South America: Salta, Argentina

Well, sorry for the 10 day gap in posting. I was away from the internet for 4 days and then the internet in Chile was really expensive. Let me briefly recap what has happened since La Paz.

I mentioned in my last entry that I was going to go to a prison in La Paz, but when I got there, the guards said that no tourists were alowed in. Dang!

After La Paz we headed to southern Bolivia to see the salt flats and the high Andean desert. On our way down (between Oruro and Uyuni) there was a road block. A bunch of students were blocking roads all over Bolivia to protest a massacre that happened two Octobers ago, known as Black October. All the advice is that you are never supposed to run a road block, but our bus driver was bound and determined to make it to Uyuni. So the bus (a large one) drove off road for about 5-10 KM, in the middle of the night. Pretty spooky.

Transportation leaves a lot to be desired in Bolivia. We didn't have one bus ride there that wasn't late, over crowded and uncomfortable.

Once we got to Uyuni we hooked up with tour group and took a 3 day, 2 night tour of the salt flats and high andean dessert of Bolivia. The salt flats were the very definition of vast. At one point in crossing the salt flats, you could look in every direction and not see the edge of the salt. We stopped at a large hill that juts out of the salt flat and is covered in really large cactus (some thought to be 1000+ years old). That night we stayed in hotel that was made out of large salt blocks. The next day we toured the many lakes of the Andean high dessert. Most of the lakes have volcanic springs near by so they are flush with chemicles giving them strange colors (white, red, deep green, and bright blue). Most of the lakes also had a sizeable population of one of the three varieties of pink flamenco native to the region. It is weird to be at 4000+ meters and see pink flamencos.

There was a supprising amount of wildlife on this leg of the trip. Andean Foxes, Vicuna (a small relative of the Llama) and Fox Rabbits (also known as Viscuchas). That night was very cold (below 0 degress centigrade), but our basic hotel kept us pretty warm. The next morning we crossed the border into Chile and arrived in San Pedro de Atacama.

San Pedro is an oasis town in the middle of the dryest dessert in the world (no rain ever in recorded history). It is also a tourist hot spot (read: expensive) in the most expensive country in South America. Food was very pricey (US $5 for a sandwich) and internet was US $1 per hour (compared to US $.30 elseware). We only stayed for two nights and that was two long for me.

We arrived in Salta, Argentina two days ago and I've really been enjoying it. I had my first argentine steak and wine last night and both were wonderful. We leave this afternoon points south on our way to Buenos Aires.

Posted by Noah Brimhall at October 25, 2005 07:27 AM