Argentina Part I - Salta - Cafayate

Jan 2nd – Jan 4th
Salta- Cafayate:

Crossing the border to Argentina was beautiful, the scenery simply magnificent. We had a ten hour ride from San Pedro de Atacama, but it went by relatively quickly. We were very happy nonetheless to arrive in Salta and finally feel like we’d landed in a real city. We were all dying to have an Argentinean steak, so that night we chose a restaurant on the main square, 9 de Julio, and had delicious meat.

Unfortunately, the next morning we found out that the train to visit the skies, as they call it, left at 7am and only on Saturday’s, so we missed out on that, but the trip to Salta took us close to those mountains. It was raining a lot, however it didn’t stop us from walking around the city and researching the price for renting a car. It was absurd! So we’ll have to keep to our good old travel companion, the bus, which at least take’s the scenic road of Route 40 to Mendoza.
It’s great to be in Argentina, and Aubry is loving it so far. The food and wine are amazing, and the people very kind.
We really enjoyed Salta, known as Salta, La Linda. We took the telefaric up to the Cerro, and really liked the view.
From Salta we took another bus to Cafayate, along with Allard and Steven. It was also a very picturesque small town on the wine route. We found a backpackers hotel with a great deal and then ventured out to meet the city. We quite liked it. The next day, as it was very sunny and warm, we all decided to go to the nearby waterfall, which ended up being an extreme walk, climbing rocks and all for over 2 hours! The waterfall was nice, but not as spectacular as the one’s we saw in Cuba, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Chile Part I - San Pedro De Atacama

December 30th – Jan 1st
San Pedro de Atacama:

Arriving in San Pedro de Atacama was like instantly feeling that we were in a new country, as the border was much more serious and modern, and the climate very distinct as well.
We were with our friends from the Salar de Uyuni excursion and took quite a while to find an accommodation in the town as it was full of tourists who had come to spend New Year’s. Once in our hotel, we all decided to go have a nice lunch, as we had woken up that morning at 4am. We found a restaurant owned by a French cook, Michel, who prepared us a delicious meal. Later on we all rested and walked around the small village, which was adorable and very clean even though in the middle of the desert! At that point my stomach started working up and I could feel like it wouldn’t be maybe the best end of year, hihihi.
That next day, Aubry and the group went sandboarding, and I had to stay behind as was still very weak and ill with the stomach flu. It was a good opportunity to catch up on sleep. They liked their mini trip to the Valle de La Luna, except it was very hot and tiring to climb the dune each time. Their driver was also a character, as he drank beer the whole time. Luckily they didn’t have an accident or get lost!
On the last day of the year I was doing a bit better, so we both spent the day together remembering all the amazing things we had shared in 2009 and making plans for the year to come. That night we were going to eat again at the French restaurant with everyone and party together. It was nice to have friends to spend that evening with, however my flu struck again, and after midnight I had to go back to the hotel. Aubry stayed another hour with them and joined me shortly after. That next morning, we had our bus to catch to Salta, and I was so worried I’d be sick again. It was also time to say goodbye to Marion, Martijn and Clemence, as only Allard and Steven would be joining our travel plans. I must say we were both excited with the idea of finally reaching Argentina!

Happy New Year

We wish you all a Happy New Year! May all your wishes come true!

We are still in San Pedro de Atacama and will spend New Year's Eve with our friends. Tomorrow we are off in the morning to Salta, north of Argentina.

Have a great celebration tonight.

Bolivia Part III - Salar de Uyuni - Laguna Colorado - Laguna Verde

December 27th – Dec 29th
Salar do Uyuni – Laguna Colorada – Laguna Verde:

What a great adventure we had!

Our bus ride from Potossi to Uyuni was supposed to be 6 hours but we had a delay of 2 hours due to the level of a river that had risen. We waited for it to go down and passed it, not without fear. The whole bus was very scared as we could still see a lot of current. During the waiting time, we met very nice people, Martijn and Marion from Holland, Steven from Australia, Allard from Holland, and Clemence from France with whom we decided to travel around the Salar de Uyuni direction San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.

We woke up at 7.00 to go to the Andes Salt Expeditions agency and have some more details on the 3 days – 2 nights tour around the salt flats, the Laguna Colorada and the Laguna Verde. We signed up for it and had to be at the shop at 10am for the big adventure.
We all fit into one jeep and left around 11am that same morning. The first stop was at the train cemetery. It was not really necessary but well… After that we drove direction the salt flats. My brothers had told me it was amazing but I was not expecting something that nice. We were all breath taken. The scenery was unbelievable; there are no words to describe it. The region had just suffered from a huge rain storm after three years of drought which made the views and reflection in the salt flat even more beautiful. At night we slept in our very first nice salt hotel and salt beds, near candlelight, as the hotel lights turn off at 9pm.

The day after we drove around the Laguna Colorado which was full of pink flamingos, and amazing colors. Our chauffeur Juan always managed to reach the best spots for us to enjoy these special moments. We had a very nice lunch around the lake and then headed to the view point of a volcano. During the whole day we were in the desert were only vicuñas (a type of lama) live. At night we bunked together in a shared dorm, and woke up at 4.00am the next morning to go see some geysers and swim in hot springs.

We reached an altitude of 4700 meters. We were all freezing but the swim warmed us up. The expedition finished after the Laguna Verde at the Bolivian-Chilean border. We took a bus for San Pedro de Atacama where we will spend New Year with our new travel friends. It was a bit unexpected to pass by Chile but apparently faster to reach Salta afterwards. We have a very good first impression of San Pedro.
After more than three weeks of cold in altitude we are finally reaching “descent” heights and are now at around 2400 meters. We will spend New Year’s Eve here and catch a bus for 10 hours on Friday to go to Salta.

Bolivia Part II - Oruro - Potossi

December 24th – Dec 26th,
Oruro – Potossi:

On the 24th we walked around Oruro and as one of our taxi driver said: “what are you doing here?” Many people were surprised to see some tourists in their city outside of the Carnival period. Indeed, we found that Oruro had nothing special, was very poor and has no charm at all. Unfortunately, we ended up there for Christmas, bad timing. To top it off, on the 24th we went for lunch in a “good” restaurant (in Oruro standard) and I (Aubry) got sick. As a result, we stayed the whole afternoon and night in our hotel room. I spent a terrible night between my nightmares in bed and low pressure hits going to the bathroom several times.
We took the decision to make our stay in Bolivia a bit shorter than expected. We feel a bit tired of the busses and conditions here. In a way, we have been on the road for 5 months (including Brazil in August) already and we feel a bit the backpacker tiredness. Today, fortunately I feel better; we are in Potossi and will take another bus for 6 hours to reach the famous Salar de Uyuni, finally something to look forward to. We will then see what the best way to get to see this wonderful place is, and then plan to reach Argentina as fast as possible.

Sorry, no pictures.

Bolivia Part I - Isla Del Sol

December 21st – Dec 24th,
Copacabana – Isla Del Sol:

The trip from Puno to Copacabana was beautiful until a rain storm showed up. It happened that we had to pass the border at the same time, by foot! To add to the fun, Maria, being an American citizen, had to pay a visa of $140. Well, it is written $100 on the visa itself and they asked us 135 plus 5 as we did not have a picture of Maria. We did not want to discuss to avoid any problem.
We arrived in Copacabana, which lies along the lake, around 5.30. There were no more rooms available in the hotel we had chosen; therefore we went to the one next door. The room was freezing but with a great view of the lake. We enjoyed a very nice dinner at the Cupula, the hotel right next to ours.
The next morning we decided to go visit the Isla Del Sol and therefore took the boat for a 2.30 hours ride. The scenery was amazing but freezing. Once arrived, it was pouring but luckily just for a bit. The sun came afterwards. We went to visit the Inca ruins and then walk from the North of the island to the South, 2.30 hour walk. It was beautiful and really worth it. No wonder our guide mentions this place in the to-do list of Bolivia.
We came back all burnt to Copa around 5.30. Yes, the sun at this altitude is very aggressive! At night we enjoyed a nice meet fondue, excellent!
Our original plan was to have Christmas in a nice hotel around the Lake Titicaca but unfortunately there was nothing that attracted us. We then decided to leave the next day to La Paz and find something nice there. Getting into La Paz was crazy and we were a bit overwhelmed with the traffic and looks of the city which led us to take a quick decision to hop onto another bus to Oruro. In total we travelled 8 hours by bus! Oruro is not very attractive either but we could not go further due to it being 10pm. We are now in a nice hotel, where the Bolivian president usually stays when he comes to the city for Carnival. Don’t worry; it is only $30 a night. Indeed Bolivia is very cheap which is good for our budget.
We are at the moment trying to find a good restaurant for tonight, Christmas and tomorrow we will leave to Potosi.

Peru Part V - Cusco to Puno

December 20th – Dec 21th,
Cusco – Puno:

Sunday we took a 7 hours ride to Puno, Lake Titicaca. We were astonished with the beauty of the road. We went through striking sceneries, surrounded by snowy topped mountains. We really enjoyed it. (Sorry, almost only pictures from the bus). Once arrived in Puno, we were shocked once again by the big size of the city. It is the low tourist season now and we can feel it, we are basically almost alone! This is good in a way! It is not attractive at all and we decided to leave today to the Bolivian side of the lake, Copacabana, which is supposed to be much nicer according to our guidebook.