Don´t cry for us Argentina (or Chile)

Our last couple of weeks in this part of South America and we found ourselves back in Santiago, our 3rd time in 3 months (and Steve’s 5th in 1 year)! Unfortunately it was just a pit stop, enough time to send stuff home, sort ourselves out and meet up with ´Angus of the Antarctic´ - a meeting we were to regret the next day after over-indulging, over-sleeping and almost missing our bus!

Andean Crossing – Part 2
Another spectacular bus journey - this time via winding roads, mountainous sheer drops, hair pin bends and lonely little towns – brought us to Mendoza, home of Argentina’s best wines (wonder why we went there – Steve?!).

Moon-walking
After a little wine, we were back on the road again, this time to La Rioja - a sleepy place which came alive after its daily siesta, this was the first place we’d genuinely felt like we were in South America. We arrived around 10pm and checked into the only hostel in town, nice enough but for the noisy street it was on - a street which seemed to get noisier the later it got, hitting its peak around 5am! Oh well, if you can’t beat ´em ….

However, as great as the atmosphere and nightlife was, the reason for our visit was to see the Ischigualasto and Talampaya National Parks:

Our 14 hour (yep, 14 hour!) National Park trip started at 6.30am with the arrival of an old Volkswagen – erm didn’t we book on a mini-bus tour?? Nope, it was just us and our driver – luckily we’d learnt some Spanish or it could’ve been a very difficult day! We arrived at Ischigualasto, also known as Valle de la Luna for its bizarre sculptural desert landforms, in time for breakfast which our driver treated us to – perhaps to make up for the mix-up?! We then had a 3 hour tour with a park ranger who clearly `loved´ his job – not! Still the scenery was fantastic and we got to see the resting place of the world’s oldest dinosaurs.

Next up was Talampaya, this time with a much more enthusiastic guide. Occupying the site of an ancient lake which has been eroded by water and wind for around 200 million years, the park is a dramatic landscape of pale red hills, canyons and prehistoric rock paintings, combined with unusual landforms with names like the balcony, the cathedral and the monk. Definitely the better of the two parks!

Not all plain sailing …
Later that night we set about catching our 3am(!) bus to Salta – easier said than done. First we were sent to the `old´ bus terminal (closed down), and then we were sent to the `new´ bus terminal (not open yet) before finally getting a taxi to the `actual´ bus terminal around the corner from where we started and not on the map – hmmmm! The terminal, if you can call it that, was awful –families sleeping on the floor, stray dogs, rubbish everywhere – you get the picture. Our bus eventually turned up around 4am only for the driver not to want to let us on – apparently confused by the date being a day later than when he started out (before midnight!). After 3 attempts (arguments) we boarded the bus only to find Steve had an annoying woman sitting behind him who shouted to her friend across the bus for most of the night - until Steve `politely´ told her in both English and Spanish to shut up (though not sure `pie-hole´ translated well!).

To make matters worse, we arrived in Salta tired and grumpy, only to find our hostel had double booked our room – grrrrr! Once settled and fed, we cheered up when we noticed our surroundings – set in the Lerma Valley and flanked by steep forested mountains, Salta was an elegant old colonial city which gave the impression it had been forgotten about. The perfect place to relax for a couple of days.

Andean Crossing Part 3
Another early start (who said this was a holiday?) put us on our most spectacular bus journey yet. Leaving Salta at 7am, we wound away through the quaint old towns of Jujuy and San Antonio, as well as the indigenous town of Humahuaca – all excursions from Salta which we were glad we hadn’t bothered to pay for! For this trip the Andes treated us to multi-coloured mountains, blindingly white salt lakes, flamingos, llama, vast expanses of desert and some very lonely looking towns, not to mention the top of the mountain border control which claimed a couple of passengers to altitude sickness!

High-Noon
After many a stomach churning hair-pin bend, we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, a spaghetti western desert town in Northern Chile. More Indian than Spanish, there was definitely a sense of history in the shady streets and crumbling walls – you could almost picture a high-noon shoot out in the main plaza! Its isolation and clean atmosphere also meant the night sky was amazing– giving clear views into the dusty distance. Definitely our favourite town so far.

Moon-walking … again!
One of the most famous tourist attractions in Chile, the Valle de la Luna just outside of San Pedro is a must do according to the guidebooks – guess we’d better check it out then. Plus it would be interesting to see how it differs from its Argentine counterpart. Well frankly they must be thinking of another moon as this one was made up of oddly shaped landscapes caused by the erosion of the salt mountains, sponge like lunar surfaces and giant sand dunes – very different!. It was definitely a must see, the highlight was climbing a sand dune (felt like we should have had a ´camel train´ back-up) in order to watch the sun setting over the valley.

Adiós Argentina, Chao Chile, Bienvenido Bolivia!
And so, almost 4 months since the first Chilean stamp in our passports and we’re leaving these two amazing countries for the last time. We’ve learnt (some) Spanish, we’ve seen some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, we’ve discovered wildlife we didn’t even know existed and most of all we’ve met some incredible people.

Sometimes we’ve got a bit blasé with all these fantastic sights and forgotten just how lucky we are but we do appreciate them and are really sad to leave. Although we are looking forward to discovering new places and embarking on new adventures – the first of which, we hear, is definitely going to be an experience ….