Tamara and Dan's South America Trip: July 2012

After leaving Mendoza, we had a rough plan to visit the northern part of Argentina and its desert landscapes. After an 18-hour bus ride we arrived in Salta. We wandered around town, checking out their old colonial buildings and tasted some of their famous empanadas while trying to figure out where to go next. We had considered going into Bolivia for a few days. We had seen pictures from other travellers of amazing salt flats, crazy rock formations, flamingos and high alpine lakes. But due to our country charging Bolivia citizens $135 to apply for a visa, Bolivia now charges US citizens $135 just to enter their country. So we decided to check out some small towns, and then cross into Chile briefly to visit the Atacama desert, supposedly the driest place in the world!

Tilcara: This part of Argentina is completely different than the rest of the country. This is a dusty town. The streets are not paved and the buildings are made of adobe. For our first lunch when we got off the bus, we had quinoa empanadas (quinoa is a rice-like grain native to South America) and Llama empanadas (Tasted like beef, but a little drier). Here the days are warm (generally) and the nights are cold. We thought our room in our hostel did not have heating and it was a cold first night. The second night we discovered that the air conditioner unit was a heater as well. Who knew? This town is known for some ruins that have been partially restored which were interesting.

The coolest thing we did while in Tilcara is go on a guided tour of some local caves. The group consisted of the guide, three Argentineans about 20ish years old, a mother and her 15 year old daughter from Buenos Aires, a Brazilian, a girl from San Francisco and the two of us. We had a decently steep hike to get up to the caves, and we started at about 8000 feet in elevation. Another thing that makes this province unique in Argentina, is that coca leaves are legal here. The Argentines offered us some on the climb up. You take a pinch of leaves, stuff them in your cheek and leave them there.
It is entertaining talking to everyone with one big cheek, muffling all your words. The juices from the leaves are supposed to give you a boost to help with elevation. We didn´t feel much different, I would say coffee gives a more noticeable energy boost, but we also didn´t feel the elevation (we think) as much afterward. The first cave was long and lit by candle light. We got some great photos with our group here. The second cave was short but went straight through the mountain which opened up to some amazing views. The most entertaining part was when the guide insisted on breaking us in to two groups, " for safety." The second group consisted of the guide, the BA mother and the three Argentine kids. Soon, we smelled something burning and when they returned (much later) they were all giggling like little kids. This continued for the full hike back to town.

Lots of colors

Purmamarca: Oh the colors! We took a half hour bus ride from Tilcara and after about three hours of hiking, had seen all that Purmamarca had to offer. But as you can see from the photos, there were some incredible sights.

Sooo Cold!

San Pedro De Atacama: It was an adventure getting here. There we're no buses that went straight from Tilcara to San Pedro De Atacama so we got up early and took a local bus to Purmamarca and then (because there is no bus terminal) began our search for the hotel, where it was rumored that they sold bus tickets to San Pedro De Atacama. We found the hotel only to find out that it was too late to buy the tickets and the next available bus was not for two days. We then waited in the cold for the bus to arrive in the off chance that they might have seats available. The bus finally arived and to our surprise and delight they did have space for us. We went over the border and made it to town without complications.

Dirt road and adobe buisnesses

Day 1 we found the tourist office, acquired a map and made our way to Hostel Mamut where we had a reservation. They over-booked and for some reason every hostel in town was full (this is supposed to be the slow season) so we were forced to share one, single-sized bed.
It was cold our first day in this town. As we walked around looking for a place to eat dinner we started with trip advisor recommendations but switched to whatever looked warm. For some reason every restaurant had its doors wide open and everyone was eating with all of their layers of clothes on, hats and all. We couldn´t figure it out.

Tamara

Day 2, our hostel was still full, so we found a new hostel with a private room. To maximize our two days we planned on spending in town, we got a package deal of three tours to see the sights. Our first was to Laguna Cejar, which is 40% more salty than the ocean and saltier than the Dead Sea. On a warm day you can swim in it and feel the intense buoyancy. For us, it was an overcast and breezy day. Some crazies did jump in, but obviously Dan and I were way too smart for that. We were supposed to visit two more lakes, but instead our tour company just hung out at that lake for two hours, and later told us that the road to the other lakes were closed. Later, talking to other travellers, we learned that a lot of tour companies do this, but no, the road was not closed. Tamara is still angry.

Pretty!

What is this?

Money Shot

Day 3 we took two tours that were, by far, superior to our first day. In the morning we were picked up at 4am to go see the local geysers and hot springs. The geysers are above 14,000 ft. in elevation, making them the highest geysers in the world.
The guides told us that the geysers are most active between 6 - 8 am (we´re still not sure if this is true). After a very cold 1.5 hour micro bus ride we saw some geysers that were nice, but having been to

Hard boiled eggs and Hot Chocolate Breakfast

Yellowstone we were a little unimpressed. The scenery, however was amazing. The bus then drove us to a hot spring which didn´t look so hot at the time. There were people swimming but it was right around 32 degrees F outside, and there was nowhere to change.

Some of the many Coca products for sale

Day 4 we planned to leave but as it turns out there was a bit of snow on the pass back to Argentina so they closed the pass, so as we are writing this we are currently stuck in Chile. We plan on visiting a couple more places in Argentina before we fly back to the states on July 18th, but now we are just worried about making it to Buenos Aires before that date. We might have to resort to taking a flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires directly. The lady at the counter for the bus company scared us when she said, "I hope it isnt like last year. We couldn´t run one bus in the whole month of July." Looks like our weather luck from Patagonia has followed us. We are in the driest desert in the world, with an average of one overcast day per month, and now we have had three overcast days (and cold!) in a row. But travelling teaches you a lot of life lessons. You can plan and plan all you want, but sometimes unexpected things come up and you just have to deal with them. So think dry thoughts for us, and hopefully the pass will open soon!