls in our lives.  On to the cache and a nice shaded seat.  Initially we couldn't find it.  We checked some spoiler photos and Lindsey scratched about a bit more and when she did I glimpsed something out of context and hey presto there was the cache, well buried.

It turned out that this was a cache that was placed back in March and then supposedly went missing as there was only one signature in the log.  Another cache had replaced this one which had been found by many but now that one seemed to have disappeared.  We found two trackables which we rescued.  The owner of one emailed me to thank me for finding it. He thought that it had long gone.

Cache reburied and we went back to the hotel for a light lunch supplemented with a couple of beers that I'd had stashed away in my luggage for quite a while.

We had an Internet and snoozing time in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.

Off to dinner at 7:30 after a briefing about tomorrow.  Just four of us without our guide. We found a set menu for 10,000 pesos (20 kiwi). Soup followed by a spaghetti dish with calamari filled with seasoned lamb mince.  An unusual combination but it did work. To end our meal we were given a chocolate brownie each.

Our guide told us that we won't get into Salta until between 8 and 10 pm tomorrow so we decided to go to the money exchange tonight to get some Argentinian pesos.  More maths to get my head around.  About 12 of their pesos to our dollar instead of 500 pesos in Chile.

Back to the ranch to hit the sack just after ten.

Alarm set for 6:50.

Salar de Uyuni day 3 and over the border to Chile - July 30

SUNDAY 30th July

Another early start well before dawn.

Lindsey was exhausted after very little sleep over the last two nights combined with long travel days all at over 4000m altitude.

I wasn't that great either having had diarrhoea in the night.  Lindsey scrounged an Imodium pill for me which got me through the day untroubled.

As I waited for the cars to be loaded I admired the night sky.  The Milky Way looked impressive and I saw four shooting stars.

On our way just after 5am. Air temperature minus 10.

We then marvelled at our our driver who was able to navigate on very ill defined rough rocky roads.  Tracks were diverging in all directions.

Just under two hours later we made a ninety degree turn off the main track and crossed a small pass at 4900m arriving at a geothermal area absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

The first fumarole we stopped at we were told was man made.  That is, they drilled a hole to let off some steam.  This fumarole was really going for it blasting steam up to about ten metres in height.  Back in the car and a further 500m down the track we drove to the field proper.  Lots of steam and mud pools. No barriers at all. Just instructions, "don't fall in because you will die".

As we messed about here the sun decided to poke its head above a distance mountain in the east.  Quite stunning seeing the first rays shine through the steam with snow all around us.  There was an Earth Cache here and after some subsequent research I discovered that the water here comes from the Pacific Ocean due to the interaction between two tectonic plates.

A short time later we arrived at an "oasis" for breakfast.  There were natural hot pools here and after paying her six bolivianos Lindsey was in like a shot.

With the sun shining the air temperature may have risen to zero by now.  (Lindsey doesn't think that it was that warm!) The pool temperature was about 32C and that was plenty warm enough this morning.

After the soak we moved into a nearby building for pancakes and more hot chocolate.

Off again and a short time later we arrived at Laguna Verde.  Early in the morning it is more turquoise than green.  The wind has to get up to stir the lakes sediment to make it green.  This lake has no life in or on it as it is full of arsenic and lead emanating from springs beneath it.  A short stop here and another cache bagged then on to the border.

There is an adjacent lake to Laguna Verde and that is Laguna Blanca.  This lake is normally full of bird life but not this morning as it was frozen.  It is fed by ground water only so doesn't have the arsenic that the green lake that it feeds into has.  The lake is a bright white because of Borax that is prevalent throughout this altiplano.

Finally around the corner and over the hill we came to an inhospitable outpost which is the Bolivian border control. We queued to receive an exit stamp in our passports.  Our guide told us that we didn't have to pay any taxes.  However the officials in the wee hut were insisting that we pay 15 bolivianos to them.  We noticed that a family in front of us paid up.  Lindsey flatly refused and began to go outside to get our guide.  When he realised what she was doing he called her back and returned her passport to her.  I then had no trouble getting my passport stamped for free.  Others in our group had similar issues but Marisol was now standing by the doorway ready to leap into action as the rest went through.  I guess if you are working in a cold unforgiving environment at 4400m, two hours from the nearest Bolivian township, a little corruption helps ease the pain.

About an hour passed at the border, we gave hugs and said our goodbyes to our Bolivian guide and drivers, then we transferred onto a mini bus and crossed over into Chile.

We then descended, (yay), for 45 minutes to arrive in San Pedro de Atacama. Altitude 2400m. The lowest we've been for three weeks!  We are also now in the Atacama desert so the temperature was nice and warm too.

Another hour was to pass as we traversed Chilean customs.  Our bags were x-rayed, which was a first.  Lindsey declared that she had banned food in her bag.  It didn't seem to matter.  She and her bag went straight through, no questions asked.  The only thing I saw them stopping people from bringing in were mandarins.  I know not why.  Maybe fruit is scarce in the desert and the officials want them for their families.

Finally released into Chile we were driven to our Hostal and checked in.  We then met our Argentinian guide, Luciano, who will be with us for the rest of our tour.  He gave us a briefing and then we all disappeared into our rooms for showers and fresh clothes.

By two o'clock we set out to walk the two blocks to the towns main street.  The first priority was a money changer. I handed over 300 bolivianos and was given nearly 30,000 Chilean pesos.  That did my head in.  30,000 pesos, it turns out, equals about 60 kiwi dollars.  Multiply by two and knock off a whole lot of zeroes.

We then found a Chilean equivalent of a dairy and bought an avocado, a tomato and some cheese slices for $5 kiwi.

By this time (2:30pm) I was famished and Lindsey not so much.  She went back to the hotel to eat what we had just bought with crackers while I joined the rest of the group for a $13 hamburger with potato wedges.

A quiet time followed until we regrouped at 7:30 pm to go out to dinner together.

We were told that 7:30 is early for dinner in these parts and that some people don't go to dinner until 10 pm.

Our guide took us to a noisy place with live music.  We noticed that the meals were huge.  Lindsey doesn't do huge and tried to ask for a small portion.  They said that they could do a small portion with her second choice.  However when it arrived they had made no effort and it was huge and rather unattractive.  It consisted of fried slices of chicken breast, onion, two fried eggs and soggy chips.  I had the same except instead of chicken I had slices of beef.  We both only ate about half and Lindsey got a doggy bag for the left over chicken which we enjoyed a lot more the next day for lunch.

I tried a couple of local beers.  One pale ale brewed from quinoa was a winner.  Another wheat based ale, not so much.

Back to the hotel which was very comfortable for a good nights sleep.

Salar de Unyuni - Day 2 July 29

SATURDAY 29th July.

Salar de Uyuni

After a cold night in our salt brick hostel we rose before dawn.

Three cups of hot chocolate later I felt better.

Our modest salt brick hostel and our 7 seater limousines.

Looking back over the rest of the town as dawn breaks.

With the salt flats behind us we departed a little after dawn into the Bolivian Altiplano and our first stop was beside a train track near a military facility.  I think that the stop was mainly to give us a leg stretch more than anything else.  Our guide spoke about issues with both Chilean and Bolivian military patrols accidentally crossing the ill defined border and being arrested by the other side. It all seemed a bit childish.

The terrain had changed to a more desert like, very dry, rocky landscape and the mountains were a lot closer.

Our next stop was a "mirador" (view point) where we had a great view of an actively smoking volcano.

We made two more stops at a couple of semi frozen lagunas with flamingos as we travelled south and then stopped for lunch at the second lake.

I found the flamingoes quite impressive here and was surprised when some took flight how graceful they are. Quickly into the air. Very long necks stretched out as they glide effortlessly through the air and then they land like a Harrier jump jet.

After lunch we continued south and I asked our guide to make a stop at a rock wall formed by a lava flow where my GPS was pointing.  Earth Cache questions answered about why there were holes at regular intervals in lines across the lava rock and my job was done.  Having seen no vegetation for an hour or so it was surprising to see some amazing bright green moss or lichen growing on the rock wall.

Another cache collected and our next stop was at a "Stone tree".

Two caches here. A Traditional and an Earth.  These rock formations are magma that has risen from the earths crust and because of erosion have appeared above the earths surface.  Then, especially with the stone tree, further wind erosion accompanied by dust particles has caused the lower part of this rock to erode faster than the higher part.

Our final stop of the day was Laguna Colorada, the Red Lake and this afternoon it was very red due to the afternoon wind disturbing the sediment in the lake.

Another cache was found at the first view point and then another fee was paid for us to enter the national park and drive around the lake to a second viewing point.

We then made a short, cold, walk along the lake edge and climbed back into our cars.

After a long tiring day we arrived at our next salt brick accommodation at 5pm.

Unfortunately no twin room this time.  We had two dormitories.  Boys in one room and girls in another with hardly any room to put our bags between the single beds.

Unfortunately the dining room was inhospitable too and arriving tired and hungry dinner wasn't produced until 8pm and alas it wasn't particularly appetising either.

This would be our last night with our Bolivian tour leader and we were supposed to have some sort of party.  She bought us a couple of bottles of red wine but only a few were interested in drinking.  Being at 4400m altitude didn't help either.

Off to bed by 10pm and thankfully none of the boys snored.  I was warmer than the previous night so I slept a little better.

Alarm set for 4:30am for a 5am departure with breakfast planned further down the road after 7am.