Week 5: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Because the bus strike was still in effect we had to take a secret bus from an undisclosed location that could only be paid in cash from Argentina. When we arrived at said location the workers threw our bags under the bus and quickly hurried us on as they worriedly looked behind their shoulders for protestors. Apparently earlier that week another Chilean bus tried to leave for San Pedro de Atacama and got pelted with stones. To avoid another mishap like that, companies began changing the locations and times of departure. Luckily, we had no problems and 12 hrs later arrived in San Pedro de Atacama. The trip from Salta to San Pedro Atacama is probably the most beautiful scenery we will experience on our trip. It went through so many ecosystems, from tobacco fields, to incredible mountains, to salt flats, to lagoons to deserts. Once in San Pedro we checked into our hostel and found a warm restaurant to eat a Chilean meal.

Our "collectivo clandestino" as the Chileans called it. 

My Chilean beef  Cazuela

Nate´s lomo con huevo y papas

San Pedro is in the Atacama desert, the driest in the world, with incredible natural beauty all around it. The town is very simply covered in adobe-style hostels and houses with dusty streets and firepits that are all lit at night. However, it's charm quickly disappears due to how touristy the town has become. Prices for hostels, food, and drinks were outrageous for the quality of service.

Our first full day in San Pedro we walked around the town, checking the different tours and decided that we would take a shot at sand boarding. Once before, Nate and I attempted to go skiing and almost split-up due to the stress it caused that day. Haha, but seriously. So we were a bit nervous how the day would pan out, luckily we had a great guide and fellow sand boarders. We set out in the early afternoon to La Valle de la Muerte and went down the dunes about 6-7 times each. It was quite a trek to get to the top each time. Nate was of course a semi-pro by the time we finished, and I was able to stand up the whole time by the time we left. So in my book a great success. We then took a drive over to La Valle de la Luna to see the sunset over the valley with some pisco sours, the national Peruvian drink, I guess due to the proximity of San Pedro to Peru the cultures really mesh. La Valle de la Luna, looked exactly that, like the moon. Just breathtaking and also freezing once that sun goes down.

Like a Boss!

Valle de la Luna before sunset

Valle de la Luna after sunset

Our next day we took it chill, because that's really the only speed in San Pedro and in the early afternoon took a dip in the salt lagoon (Laguna Cejar) which are borded by cristalized salt and is located within the Salar de Atacama . The salinity of the lagoons are 9 times that of the ocean! It was incredible how buoyant our bodies were in the water, even when we were trying to swim it was difficult since you couldn't put your legs under the water. As soon as we got out of the water the salt would immediately cake onto our skins and clothes. It took days to wash all the salt off of our gear, we still find it in some places. After our bath in the lagoon we went to Los Ojos del Salar (the Salt Lakes eyes) that were formed by fallen meteroites in the 40s. There we jumped in to wash off some of the salt, since it was "Agua Dulce" as our tour guide called it. We ended our day by visiting the Laguna Tebinquiche which is also borded by hard salt, which was so white and cold it was hard to believe it wasn´t snow, to the see sunset and flamingos. The view was just magnificent as the water in the lagoon reflected everything around it and created cool illusions. Our guide had set-up a table as we were taking pictures and when we came back to the van were greeted with some snacks and pisco sours to further add to our enjoyment of the views.

Laguna Cejar

Apparently this lagoon has a higher salt content than the Dead Sea

Can you believe there is no float underneath me?!

The caked salt on my skin, which actually burned after sometime

Los Ojos del Salar (two perfectly round, naturally formed, wells located between Laguna Cejar and Salar de Atacama)

Pictures before we jumped in and froze

Laguna Tebinquiche at sunset

You cant help but wan´t to jump, jump!

We only spent four days in Chile and don't feel like we got a good representation of the country, since our time spent was only in the far north. From the southern-most tip of Chile to the northern-most part and everything in between, we hear its just one of the most diverse and naturally gorgeous countries on the continent. Heck, they have glaciers, hot springs, wine country, deserts, forests, cities, etc. Just a plethora of things to do and see, we feel lucky that we got to see a small sliver of such a beautiful country. Now onto Peru!

Till next time.

Week 4: Salta

We arrived in northern Argentina, Salta, after a 20 hr bus ride just to find out it was a holiday and there would be nothing to do but catch up on our sleep. Shucks, too bad. After an extremely long nap, we walked the streets of a ghost town and were lucky to find a few places open for lunch. The day off gave us an opportunity to do some research on our new destination which would later unexpectedly become more of a home due to a bus strike, do some laundry and get to know our hostel companions/refugees.

The next day we walked about 12.5 miles to all parts of Salta and finished our day at Plaza 9 de Julio where we visited the Museo Arquelogico de Alta Montana. There we saw what's considered the best naturally preserved mummies in the world. Unearthed in 1999 from the 22,000-foot summit of Mount Llullaillaco, a volcano 300 miles west of Salta near the Chilean border, three children between the ages of 6-13 were found frozen with internal organs intact, blood still present in the heart and lungs, and skin and facial features mostly unscathed. No special efforts have been made to preserve them; the cold and dry, thin air did all the work.

The children were sacrificed as part of a religious ritual, known as capacocha. They walked hundreds of miles to and from ceremonies in Cuzco were only the most beautiful, healthy, and physically perfect children were taken to the summit of Llullaillaco (yoo-yeye-YAH-co), given chicha (maize beer), and, once they were asleep, placed underground with funerary ornaments, where they froze to death. According to Inca beliefs, the children did not die, but joined their ancestors and watched over their villages from the mountaintops like angels. It is believed that there are over 40 mountain burial sites in Salta. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures but you can Google "La Nina del Rayo" and see what she looked like. She is called that because while still buried she was struck by lightning. It felt like at any moment she was about to wake up. So wild.

The next day we took an 11-hr tour around the surroundings of Salta. We shared the tour with an older couple, Betty and Julio who were from Buenos Aires and only spoke Spanish. Nate got a really good Spanish lesson and we saw and did some rad stuff. We traveled the same path as Las Trens de las Nubes, which used to be a trading train from Argentina to Chile, but now is only used for tourism. Our first stop was San Antonio de Los Cobres, a very poor mining town, nothing we aren't extremely family with. We got to speak with some of the local children and eat their famous llama stew with lentils. It was quite delicious and very lean. From there we traveled to an altitude of 4,700 meters above sea level through some incredible mountains to the Salt Flats. Since we won't be able to make it to Bolivia to see the largest salt flats in the world, we opted for the 6th largest called "Salinas Grandes" with 12,000 hectares of salt.

The path of Tren de las Nubes

A traditional mud home with cactus wood ceilings

San Antonio de los Cobres

Llama lentil stew...mmmm

Llamas outside of a stew

Salinas Grandes

Block of Salt

Pools of water underneath the salt

From there we went to a small town called Purmamarca where we saw the mountain of seven colors due to the mineral and iron deposits that have oxidized at different rates. The views of the day were fantastic and luckily neither of us got altitude sickness because we chewed cocoa leaves and drank cocoa/mate tea with our fellow tour companions of the day.

Oxidized minerals in the mountains

La montana de siete colores

Mouthful of cocoa leaves

Being in the desert and surrounded by Gauchos you can't help but want to spend a day on a ranch, so that's what we did. We woke up early the next day and went to Finca Sayta to ride horses and have an asado. We rode for about two and a half hours and got the chance to not only trot with our horses but gallop, which sounds like the same thing, but galloping is way faster as I quickly learned. Our gauchos were as authentic as they come, born into the Guacho lifestyle with tons of kids, multiple women, and machismo egos to match. Before I even got on my horse the Gaucho told me I needed to learn to listen to men better, I think you all know how that conversation finished. Despite the testosterone, we had a great time and us ladies stuck to our "feminists" ways as later the owner of the ranch Enrique told me. He was a crazy man who liked to call every one a "son of a ----" and insisted that because the wine bottle finished in mine and Nate's glass, we now had a 66% chance of having a child in the upcoming year. Crazy old man, but a hoot, nonetheless. And if the company hadn't been so good, the food would have made up for it because in true asado style it was freakin delicious.

Nate got to gallop alone with his horse Paisano

My horse Cozaco

With crazy ranch owner Enrique

Our gaucho day was supposed to be our last excursion before quickly moving onto Chile the following day, but like I mentioned before there is currently a bus strike that has stopped all long distance travel. The owners of the companies want a 23% increase in salaries to match the inflation rate retroactively from January and a clause that allows them to renegotiate their salary if the inflation crisis continues. The strike began the day after we arrived and has been going on for 4 days. Even Chilean bus companies aren't able to travel due to the vandalisation that is occurring to any bus that is on the road. So as of now we are staying put, enjoying our Sunday traditions of catching up on correspondence and taking it easy with hopes that in the next day or two we can continue to our third country. Until then wine is cheap, the weather is cool, and of all the hostels we have stayed at this is our favorite. So no complaints here and power to the people.

Till next time.

Week 3: Buenos Aires & Mendoza

Buenos Aires and Mendoza absolutely lived up to its hype. Both places were so different and full of life that it was contagious. We arrived in Buenos Aires on a Sunday morning and checked into our hostel, America del Sur, which was more like a hotel, due to its size and set-up  Since our room was still being cleaned we stored our bags and got to to know our new surroundings of "San Telmo" at the Sunday street fair. It was packed with tourist and locals shopping for leather, eating empanadas while watching the sleek dressed dancers engage in the art of Tango. Since we had been traveling all night we were of course starving and quickly found and ate the famous and emphatically recommended "Choripan" which is a large slab of chorizo on baguette bread covered in "picadillo criollo" (chopped tomatoes, onions and other herbs) with a substantial glass of wine that was larger and cheaper than a coke. It's not too far off what they say that wine runs in the streets like water in Argentina. After hours of walking up and down the street, taking in the music, and making a mental note of all the unique items we want to decorate our imaginary house with, we retired for a nap to get ready for our first Argentinean meal, in other words a very late meal consisting of meat. That night we had such big and juicy steaks that someone walking by our table exclaimed "holy sh*t look at that steak." True story.

"Mate, the national beverage obsession, with traditional gourds sold on the street" . 

Choripan sandwich in all its glory.

Note the generous pour.

Tango performed on the street.

The next four days we walked to all parts of Buenos Aires. We went to Palmero to see the Japanesse gardens, the Rosada Garden and Parque 3 de Febrero, which were absolutely gorgeously manicured. The rose garden was intoxicating with all the sweet smells. There were so many different types and colors of roses that Nate literally had a love affair smelling rose after rose.

Japanese Garden in Buenos Aires.

Stroll through the rose garden.

We went to Congresso to see all the beautiful architecture, Plaza de Mayo to see "La Casa Rosada" which is the president's office and the balcony where Evita gave her famous last speech. Then we headed to Recoleta to see Evita's grave and eat some amazing food.

Casa Rosada, where Evita gave her final speech.

Evita´s resting place.

We were extremely lucky to get to meet up with our two Peace Corps friends from Guyana, Harmony and Travis, who are currently studying Spanish in Buenos Aires. We met at El Federal Cafe to eat the popular "picada," which consists of breads, cold cuts, cheese, olives and pickled vegetables.

 Reunited with Harmony and Travis at El Federal.

Our friend Becca, who lived in Buenos Aires for 6 months wrote us a wonderful guide of where to eat and see while in Buenos Aires, and now we have named her "impeccable Becca" because every recommendation was just phenomenal- from places to eat (La Fabrica del Taco, where a food show from Belgium was shooting their pilot as we ate), bars to visit (La Gibraltar), and places to see...what an awesome 5 days. Thank you Becca!

La Fabrica del Taco, home of the best tacos we´ve ever had and the Michelada, the Mexican Bloody Mary (beer, lime juice, salt, and salsa).

Despite how cheap Argentina has been for us as a result of the favorable exchange rate for USD in the black market, Argentina seems to be having some difficulty. Their current president has stopped all imports and foreign currency from entering the country, though the only way possible to buy a house or car is to pay in USD. Try and figure that out. While we were there we saw a considerable amount of protests about the current judicial laws, which are trying to be reformed in favor of the president. Buenos Aires was not as clean and polished as we expected, lots of closed businesses, graffiti and abandoned cars and plots. In the more commercial areas it was more what we pictured when thinking Buenos Aires, but you could tell it was more touristy. We were told that the location of our hostel was in the blue collar district, more of the bohemian district. It was great to see the contrast and get a real feel of Buenos Aires. It was much more eclectic and laid back than we expected, and for that reason alone, we loved it.

Street art in San Telmo.

Next we moved onto Mendoza and quickly fell head over heels with the outdoor/wine mecca of Argentina. What a breathtaking and adventurous place! A quick side-note, though. Like Buenos Aires, Mendoza also seemed to be having difficulties especially with their youth, too many that were out of school panhandling the streets. The contrast of the richest people among very poor people, really made the seemingly concerning social issues of unemployment and education stand out. Again very unexpected, however despite these unfortunate issues, Mendoza so far has been our favorite place.

We arrived to our hostel after a 17-hr bus ride just as a bike/wine tour was getting ready to leave. They happened to have a few spots and asked if we would be interested in joining last minute. We dropped our bags, washed our face and hit the road with a few other couples, one couple in particular that would become our Mendoza traveling friends. Our tour was called "Martin's Bike Tour" and though it was a bit more expensive than most wine tours it was worth every last penny. We visited three wineries, one large winery called "Bodega y Cavas Winert" that is one of two wineries that uses casks; a smaller production that does everything manually "Clos de Charcas" where we had a gourmet meal, Nate had a perfectly cooked rib eye and I had the salmon ravioli and three smooth glasses of wine and dessert...mmmm so good. Next we went to one of the most famous wine makers in Argentina, Carmelo Patti, who's operation is just he and his two daughters in a small garage that won best Cabernet Sauvignon in all of Argentina. (Goes to show) He was so charismatic, it felt like we were spending time with an uncle. Following the day of wine, we finished our tour at the the factory "Absinthe" where (you guessed it) we tried a shot of absinthe and washed it down with all sorts of marmalade spreads, sweet olives, and chocolates. The day was beautifully brisk with changing leaves falling around us, great company and wonderful wine. Truly a picture-perfect day.

Nate holding sweet malbec grapes.

Weinert 1977 bottles. 

Primary fermentation process involves empting and mixing the contents of the huge concrete tanks.

At our gourmet lunch (tour guide Martin in the background)

Trying Absinthe (before)

Trying Absinthe (after)

The next day in Mendoza we went paragliding over the Andes. However, since the night before we continued our wine tour with multiple bottles of wines from the wineries together with our new friends, Bregje and Guus from Holland, we slept in and nursed our mini hangovers (mini- because when its that good of wine there is barely a hangover.) We leisurely went to lunch, enjoyed the beautiful weather and got psyched up to run off a mountain.

I was a bit nervous once we got there and thought for sure we would need to sign some sort of waiver but in good'ol South American fashion we got there, paid our money, got in a vintage land rover, and starting heading to the peak of the mountain. Bregje and Guus went first while I stewed over my decision to voluntarily run off a mountain and Nate could barely think straight he was so pumped. Our turn was up and as quickly as they explained what we were about to do, we were strapped in and in the air. It was so fast, I barely had time to grasp what just happened before we were so high you could see everything below and around you, the snow-capped Andes, the city of Mendoza, the tiny people-like figures and other fellow paragliders. A serene feeling washed over me as we were being enveloped by the wind and I felt closer to nature and lighter than I ever thought possible. A truly indescribable feeling. Nate got to do some acrobatics and feel some g-force action, while I got some baby roller coaster action. It was so awesome, we wish it could be a daily tradition.

Preparing to paraglide.

Quick instructions: "When I say, just run off the mountain"

Nate´s canopy in orange and blue, mine in black and gold above. We switched college colors!

Me flying over the Andes.

Our landing pad.

Back on solid ground. 

The next day we took it easy and did what Mendoza folks do, sleep in, take a stroll and have a picnic at Parque Independencia with our friends, eat olives, cheese, bread, salami, chocolate, wine and beer and become supremely relaxed. To follow our supremely relaxing day we opted for yet another brilliantly relaxing day at the natural thermal baths of Cachuete. The view was just magnificent with the Andes in the backdrop, a brisk chill in the air, not a cloud in the sky and warm water bubbling around us. 

Bregje and Guus

View of the thermal baths.

Me in the outside cooler baths.

Nate melting in the hotter inside baths (left corner)

That night we decided since we had been tenderized like meat we should eat a slab of meat at our hostel's "asado" which is what Argentineans call their bbq. We shared this meal with another American staying at the hostel named, Ty, who come to find out had been traveling through Patagonia with two Peace Corps volunteers from our group, Kristin and Lauren. When we started talking we made the connection and to make a small-world story smaller, Kristin and Lauren were arriving at our hostel the next day to meet up with Ty. So crazy! So the next morning Nate walks out of our room to find Kristin and Lauren eating breakfast. They could barely believe their eyes that all Lauren could say was "WHAT!" Really amazing that in a one week span we saw four of our fellow volunteers, three of which lived in our Region, traveling through Argentina. A real nice treat to see such familiar faces especially so unexpectedly.

Kristin and Lauren at Hostel Mora!

Till next time.