Argentina again through to Bolivia

Crossing the Andes from Valparaiso:

The night before we left Valparaiso we ended up going out with a couple of people to a bar and blew our remaining pesos (inc. taxi money) on beer. So we had to get up extra early to walk to the bus station on the other side of town. We´d originally booked our tickets for an overnight journey but rescheduled upon advice that crossing the Andes involved spectacular scenery obviously invisible by night. Unfortunately, effects of lager and the late night meant that I slept through most of the journey.

Mendoza:

The area surrounding Mendoza supplies about 90% of Argentina´s wine. Supposedly there´s some good treking and reasonable rafting too but we had limited time so just opted to do a wine tasting tour and spend the other day shopping.

Plastered:

We were lucky to get a decent group for the tasting and had a great time. After visiting a vineyard and then a bodega (place without vineyard where they process grapes) we went to a small cellar for more tasting and a meal. The Argentinians that we´d met were really proud of their produce and we got to taste some award-winning wines, particularly at the first stop vineyard. I won´t pretend to know much about it - as long as it doesn´t make me retch and it isn´t too warm then I´m generally happy. Instructions on tasting just left me a bit confused as I failed to pick up the red berry marmalade, undertones of oregano, wafts of new leather... Anyway, without wanting to sound too churlish we´d knocked off a fair bit of it by the time we tumbled back into the bus so all were happy. Though I´m not sure if the end of an argument with some Dutch people about responsible toursim was entirely amicable.

Salta:

Lovely place - won´t bore with the details. Here are some photos though of Mendoza and Salta:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=9s5mjjy.52yoi78i&x=1&y=-lv90tj

Salta to Uyuni:

All in all it hasn´t been the experience I was expecting so far as it´s all been a bit easy. (Again, I´m being careful what I wish for.) Have just crossed from Argentina into Bolivia though where the going should be tougher.

After Salta we travelled to a tiny town called Uyuni, the jumping off point for 4 day tour round the salt flats and lagunas and volcanos and stuff. We booked a tour. When done we´re heading up to a place called Potosi for a night just to spend the day visiting a mine - the medieval style mines where the life expectancy is 45 due to poor conditions and alcoholism. So that should be a laugh. They welcome visitors to broaden awareness of their situation. You´re expected to take gifts of dynamite and coco leaves.

Bolivia immediately felt a lot more basic than Argentina. We´re gonna splurge for Chrismas, hopefully will be in La Paz by then and I´m eying up El Hotel Presidente. Might be in a better position to afford it also as it´s dirt cheap here. People seem really friendly and basic is good I guess as it feels a bit more rough and ready. No hot shower for Jim this morning but that´s only ´cos he couldn´t work out how to work it.
Dirt cheap (in pounds):
Yesterday´s lunch for two = 1
Acom (twin room, shared bath) = 2.50
4 day tour of salt flats etc in 4x4 (inc. food, acom) = 40pp

Had a mixed day travelling through from Agrentina. It´s hard to assimilate the amazing things that you see and do with the sometimes extreme lack of comfort. Occasionally you decide that it isn´t worth it (I´m finding this is usually driven by ill-health like a dodgy gut which fortunately I´ve been able to avoid overall) but mostly it all just contributes to the unusual experience. So while it might seem like my description of the events is negative that´s not how it´s lived.

Anyway, up at 4.30 in the rain to get to the bus station in Salta (Argentina). 8 hours on a standard bus (that means that it´s cheap, and there´s no legroom and because it´s cheap it´s the one that all the locals take and it stops everywhere and is full of kids). Arrived at the border just about (had a flat tire for the last couple of hours of journey) and walked across which was surprisingly easy. Bolivian women wear bowler hats and frilly skirts and withouth exception walk with a stoop - a world away from across the border where Argentinian women wear Gucci and walk with poise and grace.

Then started to walk to the train station. Was about 12.30 by then and the only train up to Uyuni for the next 4 days was leaving at 3.30. Anyway, had to abandon walking (is only 1k) because we started to feel sick - discovered later that we´d ascended to nearly 4000m. Got to train station to find ticket office shut but it reopened later and after much hassle we were able to get tickets to a place called Oruro which is actually several hundred k north of Uyuni but they said that we could get off early. They have a strange ticketing system that works by carriage so when the carriage for Uyuni is full you have to buy a ticket to the next destination and then get off early. Not exactly a massive issue as the tickets were only 7 pounds each for the 9 hour journey. This was standard class though - so again destined to be with the locals. And it was pretty rough. They sell tickets for kids under 8 at 60% price if they sit on parents laps so you get a carriage for 30 that actually contains 50 people and half of them are crying and crapping themselves. I wish I was joking. I had an aisle seat at the back and on my right was an old Bolivian man (very friendly but gave up on the chat after he realised that my Spanish isn´t all that) and on my left were two old women with two kids. The kids were really sweet but obviously about as happy to be on the cramped train as we were. Still they didn´t cry or moan that much and didn´t run about screaming like they would in the UK. And they have less issue with personal space and are friendly so Jimbo is sat in front of them and they´re patting his head and dribbling on him and then they´re leaning all over me and trying to poke me in the ear while giggling. I´ve almost made it sound pleasant. It wasn´t. Dragged ourselves off the train at half midnight and were accosted by lady from the hostel that we´d earmarked to stay at which was pretty lucky. Good beds and I feel much better slept now.

All of that said, the scenery between Salta and here is amazing. On the Argentinian side you ascend through the Andes and enormous mulitcoloured rockfaces that shift from lime green to red to white. Barren landscape is punctuated by the occasional cacti field or huddle of llamas being shepherded by kids to some out-of-sight destination. After the border it´s similar but more desolate. Sitting on the train we passed through the area where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent their last few weeks pursued by militia. Landscape combines dustball strewn mountains populated by 3m high cacti with lush valleys where they´re growing god-knows-what in abundance. Throughout the journeys you pass these one horse towns that seem to be made of dust, all of the buildings constructed from local clay/mud, some even built into the hills in that kind of Star Wars way, everything is one colour: the hills, the roads, the buildings. No coca cola signs yet.