sudamerica 2009: farewell to argentina (for now), hello bolivia
30th-jan-2009 - posted by dtra
didn't do a lot in cordoba after the sky dive, the last day was just spent inside mostly cos it was so hot. we had a big asado on the friday night, got hammered, and went to some rock club which wasn't especially great, it was a good night though (hostel asados are great, that was my fourth one so far on this trip). got on the bus the next night and headed for salta, again, a lot of the stuff to do in salta is out of the city, but there is a mountain in the middle of town that you can climb to get good views of the area (you'll have to wait for the gallery for those pictures). my first day there, i went bungy jumping, it was a bit of a nightmare ($78 pesos so not expensive), i was told to get the number five bus to coronel moldes and the bridge cabra corral, but i didn't understand what she said when she said how long it would take. i left about 1.30pm (without lunch), and waited through about five number five buses before one came that was actually heading where i was going (about 2.30pm). then it took two hours to get there, a bloody local bus stopping every two minutes to pick someone up. anyway, long story short(er), got there did the jump, and fucked up my video, so you can't see how short the free fall was, i don't think it was even 40m. then when i was waiting for the bus, the guy said 15 minutes, i asked some english guy (cos he was with some girl that spoke spanish), and he said apparently, this buss if full, so we're waiting for the next one, so i went to watch some more bungy, then when that bus leaves, the english guy is nowhere to be seen. so i had to wait another hour for the next bus, whatever. here is the stuffed up video, and some pictures i took on the day.
met up with phil from the spanish school and went on a tour to cafayate (it felt a bit rushed), but the scenery was unbelievable for most of the three-four hour drive there. cafayate the town wasn't anything special, we did a couple more wine tours, had lunch, and then headed back to salta along the same road, but stopping a couple more times for some interesting photos. there should be a lot in the gallery, the scenery was unbelievable (as i said no more than two sentences ago). also saw this bug running around on the road, it looked like a little mechanical thing, and was really cool running on it's hind legs.
had my second favourite steak at jack's grill, big and cooked to perfection, i had too much bread before the steak came out, but managed to finish it just. had another asado at the hostel in salta on wednesday, this one had some more and better side dishes, including mash, and vegetables baked with cheese and egg and stuff. it was great again, with free wine, but only had one kind of meat (beef steak kind of), which was good, but a variety wouldn't have gone astray. never say no to an asado at a hostel. and that was pretty much it for salta (fucking post office closed at 12pm so i couldn't send back my sky diving dvd) and argentina, just hung around the hostel for the majority of the day yesterday before the midnight bus to the border with bolivia.
arrived in bolivia this morning, coming from the border with la quiaca, after getting out of the bus station probably just keep asking people as you make your way away from the station toward the immigration control. once through, with bolivian stamp and all, walk straight up the main avenue until you get to the bus terminal in villazon. get a bus to tupiza, and here we are. i took this photo from the bus, as i haven't had a chance to take a photo of some cactus yet, definitely will be in the next few days though. and i thought the scenery in cafayate was great, it's pretty much the same here, anyway, that's all stuff you'll have to wait for.
argentina was great, but it's time to move on (more than likely i will do a bit more later in the year as i have to fly out of buenos aires anyway), bolivia should be even better, and cheaper from all accounts, though the transport and food might not be quite as good (more practice for me i guess). picture from the lookout near the three crosses point on the road from salta to cafayate.
#33 dtra (david tran)
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