Argentina

Hopefully had my last long bus journey for a while when I travelled from Iguazu to Salta. Salta is a city in the north west of Argentina, it has a strong colonial influence with a lot of interesting original architecture but is also one of the first places I´ve been to Argentina with a large indigenous population.
I spent a few days in the city seeing the sights and going to a few museums. There is a cable car which goes up to the top of a hill overlooking the city which is surrounded by mountains. Went to a really interesting museum about high altitude archaelogy and how they discovered 3 mummified child sacrifices on the top of a mountain near Salta on the border with Chile. I alos spent a day going to San Lorenzo a small village just outside Salta where I had a good walk through the jungle.
I have also spent 2 days doing tours organised by the hostel. The first one was a trip up to the alti-plano and salt flats. It was a really good day as the scenery was constantly changing. We started off travelling through the rainforrest in the valley, went up into the dessert where there was loads of cacti, and amazing rock formations. Each layer of the rock is a different colour because of the different minerals they contain. We stopped for lunch at the town of San Antonio de Cobres, which is a small mining town on the edge of the altiplano. On the way here we were giving coca leaves to chew as they are suppossed to help prevent the effects of altitude as we were up at about 4000m. They taste disgusting, like really bitter tea and I don´t know that they had much of an effect although I didn´t feel ill.
After lunch we crossed the alti-plano hundreds of kms of flat land with very little there except llamas and wild donkeys. Then we reached the salt flats which were very impressive as they covered such a huge area. After that we started heading back to Salta , stopping off on the way at Pumamarca, a small town famous for the hill of 7 colours, a rock formation by the town with different coloured layers in it. It was a long day as we left Salta at 7am and didn´t get back until 9pm, just in time for a big BBQ organised by the hostel. I had met a lot of people in the hostel over the previous few days so it was a good evening with lots of very good steak. We ended up going out to the area of Salta where all the pubs and clubs are for a few drinks and we saw a local folk music performance. But it turned into a bit of a late night. Ended up getting back to the hostel just in time to have breakfast before going out for the day on the next tour. This was a trip to Cachi, a small town a few hours drive from Salta. For me the highlight of the trip was driving through the Cardones national park. There were literally thousands of cacti either side of the road, in a valley surrounded by more amazing rock formations. We stopped here for a while to have a look round. The area also has a lot of spiders, didn´t manage to find any tarantulas but we did see a few black widows.
Went out to another BBQ that evening but managed to get back to the hostel in time for a few hours sleep before getting the bus the next morning.

After another long overnight bus journey I arrived in Puerto Iguazu at about 9am. After finding the hostel, having a shower and breakfast I decided I was going to have a relaxing day doing not a lot. The town itself is quite small so it didn't take long to find my way around. Just outside the town is the Tres Fronteras where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet by 2 rivers. Other than a nice view and a few stalls selling souveniers there wasn't a lot to see. But after the chaos of Buenos Aires it was good to have a quiet day getting used to the tropical heat and humidity.
The next day I had an early start so I could to the national park before all the big tour groups arrived. This was worth it as it meant I arrived at one of the main sights, the Garganta del Diablo before the crowds. This is another place where it is impossible to describe and photos won't show the true scale of it. Its about a 1km across bridges over the river to the top of the falls. From the start of the walk you can here the noise of the water but you can't actually see it until you get a lot closer. The walkway goes right to the edge of the falls where there is a huge mass of water plumitting over the edge of the cliffs. Because of the amount of spray it's impossible to see the river at the bottom. On the walk back across the river I spotted a cayman. I spent the rest of the day doing various walks to different areas of the waterfalls. Despite the number of views of waterfalls I had, even at the end of it they still seemed impressive. In the afternoon the main area of the park was very crowded so I escaped to a less visited area on a longer walking trail through the forest. As it was a bit quieter there was a bit more wildlife around including Coatis (a kind of racoon?), a lot of lizards, birds, butterflys and strange insects.
Today I decided I still hadn't had enough of waterfalls and went to Brazil for the day to see the falls from the other side. On the Brazillian side ther is just one walking trail that you can use without a guide, but it gives a better panoramic view of all the waterfalls, which you don't really get on the Argentinian side. This gave a much better perspective of the area and it was well worth the trip.
After thinking of various plans on where to go next, I've decided to stay in Argentina and travel to Salta. Unfortunatly this means yet another long bus journey tomorrow, another 23 hours.

So after another long overnight bus journey we arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning. It wasn't the best introduction to the city as just trying to get from the bus station to the subway someone tried to steal my bag. Fortunatly it was a scam that I had heard about so I realised what was going on. Basically someone 'dropped' chocolate icecream all overthe back of my rucksack and then someon else offers tohelp clean it off, which is suppossed to distract you enough for them to steal stuff. After 8 months travelling a lot bit more dirt on my rucksack isn{t going to make any difference.
Eventually made it to the hostal with everything and after breakfast headed to the San Telmo area of the city as on Sundays there is a big street market with Tango shows and muscians. Went back to the hostal for lunch and to check in, then came back later witha camera totake some photos. Decided to carry on to La Boca as its also suppossed to be a good place to go on Sundays. But we didn't get that far as we stopped to take a photo and 2 guys snatched the camera. This was in the middle of the day surrounded by loads of people but there was nothing we could do about it. So had to spend the rest of the day reporting it to the police.

The next day things improved a bit although despite only carryibg a minimum amount of cash it still didn't feel that safe a place to be. Spent the day exploring the centre, places like the Presidental Palace where Evita made her famous speach and the cathedral. The following day we went to Recoleta one of the wealthier areas of the city. On the subway someone tried again to steal stuff from my bag but didn't get away with anything. It's most famous for a huge cemetry where all rich and famous Argentinians seemed to be burried. Despite only being able to recognise Evita, it was very impressive with each family having a big, elaborate mausoleum. Spent the afternoon in the national art gallery which had good European and Argentinian collections.

The following day we went to Palermo, an area of the city most famous for its prks and gardens. But the hightlight of the day was going to a fooball match River Plate V Americas. It was a Copa Libertadores game which River PLate had to win to stay in the competition. There was an amazing atmosphere, even when River Plate were loosing their supporters cheered continuosly. So when they scored the winning goal in the last minute it was unbelievable.

For the final day here we decided to go to Colonia in Uraguay as its only an hour away by boat. Had a really nice day here just wandering round the old town. It was nice to escape the chaos of Buenos Aires and have a relaxing day where you felt safe. Also turned out to be a good idea, as there were storms in Buenos Aires and parts of the town ended up flooded.In the evening we went back to Buenos Aires and went out for a traditional Argentinian dinner, steak and red wine wine. It was excellent and a lot cheaper than anything you could getin the UK.

The next day I hadanother long bus journey to Iguazu.

From El Chalten I think I did my longest bus journey so far, 31 hours spread over 2 nights and a day with only a couple of short stops. The distance wasn´t even that far, about 1600km, but mostly on gravel roads so the bus was just slow. Arrived in Bariloche early in the morning so just spent the day wandering round the town. It is a big tourist town as it is in an amazing location, by the sound of a huge lake, surrounded by mountains and a national park. In the winter it is apparently very good for skiing, but at this time of the year it was good for all other outdoor activities. So I went on a days kayaking trip on one of the lakes. It was a bit disappointing as we didn´t actually get to spend much time kayaking, as we seemed to spend as long having a coffee break as we did actually paddeling.
I also spent another 3 days hiking and camping in the mountains in the national park. The weather was great, although it did make it very hot for hiking a lot of long steep hills in the sun. It was worth it though as the campsites I stayed at were in amazing locations. The first one was at the top of a mountain pass, by a lake, surrounded by towers of rock. I spent a very nice afternoon lying by the lake watching people climbing with the condors flying overhead. I did wish I had some climbing gear with me though.
I also spent a day cycling the circuito chico, a famous route through the national parks which passes by several different lakes and through the forrests. It was very hilly but for once the hire bikes were really good and there was plenty of time to stop for breaks on the beaches and walks in the woods.
From Bariloche it was another overnight bus ride (only 20 hours this time) to Buenos Aires.

From Punta Arenas I went back to Puerto Natales so that I could get a bus across the border to Argentina. I spent all day there just trying to buy a bus ticket, but eventually had some success and left the next day. My plan was to get a morning bus to El Calafate (a town just across the border), spend a couple of hours there getting some money and food for the next few days, then get the evening bus to El Chalten in the Fitz Roy national park. The first bus was fine, no problems with the border crossing, just a nice welcoming sign which said ´Welcome to Argentina, the Falklands belong to Argentina¨. Arrived in El Calafate and went to find a cashpoint. There were 5 in the town, all had run out of money and the 2 places where you could change money were closed as it was Sunday. So I ended up going to a hostal, explaining that I had no money but needed somewhere to stay until the banks opened the next day. Later on I found another place that opened in the evening where I could change money, so I was able to sort out a bus ticket for the next day.

El Chalten is a small town only founded in the 1980s (because of a border dispute with Chile) and its still under going a lot of development. There isn´t a lot there at the moment but it looks like it is being made into a big tourist destination. Its in an amazing location, situated below the Fitz Roy towers in the National Park and is a perfect place for hiking and climbing. I spent 3 days there, hiking and camping, even though the weather wasn´t the best for it. The day I arrived it was so windy in the town it was difficult to even stand up and all the roads are just gravel tracks so everything was covered in dust. But I still enjoyed it because of the spectacular scenery and good hiking.