10-22-08
The bus was actually pretty comfortable. My seat was broken so it went down way further than it was supposed, almost to a full bed. I was happy about this mistake. We watched about 5 movies went to bed and slept on and off until noon the following day. The bus arrived at 1:30 and we went straight to another bus which would take us up to the Sheraton where my dad and uncle are staying. Well I am idiot and it turns out they don´t arrive until October 23. Oh well, we made it to Iguazu safely and now have an extra to enjoy the town...or update a blog which is exactly what I have been doing for about 5 hours. Off to meet my dad and uncle Tom. More later...
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Salta, land of empenadas and steak
10-18-08
So after the night bus 10 of us, Jonathon, Jason, Unger, myself, Sara, two Aussies, Ryan (American we met on bus to Uyuni) and Fabbienne and Nadine(two swiss girls we met on bus to Uyuni as well), took a mini bus into Salta. The hostel we wanted to stay at originally was far away from everything so we went to the next option in the Lonely Planet book. That hostel had gone out of business so we had the driver take us to his friends hotel. It was clean and quiet. We decided it was time to experience Argentinian steak and went to a small restaurant down the street from our hotel. The steak was ok but it wasn´t anything to write home about...yet. We then went to Balcarce ST which is the main area where all the bars were. We had some drinks and then went back to the hotel and went to bed.
10-19-08
I woke up late the next morning and wandered around town. Unger, Ryan and I went to a place called Dona Saltena and had empenadas. Yes we are obsessed but these ones are baked so a little healthier. Went back to the hostel took a nap (it is standard in Argentina to take a siesta, and it is really hot in Salta). Woke up watched some TV and headed back to Balcarce to go to a restaurant we had seen the night before. I ordered steak again (figure I will give Argentina a couple of chance). The steak arrived on its own plate and mashed potatoes arrived on a separate plate. The steak was between 24-30 ounces and cost about $7 US. I cut into and my knife went through very easily. I took one bite and almost cried. This was up there with some of the best meals I have had in my life. The only seasoning was a little bit of salt to bring out the natural flavor of the meat. I was in heaven and it only cost $7, well about $11 after the potatoes and drinks. Not that any restaurant would dream of serving a steak this size in the states, but if they did it would easily be more than $50. So we finished this heavenly meal and now understand why Argentinians consume more beef than any other country in the world. We got some ice cream to wash down our steaks and went to the hotel satisfied and tired.
10-20-08
We woke up the next day and Unger and I ran around Salta for a while to reserve a flight to Ushuaia, which is the southern most town in the world. We have now determined a route in Patagonia, but more on that later. We ate some more empenadas took a nap and then cooked dinner for everybody. It was chicken, with pasta in a tomato cream sauce. Pretty good. Fabienne and Nadine invited us for a drink and nobody else wanted to go so I went with them. Had a couple of drinks and then came back and went to bed. All in all it was a good day.
10-21-08
We woke up and packed to leave Salta. The Swedish girls, Ellinor and Karin who went on the Salkantay trek had arrived the night before so Jonathan and I went to lunch with them. We went back to the hostel, gathered our belongings and Sara, Unger and I were off on our 22.5 hour bus journey to Iguazu falls to meet up with Ken and Tom (Aka my father and uncle).
So after the night bus 10 of us, Jonathon, Jason, Unger, myself, Sara, two Aussies, Ryan (American we met on bus to Uyuni) and Fabbienne and Nadine(two swiss girls we met on bus to Uyuni as well), took a mini bus into Salta. The hostel we wanted to stay at originally was far away from everything so we went to the next option in the Lonely Planet book. That hostel had gone out of business so we had the driver take us to his friends hotel. It was clean and quiet. We decided it was time to experience Argentinian steak and went to a small restaurant down the street from our hotel. The steak was ok but it wasn´t anything to write home about...yet. We then went to Balcarce ST which is the main area where all the bars were. We had some drinks and then went back to the hotel and went to bed.
10-19-08
I woke up late the next morning and wandered around town. Unger, Ryan and I went to a place called Dona Saltena and had empenadas. Yes we are obsessed but these ones are baked so a little healthier. Went back to the hostel took a nap (it is standard in Argentina to take a siesta, and it is really hot in Salta). Woke up watched some TV and headed back to Balcarce to go to a restaurant we had seen the night before. I ordered steak again (figure I will give Argentina a couple of chance). The steak arrived on its own plate and mashed potatoes arrived on a separate plate. The steak was between 24-30 ounces and cost about $7 US. I cut into and my knife went through very easily. I took one bite and almost cried. This was up there with some of the best meals I have had in my life. The only seasoning was a little bit of salt to bring out the natural flavor of the meat. I was in heaven and it only cost $7, well about $11 after the potatoes and drinks. Not that any restaurant would dream of serving a steak this size in the states, but if they did it would easily be more than $50. So we finished this heavenly meal and now understand why Argentinians consume more beef than any other country in the world. We got some ice cream to wash down our steaks and went to the hotel satisfied and tired.
10-20-08
We woke up the next day and Unger and I ran around Salta for a while to reserve a flight to Ushuaia, which is the southern most town in the world. We have now determined a route in Patagonia, but more on that later. We ate some more empenadas took a nap and then cooked dinner for everybody. It was chicken, with pasta in a tomato cream sauce. Pretty good. Fabienne and Nadine invited us for a drink and nobody else wanted to go so I went with them. Had a couple of drinks and then came back and went to bed. All in all it was a good day.
10-21-08
We woke up and packed to leave Salta. The Swedish girls, Ellinor and Karin who went on the Salkantay trek had arrived the night before so Jonathan and I went to lunch with them. We went back to the hostel, gathered our belongings and Sara, Unger and I were off on our 22.5 hour bus journey to Iguazu falls to meet up with Ken and Tom (Aka my father and uncle).
Uyuni...Home of the world´s largest salt flat
10-16-08
So the second we arrived in Uyuni we got hit up by a guy to do a tour of the Salt Flats. This was our plan so we followed him back to his agency. We booked a 2 night three day tour of the Salt Flats and surrounding areas. 2 hours later we were in a Toyota Landcruiser that was probably about 7 or 8 years old and in pretty good condition. Same story as always 19 people have died on these tours since May. But we made sure the driver did not smell of alcohol and the person sitting in the front seat had the job of making sure the driver did not fall asleep at the wheel. Little did we know we were traveling with about 100 gallons of gasoline above our head so we figured later this is why a collision between two jeeps killed everybody in both jeeps. You can just as well die walking down the street in the states. You never know what might happen so you can´t let a couple of deaths scare you out of doing something. At least this is the mentality you have to try to take in these countries. So the first thing we did was head straight for the train cemetary which to my understanding is where all the trains for the past 100 years or so in this area are retired. It was pretty interesting. I wasn´t sure what the point was but it was a nice stop. We then went to the Salt Flats which are 12000 square km of salt that goes about 10 meters or 30 feet deep. It is an incredible amount of salt. We were told that this whole area used to be a prehistoric sea but that didn´t really explain why all the salt was here. Anyway it was awesome. We stopped for lunch on an "island" called fish island. The lunch was steak and rice and it was actually really good. We were pleasantly surprised. We contined on to where we would be staying that night. We dropped our belongings off at the hotel and went to these caves that housed fossilized kelp. This was pretty cool since we were about 10,000 feet above sea level looking at kelp. We then went to another cave that supposedly used to have mummies in it but according to our guide the mummies disappeared in 2003. Kind of strange but that is what he said. We watched the sunset and then went back to the hotel, which happened to be made out of salt bricks. Right down the the beds everything was salt. It was great to stay here except that salt got on everything. Dinner was chicken and potatoes which once again was very good. After the Salkantay trek we were believing it was impossible to cook for a large group of people since Salkantay had 3 cooks and the food for 11 of us was crap. This was one lady cooking for 17 and the food overall was very good. It just takes a woman´s touch I guess. We played some cards and went to bed early.
10-17-08
We woke up at 5:30 and drove through a very interesting fossilized coral field. On our way to the second site the other jeep we were driving with got a flat tire. Their spare tire was worn bald so they had to use ours. So now two jeeps are traveling through barren wilderness with no spare tires. Great. After that we drove to lunch and viewed Flamingos feeding in a very shallow lake. I´m starting to think all the Flamingos that were supposed to be in the Galapagos moved to Bolivia to get away from the tourists. Flamingos in the Galapagos=4, Flamingos in Bolivia=a billion. After lunch we went to a blue lake that had Flamingos. We drove through a river bed in which the other jeep got stuck in the mud so we helped push them free. The other jeep had some problems on this day. Then we stopped at these very interesting rock formations. The photos posted explain them better than I can. We continued on to a lake that is completely red. The guide told us that it is red because there is bacteria in the lake that when stirred up by the wind it turns red. This is also the nesting area for about 40,000 Flamingos so we saw a lot more. We stayed at a hostel about 20 minutes from the lake.
10-17-08
We woke at 4am and went straight the these steam geysers that were close to the hostel. It was windy so it looked more like boiling pools with steam coming out of them than geysers. I still enjoyed it. We then went to the hotsprings which I decided against because there were already about 40 people crammed into this little pool. We ate breakfast and continued on to another area of the desert which inspired many of Salvador Dali´s most famous paintings After this we headed to a turquoise lake (same reason for being turquoise as the red lake, just turquoise) and then headed back to the other side of the red lake. We then continued on for about 6 hours back to Uyuni. It is a lot of driving in 3 days, but absolutely the most incredible tour I have been on. For $70 you cannot beat this tour. At this point Bolivia is my favorite country and am so glad I did not listen to the news and decided to go there. At no point did I feel unsafe. That night we took a night train from Uyuni to Villazon which was awful. Every couple of seconds it sounded as if somebody was hitting the side of the train with a huge piece of metal. Next stop Argentina.
So the second we arrived in Uyuni we got hit up by a guy to do a tour of the Salt Flats. This was our plan so we followed him back to his agency. We booked a 2 night three day tour of the Salt Flats and surrounding areas. 2 hours later we were in a Toyota Landcruiser that was probably about 7 or 8 years old and in pretty good condition. Same story as always 19 people have died on these tours since May. But we made sure the driver did not smell of alcohol and the person sitting in the front seat had the job of making sure the driver did not fall asleep at the wheel. Little did we know we were traveling with about 100 gallons of gasoline above our head so we figured later this is why a collision between two jeeps killed everybody in both jeeps. You can just as well die walking down the street in the states. You never know what might happen so you can´t let a couple of deaths scare you out of doing something. At least this is the mentality you have to try to take in these countries. So the first thing we did was head straight for the train cemetary which to my understanding is where all the trains for the past 100 years or so in this area are retired. It was pretty interesting. I wasn´t sure what the point was but it was a nice stop. We then went to the Salt Flats which are 12000 square km of salt that goes about 10 meters or 30 feet deep. It is an incredible amount of salt. We were told that this whole area used to be a prehistoric sea but that didn´t really explain why all the salt was here. Anyway it was awesome. We stopped for lunch on an "island" called fish island. The lunch was steak and rice and it was actually really good. We were pleasantly surprised. We contined on to where we would be staying that night. We dropped our belongings off at the hotel and went to these caves that housed fossilized kelp. This was pretty cool since we were about 10,000 feet above sea level looking at kelp. We then went to another cave that supposedly used to have mummies in it but according to our guide the mummies disappeared in 2003. Kind of strange but that is what he said. We watched the sunset and then went back to the hotel, which happened to be made out of salt bricks. Right down the the beds everything was salt. It was great to stay here except that salt got on everything. Dinner was chicken and potatoes which once again was very good. After the Salkantay trek we were believing it was impossible to cook for a large group of people since Salkantay had 3 cooks and the food for 11 of us was crap. This was one lady cooking for 17 and the food overall was very good. It just takes a woman´s touch I guess. We played some cards and went to bed early.
10-17-08
We woke up at 5:30 and drove through a very interesting fossilized coral field. On our way to the second site the other jeep we were driving with got a flat tire. Their spare tire was worn bald so they had to use ours. So now two jeeps are traveling through barren wilderness with no spare tires. Great. After that we drove to lunch and viewed Flamingos feeding in a very shallow lake. I´m starting to think all the Flamingos that were supposed to be in the Galapagos moved to Bolivia to get away from the tourists. Flamingos in the Galapagos=4, Flamingos in Bolivia=a billion. After lunch we went to a blue lake that had Flamingos. We drove through a river bed in which the other jeep got stuck in the mud so we helped push them free. The other jeep had some problems on this day. Then we stopped at these very interesting rock formations. The photos posted explain them better than I can. We continued on to a lake that is completely red. The guide told us that it is red because there is bacteria in the lake that when stirred up by the wind it turns red. This is also the nesting area for about 40,000 Flamingos so we saw a lot more. We stayed at a hostel about 20 minutes from the lake.
10-17-08
We woke at 4am and went straight the these steam geysers that were close to the hostel. It was windy so it looked more like boiling pools with steam coming out of them than geysers. I still enjoyed it. We then went to the hotsprings which I decided against because there were already about 40 people crammed into this little pool. We ate breakfast and continued on to another area of the desert which inspired many of Salvador Dali´s most famous paintings After this we headed to a turquoise lake (same reason for being turquoise as the red lake, just turquoise) and then headed back to the other side of the red lake. We then continued on for about 6 hours back to Uyuni. It is a lot of driving in 3 days, but absolutely the most incredible tour I have been on. For $70 you cannot beat this tour. At this point Bolivia is my favorite country and am so glad I did not listen to the news and decided to go there. At no point did I feel unsafe. That night we took a night train from Uyuni to Villazon which was awful. Every couple of seconds it sounded as if somebody was hitting the side of the train with a huge piece of metal. Next stop Argentina.
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