Los Penitentes

7/9th

So travelling is all about going with the flow and so when someone said lets go skiing I said sure why not! Mendoza is a few hours away from the Andes and so there are plenty of ski resorts in the area. The one we chose is Los Penitentes about 4 hours from Mendoza.

We were up at 5am today to catch a 6am bus. We had rented ski pants and gloves in a shop next to the hostel and planned to rent the rest of the gear when we got there.

We arrived to the resort at 10am and headed to our hostel. After changing into our gear we headed off to the ski rental shop and got kitted out in our ski's and poles. It was all very exciting!!

Now Iv been skiing before but only once. I can do it but Im certainly no pro!!! It was myself, Jekke and Mythica that came on this trip and we all decided to do a lesson before we hit the slopes. Jekke has been skiing about 6 times before so she picked it up pretty fat, Mythica hadn't done it before so plenty of falls for her! As for me I picked up the basics again, I got my stopping down and just about mastered the turning (sort of). The lesson was from 1-2 so after that we got some lunch and then spent the rest of the day on the baby slopes. No falls today but we will see what tomorrow and the red slopes are like eeeek!

Our hostel here was a log cabin, small but warm and cosy. We had a great night with the other people staying there. Everyone else was from Argentina so they thought us card games and let us try their local drinks!

8/9th

Day two, lesson done, time to hit the big slopes! We checked out after brekie as we were getting the 6pm bus back to Mendoza tonight and then headed out to ski.

I had some serious epic falls today, my god I am bashed and bruised hahaha!!! No point in going skiing and not going all the way to the top right! Its hard work though and exhausting. The views from the top slops were pretty cool.

We spent the day going up and down before we headed back to the hostel to shower, grab our bags and head for the bus.
I cant believe how easy it was to go skiing just for 2 days and also how inexpensive it was. Two days skiing + rental + accommodation + food = €150. Where in Europe would you get this! I was wondering would it be cheaper to go skiing in SA for a week rather than Europe?

I was planning on getting back to Mendoza tonight and heading straight to BA but by the time we got back (our bus broke down on the way) it was late and I was tired and smelly and just wanted to go to bed. So I headed back to the hostel with Mythica, got pizza and went to bed!

Mendoza

3/Sept

So Id already been to the biggest wine producing region, now I was in the second! I got in today at 4pm and I was wrecked. The whole point of taking night buses is that you save a day but by the time you do 21hours on a bus, even if it as night bus, your still too wrecked to do anything!!! So the rest of the day was basically a write off. I had dinner in the hostel, skyped some peops and went to bed.

4/Sept

So I waslked down to brekie today and whos sitting there but Simon and Jeeke! They hadnt liked where they stopped so they jumped on a bus to Mendoza... back together again! ah.
Ah SA Sundays, EVERYTHING shuts! EVERYTHING! Myself and Si went for a walk around but there was very little to do. We ended up in the supermarket and bought a shit load of food for what Si called his English fry up but I called my Irish fry up ha!
That afternoon we cooked up a storm and stank the hostel out of it with eggs, bacon and sausages yum! Not the same as my mammys fry up but it was an ok substitute! (by the way I really really miss baked beans, I cant get them here at all!)
After we had digested our food myself and Si decided to venture out again for a wander. So it turns out that Mendoza does liven up on Sunday afternoons. The main square was buzzing with locals having picnics and chilling out, it was a really nice scene! Walking around Mendoza you could be walking in any sunny Eurpoean city. Its modern, buzzing with coffee shops and has a serious Eurpoean feel to it. We ended up at the main square having a coffee. A pit stop was made on the way back to the hostel to stock up on wine..... of course.

5/Sept

Two years ago my lovely friend Siobhan went travelling through SA and when I said I was going she sent me many many lovely mails telling me the do's and dont's. One thing she told me about Mendoza was to do Mr Hugos wine tours and the name stuck with me ever since. Now it was not just Siobhan that told me about the famous Mr Hugo, all through SA whenever Mendoza was mentioned his name came up. And today was the day we were going to do the famous Mr Hugo's wine tour!

A good group of us, 7 in total, from the hostel all headed off to find Mr Hugo. After a short bus ride we found his digs. Basically you rent a bike of him and he gives you a map of all the vineyards in the area.... BUT he also gives you as much free wine before and after you head off on the bikes! So of course we had a few before we set off. We had our maps and we had decided what vineyards we would go to and what we would skip.

Our first stop was a gourmet liquor and condiment producer. Oh it was amazing, they had the weirdest combinations of liquor and we got to choose two each to try. I went for a pepper liquor and a Christmas flavoured one. After the liquor tasting was the olive oils and such. Well we showed no decorum what so ever! Every bit of food was devoured and the same went for the next tasting which was marmalade. We left full and happy!

Second stop of the day was one of the oldest wineries in the area. We did a tour which was informative and really good and then moved on for the tasting which was also pretty good ha! The winery was pretty impressive, set on old grounds in beautiful gardens.

At this stage we were all starving so our next stop was food at the beer garden! Empanedas and dark beer all around.
After this we headed back to Mr Hugos, the ride back was pretty funny!!!!
At Mr Hugos we had a few more glasses of wine before heading home time... stopping at Maccy D's on the way home :P

6/Sept

Ok so today we were meant to move on today however after yesterdays antics that didnt happen as no one made it out of bed till 1! So when we did rise the bus station though to book tickets to our next destination and then headed to the park to chill out. That evening I had one of the best meals since Iv been to SA, an authentic Indian curry cooked by Mythica. It was delicious and we all went to bed happy (except the rest of the hostel who were driven mad by the amazing smells but didnt get to have any!)

Salta & Cafayate

                                                      ARGENTINA!!!!! WAHOOOO!!

SALTA

29/8

Ah god I loved Bolivia but really there is only so long I could spend out of civilisation! I loved being back in a nice hostel with hots showers and general niceness!

So Iv been travelling with Todd and Simon now for almost two weeks which is a long time in gringo land. We are a good little trio and were having good craic along the way. Today however was an Aideen day as I like to call them.

I headed out to explore Salta which is an ok place but my lasting impression of the city is of shoe shops and hot dog vendors!
Dont get me wrong it does have its nice spots, one in particular was the square where is where I spent the majority of the day. It was a beautiful sunny day so I wandered around (with my book of course) & sat and had lunch in a cafe on the square. I accidently caught mass in the beautiful cathedral when I wandered in so I stayed and it was lovely. I finished off the day with an ice cream and headed back to the hostel.

Now one reason we picked this hostel was because it had a free dinner every day. Little did we know at the time the dinner was at Argentinian dinner time ..... 10pm!
Argentina operates on a completely different daily schedule to anywhere Iv ever been.
A typical Argentinian day goes something like this. Up early, siesta from 1pm to 5pm, shops open till 10 pm, dinner at 10/11pm.
Its crazy, EVERYTHING closes between 1 and 5 and Argentinians that go out for dinner do not go to dinner till very late in the evening. I really like the siesta idea as it means I get to have one too!
After dinner we hung out at the hostel bar and sampled many many glasses of Argentinian wine!

30th/8

So it was late out of bed today and then a walk to the bus station to purchase our bus ticket for the following morning to Cafayate.

After a chill out day I decided to head out to dinner with a few Irish girls staying at the hostel. It was time for my first Argentinian steak! In true local style we headed out late and found a wonderful place to eat. My steak was delicious. We headed out afterwards and by the time we got in it was 6am..... my bus to Cafayate was at 7am. Ooooops, lucky I packed last night eh?!. No point in going to bed, so Todd and Simon found me swaying at a computer when they came down to leave. The trip to the bus station was entertaining to say the least!

The bus to Cafayate was four hours long... I slept the whole way!!!

CAFAYATE

31/8

So I had my lovely steak, it was no time to try some lovely wine. And where best to do it but in the region of Argentina that produces 70% of its wine. I was basically going to heaven!

I wasnt in the best shape of my life when I got there but I trooped on. Now there were four of us; myself and the two lads and Jeeke a Dutch girl who came with us from Salta. We headed to a hostel that was highly recommended and settled in. We then headed off to taste some wine!!

Cafayate is a remote little town with a lot going on. Its a small place but on every side of the town their are hundreds of sprawling vineyards. The one we chose to go to today was apparently the best to tour. Today was my first ever wine tasting experience and it was pretty cool. First we were given a free tour and then we got to taste. Roll the wine in the glass to see its 'legs', sip, gargle (sort of), and swallow. It was gas though of course by the end of it the four of us had not sipped, we had more gulped!!!

We bought a few bottles of wine here and then walked back into town through the vineyards. On the way back we stopped at the house of empanadas. Empanadas are everywhere here in SA, they are small pastries usually filled with meet or cheese and they are delicious. After we had stuffed our selves we headed back to our hostel and drank our wine in the courtyard.

1/Sept/2011

Bloody hell its September... only a month left eeeek!!!!
Had a lazy day today and went out for dinner for a traditional dinner of a massive plate of meat. Iv no idea what the hell we were eating but it was good! I think my Salta anitcs had caught up with me as I was very tired so I headed to bed early.

2/9

The road to Cafayate from Salta has some spectacular scenery and amazing view points. A lot of people hire a car to drive this road but that was a little too expensive for us folk. So today we found a local taxi man that was willing to drive us up the road and give us a private tour at a very good price. He picked us up from the hostel at 1pm and off we went. We made numerous stops and we walked for a while at impressive locations that had unique and strange rock formations. You think you have seen everything there is to see in terms of scenery and landscape and then boom theres more!!!

We got back into town at 5ish and went for something to eat. Desert today was wine flavoured ice cream! It was aazing, 1 scoop white, 1 scoop red yummy.

Unfortunately today we said goodbye to Todd as he was heading off into Chile to do some skiing. After we had said our goodbyes we stocked up on the wine and made good use of our hostel courtyard once again!

3/9

Simon & Jeeke also left early this morning (Simon with a banging headache I'm quite sure!). So after 3 weeks of having travel buddies I was back on my own! My next stop would be Mendoza and I had booked a bus for 6pm. Today was a blog day. I sat in the sun and at one point it got so hot my laptop fried. I nearly had a heart attack as I thought my baby was broken (how people travel without a notebook/laptop is beyond me). I also took a sneaky trip back to the house of empanadas as they were the best Iv ever had... gourmet, as someone else said! 6pm came around in no time and I hopped on my 21 hour bus to Mendoza.

San Pedro De Atacama

San Pedro - Chile
25th August 2011

So after four days of jeeping it through Bolivia we reached the Chilean border. Ugh the messiest border Iv been to so far. We were there for about an hour lining up, getting our bags searched etc....  But eventually we got into San Pedro.

Iv never been to Mexico but I imagine that if I did go it would look something similar to San Pedro.
San Pedro is a tiny town on the border of Northern Chile and Bolivia. It a massive tourist town for both gringos and native Chileans. Its also EXPENSIVE, especially after coming from Bolivia.

We had no hostel booked so the usual search for one ensued when we got off the bus. We ended up finding a nice hostel for a decent price and settled in. Not much happened for the rest of the day, we explored (all of the 6 blocks that is San Pedro) and then sat in for the rest of the evening with pasta, beers & boxed wine!

26th/8

Today was a major chill out day. I was wrecked after the past four days of action packed tourist stuff so it was lovely to sit out in the sun, read my book, drink wine and catch up with friends and family.

27th/8

So, well rested, myself Todd and Simon decided today to rent bikes and venture off to Valley de Luna (Valley of the moon). San Pedro is the driest dessert in the world so we decided to take a cycle out to Valley De Luna, a valley about an hours cycle from San Pedro which is full of amazing features such as caves, rock formations and lots of sand!

The day started out pretty good. We made it to Luna, explored amazing caves and had our packed lunch.
Then the sand storm hit. It was HORIFFIC! The wind was so strong and whipped the sand everywhere and it was sore. We tried to venture on but the storm was too bad so we had to head back. Man, I was in bits by the time we got back to the hostel, cycling up hill against the wind in a sand storm is not fun, not fun at all!

That evening we booked a bus for the following morning to Salta in Argentina. I was glad to be heading back to civilisation!

28th/8

The bus left San Pedro at 10am and was an 11 hour journey to Salta. Unfortunately we had to get a bus during the day and not a night bus as we had to pass between two border controls that closed at night time. Day buses are not much fun, there's only so much reading even I can do!!!

We got to Salta at about 9pm and headed to our hostel which was basically like a hotel!! I already love Argentina!

Salar de Uyuni

Mon 22nd Aug

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Nanny who is 89 years young today xxxx :)

Salar de Uyuni is the worlds largest salt flat. It is exactly what it says, a massive flat entirely made up of salt! It is 10,500 meters squared and was basically formed when salt lakes dried up in prehistoric times.

There are many different tours that you can do of this area. We chose a 3 night/ 4day tour that would take us from Tupiza to Uyuni and then onto San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Our tour would cover the salt flat and the surrounding area. I couldn't wait!..... an amazing 4 days were ahead of us.

Day 1

We left Tupiza at 9.30am in our 4x4 land cruiser .There were the four of us, our driver Rico and our cook Norma. Everything we needed for the next four days was packed into the van; food water, mobile kitchen and our rucksacks were tied down on the roof. The agenda for the day was to drive from Tupiza to Uyuni, a drive that would take the full day. The scenery on the way was amazing, Tupiza and the surrounding landscape really is just like the wild west. There were certain points along the way that had spectacular views where we stopped to walk around and take photos. There were parts of the land that were desolate and hadn't a person around for miles. There were also parts of the land that were desolate and DID have little houses dotted around the place, I have no idea how people can live in such isolation.

As we drove the landscape was constantly changing. One minute we were driving through the mountains and the next we were driving through desert. At one point we hit a sandstorm and actually lost the road!! Our driver had to get out and walk to try and find the trail we meant to be following.

I was delighted when we stopped for lunch as I was starving. We pulled into a spot where there was an old deserted farm and used an old shed to shield us from the wind which was coooold! This was our first taste of what the food would be like over the next few days and we weren't disappointed! Norma whipped up a storm and when we headed off again we were all full and happy.

We arrived in Uyuni that evening and had a half an hour to walk around.... a half an hour too long. Uyuni is not a nice place. We then set off to the edge of the salar to watch sunset. AMAZING! The salar was some sight, if you didnt know it was salt you would think it was snow. It was freezing so we didnt hang around too long after sunset and went to where we would be staying that night..... a house made of salt.

When we pulled up I was very apprehensive it was literally a house made of salt!! When we got in though things weren't as bad as they seemed! We were shown to our beds... that were made of salt and then we were given snacks and tea while we waited for dinner. Dinner was again a lovely meal and afterwards we played some cards and had a few rums!

DAY 2

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Brekkie today was amazing as it was a BIRTHDAY CAKE made especially for me by Norma. I was so delighted when I went out for brekkie and found the cake with candles waiting for me. The lads had bought the candles in Uyuni and sang a beautiful rendition of happy birthday. I was chuffed!

We set off at around 9 for the salt flats which were spectacular! Every direction you looked there was salt salt and more salt. I even had a little lick just to make sure it wasn't some kind of conspiracy ha. After a good drive we all got out of the jeep to take some of the famous photos. Something to do with the flatness and the horizon gives an illusion of you being smaller or bigger than you actually are. Id say we spent a good hour messing about here trying to get the photos perfect. Its actually hard to get right!

After this we had a choice to either visit a volcano or some thing else that I cant remember!! Anyway we chose to go to the volcano which turned out to be a very good choice. The salar used to be a massive lake so the volcano was once an island in the middle of the lake. We parked on the 'island' and Norma started to prepare lunch. In the meantime we went off on a little wander where we saw our first sighting of pink flamingos.

After lunch we drove up to a view point on the volcano where we could look out over the salar. Then we walked a little to where we were show Inca mummies. This was shocking and scary. Our guide had got the key to a cave that was locked and let us in. Inside the cave were 8 skeletons of Inacs including 2 children. We were told that they had locked themselves in the cave and starved themselves rather than be taken into slavery.

Our next stop was Cactus Island. As the name suggests the island was covered in cacti! We did a little trek here and afterwards had a few birthday beers!!

Our accommodation that night was a slight upgrade on the night before. The previous night we were on our own where as tonight it was ore like a hostel and there were other groups staying there. Again it was made of salt! More cards and more rum tonight.

DAY 3

Early start today. We were up at 6.45, breakfast at 7 and packed up and on the road at 8. It was a long drive today towards 5 different lakes all with unique features. The weather was freezing. We were lucky to be able to do this part of the tour as just a few weeks previous there was too much snow for anyone to drive this route. Luckily for us the snow was melting so we could take this route.

At our first lake we had lunch. The scenery was just spectacular and yet again we saw flamingos. This area is know for its flamingos and sometimes if your lucky you can see thousands at a time.
We spent the day driving from lake to lake. We didnt get out at the all as the wind was fierce and it was baltic!

That night was one of the coldest of my life. I slept in 3 layers of clothes, 2 massive blankets and a sleeping bag. Brrrrrrr

DAY 4

We woke up this morning and headed off before to catch sunrise at Geysers.

IT WAS -12.

Geysers are the pipes of steam that blow up from under the ground. Probably not the most scientific explanation ever but thats the gist of it. Nedless to say as it was -12 we didnt hang around outside the jeep for too long. Out, photos and back in to try and get some warmth back into our freezing bodies.

The next stop on our final day was hot springs beside one of three more lakes we were to visit that day. I did not indulge in the hot springs as i was about 9am and still in minus figures! No way was I jumping into a bikini and freezing my ass off! We had brekie at the hot springs  and headed off again towards the Chilean border.

The second lake we visited today was a red lake, turned red because of the minerals from the mountain. And finally we stopped at a green lake! Again turned green because of the different minerals that were in the soil.

Our final stop of the day was the Bolivian/Chilean border. Our guides dropped us off and helped us sort out our passport exit stamps and then said their goodbyes.

I have to say that the scenery I saw on the past four days was the most spectacular and diverse I have ever seen. It was stunning and the photos I took just cant do it justice. An amazing four days spent with a sound bunch of lads!


SIDE NOTE:

26 years of age and still messing about with no real 'life plan' mehh who cares Im having a ball!!!

Ha I will admit that I was a bit worried about where I would spend my birthday and who with but it turned out to be an amazing day and one I wont forget in a hurry!!

Tupiza

Sun 21st August

Tupiza is called the wild west of South America due to its uncanny likeness with the wild west in the states! It is also said that the famous American out laws Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid met their demise here at the hands of the Bolivian army, ending their string of bank robberies! Pretty cool eh?!

Our stay in Tupiza would be short. Tupiza is a starting point from where you can do the Bolivian salt flat tour so the plan was to book a trip the day we got there to leave the following day.

We arrived in Tupiza at stupid O Clock (4am), we had no hostel booked but luckily reps from different hostels were at the station to meet the bus and catch the gringos. So we found one easy enough and fell into bed.

It was an early-ish rise today to head off and look for a company to head on the tour with. There were four of us in the group, Todd, Simon, Rich and myself. We went to a number of different companies until we found one which we were happy with. Its so important when booking tours like this that you get a good company and ask the right questions; Is water included in the price, do we get sleeping bags? Is there a cook? Can the guide speak English? Are soft drinks included? Where will we be staying? etc etc It really is worth taking the little bit of extra time so you get it right! So we were all happy and booked to leave the following morning.

With that done we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Unfortunately it was Sunday.... South America is old school when it comes to Sunday's and EVERYTHING is closed. I went for a little walk around but there wasn't really much to see or do. I decided that Id head back to the company we booked the tour with and see if the could sort me out with a bit of horse riding ... after all we were in the wild west... it would be rude not too!!!

I haven't been on a horse in about 15 years so I was a little apprehensive but excited!!
Ah it was great!!! We went out on the horses for 3 hours, on a tour of a canyon just outside Tupiza. The scenery was spectacular, red earth and cacti everywhere!

I thought that the trip would be at a nice slow pace but jesus can them horses run! ha They just take off and gallop at certain points on the trail. It was an experience and needless to say I had a very sore bum by the end of it ha :)

When we got back to Tupiza we headed for a little walk to watch the sunset from a viewpoint over the town. Dinner that night was pizza and then there was a quick shop for supplies for our trip..... toilet roll, smokes and rum.

                                                         The shop of champions!