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Tuesday we climbed a small mountain, Cerro San Bernado, near the city. the gondala(chair lift) up to the top was shut so it was not really a choice to go up by foot, especially in the middle of the day. absolutely buggered afterwards! but a good view of the city. Salta´s got some lovely churches as well as the magnificent natural landscapes outside the city. unfortunately the attractions are not so close to the city, nor are they easy to get to by public transport.
Wednesday, we commited to a tour in a big 4x4 truck that could carry 9 people. One of the big attractions in Salta is the Tren a las nubes (train to the clouds). but it only goes on saturdays so we took the land option. it was totally AMAZING!! yes the adjectives are back. ok so we are in this big 4x4 with big windows on the side driving along unsealed roads that have a cliff up on one side and cliff down on the other. The ANDES are incredible. the land is totally flat than suddenly you get these huge mountains. there´s no subtle incline up to these mountains. just a smack bang -yep going up! the mountains make more than a 45 degree angle to the flat plains.
The landscape changed very suddenly too. We began with very dry grey rocky mountains then we got up to higher altitudes and there began the cactus forests. Yes, cacti live in a particular altitude range!wow. the highest point on our journey was 4200m. we visited a small pre-inca town where there was a tiny one room museum showing relics from a civilisation long ago. Oh yes! they had their own fossilised guy (Alfredo) in a glass box. He was very well preserved actually for a 600 year old man. Then to the town of San Antonio de los Cobres. This small town is 3700m high on top of a mountain. Had lunch there and headed off to the salt plains.
We saw some indigenous people living in their small mud brick houses in the middle of nowhere. It´s extraordinary to think that they manage to survive in this arid landscape (yes without a mobile phone!). we also saw some llamas, horses, donkeys, and vicunas. Vicunas are smaller species of llamas. There are none domesticated in the whole of argentina but their wool is the most expensive in the world and they only live up on really high altitudes (some crazy 4000m plus, obviously some cost-altitude ratio I suspect). But very cute.
Now the salt lake (Salinas Grandes) is 110km long, about 100km from the Chilean border. Absolutely AWESOME!!! The white is blinding and for some strange reason i thought it was going to be soft. It´s not. It´s crystalised and there are mosaic type patterns on the ground from where they expand and contract with the heat and humidity. And blair went sunbaking with some chicas. They were tanned he sort of blended into the white.
After the salt lakes we winded down 1500m in a matter of 20 minutes to the seven colour mountains. Well my sceptisicms about the numbers of colours was proven unfounded. The mountains are coloured by the different types of minerals, from iron, manganese and copper plus other lots of interesting chemicals which I´ve left behind on my periodic table at home.
Finally made it back to Salta at 8:30pm for a BBQ at the hostel [Blair: with a live latin american band playing traditional music. They were incredible, I could have listened all night but by 1am I was about to collapse, would have bought the cd for Dad but they didn´t have one!] We had a fantastic day. This area of the world has to be one of the most absolutely beautiful places. If only we could afford to see more.
Going to San Lorenzo tomorrow then off to Cordoba for Puerto Madryn on
friday night. Look out penguins, whales, seals and other assorted wildlife
here we come!!
From : Linn
We leave to get on the boat in half an hour so must get a move on!
From :
Blair
I started getting a sore throat on the bus,
which rapidly turned into me feeling really ill, it was a horrible bus ride
for me and when we got to Cordoba I was not very well at all. It was all I
could do to drag my pack and myself to the nearest hostel in the book and
collapse on the bed. We unfortunately chose this awful place where the room we
had had no windows, you had to open the door if you wanted air or light and
the attached bathroom had no window either. This meant that the incredibly
strong cleaning agent they used in the bathroom permeated the bedroom if you
left the rickety door of the bathroom open. The only plus was that we had a TV
with cable but no remote, oh well cant have it all I suppose! Oh and the room
was pink.
From :
Blair
The next day we just wanted to leave we
went down to the Bus station and got a ticket to Puerto Madryn, fully cama
(seats go almost all the way back) it was great, I was feeling a little better
although I had started developing a cough. The bus showed this Johnny
Depp/Roman Polanski movie called 'The Ninth Gate'. Linn and I were really
getting into it when the bus stopped at a restaurant for dinner, right at the
climactic ending of the film. So we get off the bus have a sit down meal (one
of the perks of a fully cama bus) then get back on the bus to wait for the end
of the film. It doesn't resume, hmm, maybe if we wait a little longer, hmm no
film. Ok, I'll go and knock on the door of the driver and attendant and get
them to restart it. No answer, hmm, I'll wait a little longer then maybe he's
just sorting it out. Nothing happening, ok I'll try again, no reply again; the
people in the downstairs part of the bus are looking at me funny. Dammit where
the hell are we going to be able to rent this movie in South America,
unhappily go back to our seats, maybe they finish it in the morning. Go to
sleep. Morning comes, bus arrives at 7:00am, no movie. Linn and Blair not very
happy.
From :
Blair
Very tired, it was a 19-hour bus ride from Cordoba
and now we were in Puerto Madryn trying to call the Hostel guy for our free
pickup. This slightly disturbing man with very big frizzy hair picks us up and
plays loud music in the truck on the way to the hostel. He then charges us a
$10 deposit for these dodgy sheets and showed us our room. We opted for the
dorm; anything else was far too expensive. The hostel was rather weird with
funny rules and as we were both exhausted from the bus ride we just wanted to
sleep. Then about 8 people repetitively open and slammed the door as they came
in and out talking loudly in German or Dutch or something. Puerto Madryn
wasn't off to the best of starts. Went for a walk around the town, just a
little port by the sea, nothing very special, found a very nice souvenir shop
but couldn't buy anything because everything we liked was expensive or
difficult to carry. Then did the rounds of the travel agents and managed to
get a deal were if we went to see the penguins at Punta Tombo and Peninsula
Valdes we could get it cheaper so we took it. The penguins were booked for the
next day. Went out and bought 12 empanadas for lunch tomorrow and we were set.
From :
Blair
We got picked up Mario our driver and then proceeded to drive round and round the town picking up the other passengers, Mario does not speak very good English so when two Dutch girls (Christina and Helena) got on, it was like a godsend. Mario proceeded to do several more laps of the town, somebody wasn't awake and the illusion of moving must fool the tourists to thinking they were actually going somewhere. Finally we had everyone. But Christina and Helena wanted to get off the tour before it ended to catch a bus so it was decided they should change buses, my heart dropped, no don't leave us here with only Spanish speaking people for whole day!!! My prayers were answered they were shifted back because Mario reasoned that his ¨English¨ was better than the other driver's - so they came back! So off we went to Punta Tombo. I was quite looking forward to it. The Lonely Planet guide stated 500,000 Magellanic penguins breed at this site every year along countless other sea birds, this should be good I thought, Mario made a side-trip to his house to pick up his guitar, ... ok no problems, onto the penguins. We drive for about and hour, with Linn and I and the Dutch girls in the back and an Argentinian couple with Mario in the front drinking mate. Then we stop at a petrol station, since we hadn't had breakfast we bought dodgy coffee and some medialunas ( read "croissants", they were becoming almost a staple food in Salta). We get going again, hopefully we'll get the penguins now, the road becomes dirt and Mario makes some attempt to explain a bit about the penguins, they have one partner for life, always use the same burrow every year, and so on. We nod, even when we don't know what he's talking about. He's very nice but the tour was a little weird and our impression of Puerto Madryn wasn't getting any better. Finally we arrive, Mario collects the $7 dollars each off everyone and goes and pays, we get our little Punta Tombo ticket and move on the car park, we are given an hour and a half to see the penguins. At this stage it had taken well over three hours so we weren't too happy about this but off we went to see the hordes of penguins. Punta Tombo was no more accommodating that Puerto Madryn when one of the penguins attacked Linn within 2 minutes of arriving and she had to shake it off her leg!! The penguins were very cute and had black and white stripes on their body. They reached about 40cm high. The area the tourists were allowed in meant you could wander around a few of burrows and watch the penguins come of the sea or waddle in lines back in. Now back to the half mil of penguins, if we saw 50 penguins it might be an exaggeration plus the ones that were there seemed a little annoyed at all the tourists eyeballing them and getting photos. But hey when in Rome!! Whipped out Ken and held him as close as I dared to this penguin that started looking like Ken could be it's next meal, "Quick Linn, take the photo, before he bites me!" As for the other birdlife we sat on the rocks and watched the big kelp gulls (5) and albatross (2, maybe 1) fly around. The beach spread in both directions and if you looked carefully you could see other burrows, which might house more penguins, but the tourists were penned in to a tiny section of the beach. The hour and a half finished and we got back in the minibus only to be driven the café, 200 m away where Mario got his guitar out and went in, the sign on the door said, $1 minimum purchase if you want to enter, we sat in the bus.
Time passed, .. Time seriously passed, another tour guide came out to tell us Mario was singing, a bit of thumb twiddling later, aww bugger it lets go hear Mario sing, but I'm not buying anything!! Mario had set himself up in one corner of the café and had his guitar out and was singing his heart out. Hey he's not too bad I whispered to Linn trying not to laugh about our singing guide. Mario sang several songs, all in Spanish of course and was applauded by all in the café. He finished his drink and as the next busload of penguin suckers arrived we made a dash for the door before being pegged for a dollar. Back in the bus we drove to Trelew where we were supposed to be wanting to go to the Paleontological Museum, but nobody wanted to go so we dropped off Christina and Helena at the bus station and headed off to Gaiman, our final destination on this tour.
Gaiman is a small Welsh colonial town, apparently the Welsh didn't like
Wales and thought this might be nicer, plus they had lots of money and at one
stage practically owned all of Patagonia. Gaiman is also the last place in
Argentina Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were before their one way ticket
to Bolivia was used. Mario gave us a tour of the town tried hard to explain as
best he could and when he thought we understood would get us to confirm
whether he had the right word in English or not. I hope we got it right or
else the next bunch of tourists will be very confused. The highlight of this
part of the tour was to visit a Welsh Tea House, for the bargain basement
price of $12 dollars ($24 Australian pesos per person), Linn and I looked at
each other and thought hmmn no. We secretly hoped the Argentinian couple
wouldn't want to either but they marched in and we sat outside in the cold.
This is all right we thought, look over there it's a big teapot, not as big as
the big merino, banana, pineapple or koala, but definitely big. A sign on the
grass said 'no pisar', Linn and I grimaced and crossed our legs - it had been
a long day. There was a stream nearby and a paddock, did I mention the stream.
The highlight of waiting out side was when two couples arrived, one set with
kids and we got to giggle at the stonewashed jeans of one lady and the
apparent ability of the other of bending space and time in the morning when
putting hers on! The kids threw several kilos of rocks in the fountain and Dad
had a lovely gut, which occasionally made an appearance. Well it would have if
the t-shirt he was wearing didn't look like a dress. Sure it's not nice but we
were 499950 penguins short and our guide sang in a café forcing us to listen.
Well they finally emerged it turns out it's all the Welsh tea you can drink
(even different types!) and all the cake you can eat (different types) the
Argentinian lady apparently sampled them all hence the minimum one hour wait
for us. We arrived back, thanked Mario wished him well, went in to town bought
pizza and another dozen empanadas for the trip to Peninsula Valdes the next
day to see the whales.
From :
Blair
Having bought our tickets through a different
agent than everyone else, we expected to be in a different bus (as you would).
But, it seems that the different tour agencies get together and divvy up the
tourists, laugh alot, then in the morning pick them while doing the usual 4-5
laps of the town looking for someone who either doesn't exist or is already on
the bus! Peninsula Valdes is much bigger than Punta Tombo and we were there to
see whales, elephant seals, sea lions, and maybe more penguins (is it
possible!!) We missed the Orcas by 2 weeks (damn). The bus left town and
stopped at a beach about 20 kms north were it is possible to see the whales
from the shore. We weren't disappointed; one whale was having a good time,
showing his tail and we all ooohed and ahhed and took photos. Alberto our
guide, (Mario probably had a gig) recited in good English all the exciting
facts about whales and seals and stuff it was very exciting. Yes it was.
Anyway we arrived at Puerto Piramide for the whale watching and got kitted out
in a rather massive thick plastic green poncho and lifejacket which meant
getting the camera to your eye required several joints to be double-jointed.
We then got onto a boat that was definitely a good 60 metres from any water.
There were heaps of room on the boat and I thought this was going to be good,
but nothing happened and then about 30 more people arrived followed by a few
stragglers, it was squishy. This girl in waterproof overalls got on and in
very fast Spanish talked for about 20 minutes on whales, the economic
misfortunes of the former soviet block countries, several humorous anecdotes
about Welsh tea and finished on a show stopping medley of Juan and the
Technicoloured Dreamcoat, I was riveted. I would have clapped but my hands
couldn't actually meet due to the poncho being so tight. When the captain of
the oversized dinghy we were in arrived and the tractor started pulling us
into the sea I secretly wished for more but to no avail. It was very choppy in
Golfo Nuevo where the whale watching takes place and the odd wave came over
the side and there were frantic movements of everyone on board to shield their
cameras. It was long before we saw a whale and the boats here are allowed to
practically as close as they want, great for tourists but probably not the
best for the whales. Anyway several boats had converged on this whale so we
zipped off in search of our own. After about 10 minutes we found a couple of
whales which came so close at one stage it swam under the boat, Linn was
having trouble zooming out enough they came so close and when her lens was
dripping with salty water she gave up photographing all together. In the
distance two whales were breaching and we whizzed off to get a better look, my
all-weather Olympus was getting a workout. It turns out the whales were a
mother and calf and the calf was practising its breaching. The only way I
could photograph it was to hold my camera up, point it in vaguely the right
direction and click. It was great, and then the mother started breaching too,
a brief thought recommended saving film, but that thought vanished as it leapt
out of the water again. The tour finished with a look at some sea lions on a
rock shelf and the boat then manoeuvred back onto its trailer and the tractor
pulled us back out. Wow, that was fantastic! Our Wowometer was definitely
red-lining. The guide went in to this restaurant and I think we were all meant
to eat there too, but we had empanandas to eat so sat outside with the odd
excursion inside for bańos, camera cleaning and hand and face washing. Outside
it was blowing a gale and it whipped up the sand and dirt, making it almost
unbearable. Linn and I went in search of a coffee and found a café across the
road completely empty. The lady made us a very large coffee that tasted
vaguely like coffee. We got about half way when the bus started to fill up and
we had to dash. The peninsula is very big and we had to drive some way to get
to the seal colonies, a quick photo stop at a vantage point of the Salinas
Grande a salt lake depression that is 43m below sea level. Our first view of
the seals was from the top of this cliff and there was about 40 of them lying
on the beach below. A few photos here, the coast was very beautiful. Our next
stop was a place where you could get much closer to seals, you walk down to
the beach and from a slightly elevated position you can observe them lying on
the beach. I only saw elephant seals of which the males were very large, but
apparently there were some sea lions. Again we had hoped for more but we found
out later that we had just picked the wrong time of the year. It was still
good, we got driven to a small museum which consisted of stuffed wildlife and
nothing in English a little poor since a lot of people pay US$7 everyday to
enter the park. Oh well, I got my photo with a whale skeleton! Came home tired
and a little amused by the Puerto Madryn tourist industry. We organised with
several others at the hostel to go to El Calafate the next day.
From :
Blair
The hostel wanted
us out by 1 pm and we couldn't leave our bags, use the toilet or even sit in
the kitchen. The free lift to the station was at 10:30 am and we missed that!
I was not feeling well and the thought of carrying my bags to the station (13
blocks) was not appealing. We managed to convince them to drive us all and the
others caught a different bus to Rio Gallegos and we would meet them there.
Our bus never arrived and we caught a later bus it seemed like and episode of
the Twilight Zone where you get the Puerto Madryn but never leave.
From :
Blair
Well, we did leave. We met the others at Rio Gallegos
and caught the bus to El Calafate. We were picked up at the station by the
hostel guy and got a room with Frances and Tom, the English (not) couple we
met in Puerto Madryn. We get on really well with them and often laugh
hysterically at Frances telling Tom how stupid his recent thought/action was.
We are a bit sick and my cough has accelerated to the lofty heights of a
phlegmy raking cough, I'm making lots of friends as you can imagine. With the
briefest of orientations on the town and a nearby lake with flamingoes (Linn
gets very excited), directions in South America invariably end with "Its no
problem" and normally is not. We got dropped off in town to go to the
supermarket, where we tried to get some money out (doesn't work). We then went
to the nearby lake (Lago Nimes) with Karsten and Virginia to look at
Flamingoes, terns and geese and ducks. More photos! A large dog started
following us and it spent most of its time chasing the terns which were
protecting their nest and then would catch up to us and chase the next lot of
birds. We got lost going back to the hostel and with some broken Spanish
managed to get directions and found our way back our dinner was an incredibly
uninspiring pasta with red sauce. Everyone else had exotic food so we vowed to
improve our meals in future. Booked our seats on the hostel tour the Glacier
Perito Moreno for the next day and coughed myself to sleep, gently rocking the
bunk each time. Would have lulled Linn to sleep if not for the fact that it
sounded like I was about to die or at the very least lose a lung. Very
frustrating.
From :Blair
& Linn
Got up for what was hailed as ´the greatest tour on Earth!´ and climbed into the minibus. Our guide was a rather strange Argentinian man called Diego from El Calafate.
He was quite funny and he kept us amused and informed, telling us about the condors, of which we sighted about 6 or so, and the glacial valley and lakes and how they formed. The hostel bus tour goes a different way to all the other tours and culminates into a 1 walk to the glacier. We were looking forward to that. Diego explained why the people from El Calafate might be a little strange, explaining that in winter when everything gets snowed in and the pregnancy rate doubles they slowly go mad and eventually knife each other in the back just for the mere entertainment value. We all got out of the bus at one point and were told just to sit quietly and try to get an understanding of the place. Very quiet and very beautiful. From our vantage point we overlooked a valley with a lake and speckled across it were flamingoes and other birds, a wild ibis flew overhead. A great place to go if you wanted to get away from it all. Our tour continues, we drive past a truly massive eagle sitting on the fence, Diego spots two male upland geese together and thinks it hysterical, upland geese form partners for life, this one obviously had little chance of future success.
Our bus winds its way through, the mountains, above pristine aqua blue lakes with the odd iceberg floating by. The minibus comes to halt as a small herd of sheep had blocked the road, Diego informs us they are protesting against the international monetary fund, for higher wages and better working conditions. More chuckles. We then reach the point where we begin our walk along the shore of the lake (Lago ??) which is on the north side of the Glacier. Diego makes all walk in a line with our eyes shut for the last 50 metres before we see the glacier. Opening your eyes to the sight of the glacier, which is blindingly white in the sun, and just truly magnificent was amazing. The glacier has a sort of magnetism to it, like a campfire you for some reason can´t take your eyes off. We moved on to the viewing platform and had some lunch and spent the next few hours in the one spot just watching and waiting for the occasional big chunk of ice to fall off and plummet the 70 metres to the lake surface, in a roar of cracking and smashing and splashing. Quite high on the wowometer this one.
Back at the Hostel we had discussions with Fran and Tom about whether we wanted to go to El Chalten for a camping trip but Linn and I refrained as we had spent too much in Argentina and felt like it was time to move on. We agreed to meet in Casa Cecilia in Puerto Natales, Chile in a few days. So Linn and I caught the bus to Chile and Casa Cecilia which I had read and heard a lot about, all good of course. We have discovered as we have travelled that it is really nice to run into people you have met before, when arriving in El Calafate we met Rebecca from Salta, she was heading out the door, and also Christine and Helena from out ill-fated Punta Tombo day. We have made quite good friends with Quentin from France, he has some great footage of the whales (he was on the same boat as us), so when he gets it on the web, you should all have a look.
From : Blair
The Chinese Restaurant at the End of the Earth!!
It was really really cold now outside, the sun was setting and the thick cloud overhead made it quite dark and it had started to rain. We followed the map in the book and ended up where it should have been, but no Golden Dragon, nothing. Standing in a driveway trying to look at a map, a car pulls in, 'um, I think this is her house`, we move out of the way, but as we are looking very lost the lady gets out and asks us where we want to go, its cold its raining we say `Golden Dragon` plus a few other words in bad spanish and she offers to drive us to the restaurant. Remembering my stranger danger training as a child I politely refuse, ok I would have got in the car but I didn`t want to be dropped on the other side of Punta Arenas and have to walked to the hostel in the dark in the rain while slowly losing feeling in my face due to the cold. It turns out it is not far from where we were so we marched up the hill, round the corner and there in glorius chinese characters was the Golden Dragon restaurant. It was in this magnificent house with fantastic views of Punta Arenas and the Straits, we even took a photo from the landing before we went in.
We were the only people in the restaurant, Chileans like Argentinians eat very very late. So we chose this table in front of this massive window, it was a single piece of glass and it overlooked the town, this was going to be good. The interior was beautifully decorated in reds and golds with immaculately set tables and Buddha statues in the corner and chinese music playing in the background. The menu was in english (we must have looked very gringo) and were served by this waitress wearing a black, long sleeve top and a short tartan skirt. For some reason there were no alarm bell at this stage, I think we were a little excited about eating chinese food.
Our entré arrived, Steamed pork Dim Sims, hmm looked kinda packety, maybe even frozen packety, oh well munched through them. Our Chinese tea arrived in a stainless steel jug, like those used for milk, the tea pot was already on the table full of soy sauce. Ok we thought, hmm not quite the chinese tea we remembered but we are in Punta Arenas we thought, shouldn´t worry.
It was probably at this point that I began to notice the chinese music, 'Umm Linn, tell me if I'm wrong but isn't this music, Cliff Richard's 'Dream, dream, dream'?', 'oh my god, it is too!', the music it turns out is just a chinese muzak version of famous songs. Just think of those stringed chinese instruments, that make that very distinctive noise and convert you favourite song to being played on it. We sat enthralled, humming along to Cliff Richard. Our Sizzling pork with vegetable came out to 'Have you ever seen rain, coming down on a sunny day' (remember to translate into a series of dinging and clanging noises), this was fantastic!! The dish was a little odd, the vegetables consisted of tomatoes, lettuce, the usual carrots, but seemed to be whatever was lying around in the kitchen. We asked for some chopsticks (Palillos) from one of the short tartan skirt wearing waitresses who seemed to have nothing better to do than to hang around watching us eat and see if we needed anything. This made it difficult to laugh too much about the music.
The Fried Noodles with Vegetables arrived to 'The Sound of Silence', Simon and Garfunkel. Not bad, the noodles were quite nice. 'Hey it's Bob Dylan again, 'Blowin in the wind'!!! The meal was turning into a game of name that chinesified song. Some other people had arrived by now and they ordered this drink we had seen others drink so we called the waitress over and ordered one. This was our first Pisco Sour, very nice, the pisco is mixed with lemon and whipped egg white is placed on top. Pretty good, if a little strong. It was towards the end of the meal that the absolute pinnacle of chinese muzak was presented to us and like all good disciples the answer does not come easily or quickly. The tune was hauntingly familiar, I could even humm along, but the words stuck in my mouth. I strained, listening to every note, I followed the rhythm and melody carefully, but I was running out of time, could I work it out before the end. Linn wasn't sure, she thought she knew it but couldn't place it either. I was determined. Then in a blinding flash it all became clear, as though questioning it was mere folly, I knew like I had always known as if it had always been there, it was, ... Love Potion Number 9!
It was a superb way to end the meal, we payed and went back into the cold rainy night and rushed back to bed where we knew it would be warm. We had been to the Chinese Restaurant at the End of the Earth and it was great! but i doubt if it will make it into thte good food guide for the cuisine though.
The next day
The next morning we got up for breakfast it was bright and sunny outside and we sat eating breakfast, bread, jam and coffee (instant) looking out the window. That rain looks a little strange, it seems to be coming down slowly, hang on thats snow!!! Linn and I race outside with cameras and Ken to take photos, it was snowing in October! The owners looked at us strangely, we explained we were from Sydney and didn't see snow at this time of year! I think they still thought we were crazy, so after a few frantic photo taking we went back inside and resumed breakfast.
We got our day packs and went off to see the straits, or as Linn put it 'your stupid straits of magellan', she was cold and wasn't feeling well (runny nose etc.) I was having a good time, and we finally found a good spot to take photos of my stupid straits and we headed back into town, out of the wind and occassional flurry of snow and went and bought our bus tickets back to Puerto Natales. We decided to go to Zona Franca, a duty free area of town, in search of some camping stuff, but due to our immaculate timing we arrived as everything shut for siesta and spent the whole time inside watching the Discovery channel through a shop window. Zona Franca was quite big, a long street with factory outlet style shops on either side, but since it hadn't really stopped snowing it was more comfortable to stay inside. As we left to get our bus all the shops reopened. Not happy Jan! Back to Pto. Natales we went.
From : Blair