The (dreaded) crossing into Bolivia and getting salty in Uyuni

I was scared, I must admit, of the journey from Chile across the border into Bolivia. I had read many a blog post with horror stories detailing being stuck on a bus at the border crossing over night for 7 hours in -20 degree temperatures, drunk drivers, accidents, you name it. However, in reality it was not so bad - a lot of altitude, (to put it in perspective at the border we would have been at the same height as Mont Blanc!) and some very bumpy roads in a suspension-less bus, and lots of dust seaping through the windows. However, we made it to Uyuni after 9 hours, massively relieved to be in one piece!


Uyuni is a strange town, it is the main place to visit Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flats(yep you got it, Sth America has a lot of world records!). It is a very transient town, with most people only staying for 1 night as there is little to do and it is ferociously cold! However, for us, this was our first taste of Bolivia so we took it slowly for the first day, as at almost 4km above sea level you get puffed out pretty quickly.
Below is the 'train cemetery'- 100's of trains have been dumped after accidents and following the closure of train lines

After much deliberation we decided on a one day trip to the salt flats. We'd have loved to take the trip independently however we would have most definitely gotten lost in a mass of white salt. This place is huuuuge and very surreal. Literally a white salty landscape for many miles, 12,000km squared to be exact. There's over 10 billion tonnes of salt, of which 25,000 tonnes is removed each year and shipped off, ultimately ending up on dinner tables throughout Sth America.

Salt is piled high to dry before being shipped off


And of course with such a cool landscape, we couldn't finish the trip without having some fun with the camera!

So many stars in the world's driest desert - San Pedro De Atacama, Chile

After probably one of the most stunningly scenic 8 hour bus journeys (albeit a very windy and high altitude drive back across the Andes), we arrived into the world's driest desert, San Pedro De Atacama, Chile.

Check out the cracks in the mountains caused by earthquakes.

The first thing that is hard to divert your eyes away from, upon arriving in San Pedro De Atacama, is the huge volcano that overshadows the town. Then there's the realisation that there are areas of this desert that have not seen rain for 2000 years. No surprises that we felt like prunes whilst we were there - our skin was constantly dry and cracked. This place sucks every bit of moisture out of everything!


The town itself is really cute, the architecture is minimalist, and in keeping with the surrounding desert, many of the roads are unpaved. We stayed a little out of the main centre as this is not a cheap place. Funnily enough, a little Chilean boy commented that we were staying in the 'Favela' of San Pedro De Atacama, it was a little ghetto as you'll see in the photo below.


During the day it was a very pleasant 22 degrees, however as soon as the sun went down, the temperature plummeted to below 0 degrees. Luckily our hostel had a fire pit, (heating hardly seems to exist in Chile!) so many a night was spent drinking and chatting around the fire.

The real highlight though was the spectacular surrounding areas. We spent a day sandboarding, which is quite similar to snowboarding. However Tom did have a massive stack, perhaps from getting a little over confident! He was finding sand in his ears and nose for days. We spent the late afternoon in Valle De La Luna - Moon Valley for sunset and pisco sours. This place was true to its name with craters, salty rocks and caves as far as the eye could see.




A trip to the El Tatio geysers was mind blowing, not only because we were 4400m above sea level (crisp packets were exploding at this altitude!), that we we ascended over 2000m in one hour, or that we were picked up at 4am. It was that 80 geysers were spouting hot sulphorous gases and water and steam at the top of a mountain, all due to a chemical reaction between hot magma and water.


Next stop.....Boooolllliiivvviiiaaaaa!

Farewell Argentina!

Unfortunately the time has come to bid farewell to Argentina. We've had a bit of a love affair with the country - spending around 2.5 weeks in Buenos Aires and then dipping in and out on our way up through Patagonia and the Lake District over the past 7 weeks. Below is a list of some of our favourite things and unique nuances of this great country:

- Dinner at 11pm
- Steak, steak, steak
- Malbec wine - YUM, tastes particularly delicious in Patagonia next to a fire!
- 1L Quilmes beer for about AU$2
- The most amazing and diverse landscapes we've ever seen.
- Long long bus journeys - but super comfortable!
- Obsession with Mate tea - the tea is drunk out of special cups and through a metal straw. Argentines are seriously addicted to this stuff and carry it around everywhere. In fact, we even spotted a motorcyclist sipping on a mate straw as he cruised down the highway!!
- Dulce de Leche - this is eveywhere. It's a milky caramel spread that's eaten at breakfast and in every kind of biscuit. Not our cup of tea.
- Cracked pavements
- Political turmoil
- Dog poo dodging!
- LOTS of stray dogs
- Seemingly no road rules, and headlights off when it's dark and on when it's light!

Good times - thank you Argentina!

Multi-coloured mountains, dust & coca leaves. Road-tripping adventure in Northern Argentina

After a rather unhealthy bus trip from Mendoza (we had dust literally pouring out of the air-conditioning vents for a good 19 hours!) we arrived into Salta feeling a little worse for wear. The city is in Northern Argentina and you can really feel its proximity with Bolivia - the people have darker skin, coca leaves are sold everywhere and Llama has started appearing on the menu at local restaurants.

We spent a couple of days in the city before heading off on a road trip up north. One of the highlights was a visit to the museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana which documented the discovery of 3 incan child mummies found at an altitude of 6700m buried at the top of volvan Llullailaco. These mummies were only discovered in 1999 and are the best preserved mummies ever found due to the unique climate conditions in which they were buried. They are believed to have been sacrificed 500 years ago, just prior to the Spanish conquest. The reason for this sacrifice was for these childern to act as mediators between the people and the gods. It was quite a surreal experience to actually see the mummies on display at the museum - they looked like sleeping people!!

The car we hired for our 3 day road trip was a VW Gol, yep I didn't forget the 'f' - this is Argentina's cheapo 'Golf' model with no power steering, central locking or auto windows! Our adventure started with a drive up through the surrounding mountains on our way to Purmamarca and the Cerros de Los Siete Colores - the hills of seven colours. It was a stunning drive, and an interesting one, the road was around 4m in width in areas with a line in the middle - hilarious, as if by placing a line on the road means that there is enough space for 2 way traffic. As you can imagine, it was a slightly hairy drive at times!

Arriving into Purmamarca was mesmerising - the surrounding mountains of the town are multicoloured with cacti clinging to the hills as far as the eye can see. We set up camp for the night at the foot of the mountains and were delighted to find that we were not bombarded by stray dogs and dealing with freezing temperatures, however we had something new to contend with - red dust and lots of it! At about 2am after a complete pounding of dusty wind we woke up covered in dust and were forced to retreat to the car for the rest of the night.





On the second day, feeling remarkably refreshed despite a night sleeping in the car, we started to feel the real effects of altitude as we approached 3000m above sea level - chest and sinus pain, nausea and breathlessness. Nothing that a few brews of coca tea couldn't fix. We drove 50km on a very windy dirt road that snakes its way to a tiny town called Iruya, to get there though we got to a dizzying height of 4000m and felt quite sick. Luckily we were not at this altitude for long. Tom had his photo taken at the top and it was an effort to open the car door due to the gale that was blowing up there! The town of Iruya is set in a pretty valley with only 1000 inhabitants. Pigs were wandering the streets and terrorising the stray dogs which was a refreshing change!




That night we stayed in Tilcara - 170km south of Iruya. We were absolutely exhausted and luckily for us we completely landed on our feet and found a basic hostel for the equivalent of $5 US dollars each which even included home made pizza and red wine! We had the most unexpected night attempting to converse in Spanish while eating and drinking next to a fire under a starry sky with a big group of Argentinians! A great way to end a truly awesome 'wild west' road trip.

Wine, Steak and Desert - Mendoza

The bus journey from Valparaiso to Mendoza in Argentina was across the Andes. It took 8 hours with at least 2 of them stuck at the border crossing as passports were checked, bags searched (the Chileans are as strict about bringing fresh produce into their country as the Aussies....so had to quickly munch on those apples!). This was our first taste of altitude, at 3000m above sea level, we could really feel the shortness of breath, dizziness and nausea coming on.... Oh God, how will we cope in Bolivia where some of the altitudes are 5000m plus! It was a beautiful and stunning drive - check out the photo below...

Back to Mendoza....this city is situated in a desert-like area with the Andes on one side and a whole lot of nothingness on the other. It's famous for its vineyards and Malbec wine. Argentinian Malbec is a red wine that's hugely popular in South America, in fact we pretty much lived on it in Patagonia at only $4 a bottle. (If a bottle of wine in a shop costs more than $10 Aussie, it has an alarm on it. The top shelf ones are about $15. So it's cheap cheap cheap). The Malbec grape blend is originally from France, however according to the Argentinians, it far exceeds the quality of the French wine!!
While in Mendoza we did the infamous 'Mr Hugo's' bike hire and rode the winery route. It wasn't quite as we had imagined with tree lined lanes and rolling hills. In reality it was a cross country route which involved road works, massive cracks and pot holes in the road, huge trucks whizzing past and LOTS of dust!! It was very much a 'South American' wine tour. We had an awesome day though, the tastings were huge and we even had a police escort back to 'Mr Hugo's' just to make sure that we didn't fall off the bikes. Hilarious -nothing like drinking and riding a bike in the desert with no helmet and lights!

Te queremos Valpo!!

Valparaiso, a city situated on the coast and only 2 hours from Santiago in Chile was definitely one of our faves. We hadn't heard of the place prior to travelling and we think that it is truly under-rated. The city has been given UNESCO world heritage status and upon exploring the city you can see why. Every building is painted a different colour, with houses stacked all across the hillsides with the most spectacular views of the port and the ocean below.







It's a bohemian place and the cultural capital of Chile, with art and graffiti around every corner, along with cool cafes, bars and a good vibe. And, if you feel particularly lazy and can't be bothered to walk a few hundred steps up to the neighbourhoods on the hillsides, you can take one of the many ascensores or elevators that were built in the late 1800's.....We seriously had to drag ourselves away from this place!!