Northern Argentina....
Hello once again!
I have come to the conclusion that you, my friends are the sort of people that watch the Formula One Grand Prix not to see who wins but to see if there are any BIG crashes. Or to put it another way - you've been reading my travel reports not to share in the enjoyment of my adventure but to witness the occasions when I suffer illness or misfortune. My last report told of our bad luck in Chile with hotels, toilet troubles and riots and I had the biggest response yet telling me how much you enjoyed reading about it all. Well, I'm glad my discomforts entertain you so much and thank you sincerely for all your emails!
This episode sees us heading north through Argentina from Mendoza where we'd just arrived prior to my last travel report to Salta in the top northwest of the country and our last stop in Argentina. I'm sorry to say that there were no major mishaps or near-death experiences to enliven this section but maybe in the next one, eh?!
So, from the last report: We spent 3 days in Mendoza, Argentina's 2nd city. We didn't get up to much; We lounged about, went to a Thermal Spa Resort which I briefly mentioned at the end of the last episode for some pampering and relaxation; We read our books, put our feet up and revelled in the fact that we had left Chile and our troubles behind us!
From Mendoza we headed north to the city of La Rioja, a pleasantly short 8 hours away by coach. The main reason for stopping off here was that to go from Mendoza to Salta (our next destination) would involve a 20 hour bus journey on largely uncomfortable roads. Doing the journey in two stints seemed a wise move and this spontaneous decision to break up the journey gave us a chance to check out somewhere we didn't really know much about (except that it's name appears on wine bottles!).
La Rioja is a small city, famous for it's wine, olives and walnuts and is the capital of the La Rioja province. It is situated in the foothills of The Andes and turned out to be a good base for exploring the nearby National Parks. It is not so good if you need a haircut and is the only city so far encountered that doesn't have 'an authentic Irish pub'. After one and a half days of meticulous 'up-one-road-down-the-next' searching I finally located a hairdressers that was open (actually it wasn't open but the owner (who lives next door) saw me knocking and chased after me on his motorbike to call me back) so that I could get my 5 week old hippy-like locks shaved back to a far more tidy stubble-look.
Whilst in La Rioja we took a 3 day excursion to 3 nearby(ish) National Parks. It was a spectacular trip with just Lynn and I and our guide and was further enhanced by the unbelieveably good weather we had to accompany us. The sky was a clear blue without the slightest trace of a cloud for the entire 3 day tour. Considering one of the parks we went to (Reserva Laguna Brava) is only open to tours for 2 months of the year because for the other 10 either rain or snow make it unreachable means we really were incredibly fortunate!
Day 1 saw us leaving La Rioja for "Parque Ischigualasto" aka "Valley of the Moon" due to its bizarre sculptural desert rockforms. This park is also where the oldest and largest dinosaur skeletons have been unearthed. It's a surreal and beautiful landscape and we spent the day here before heading to the town of Villa Union which would be our base for visiting the other 2 parks.
Day 2 saw us heading to "Reserva National Laguna Brava" which for me was the most spectacular of the three parks. The 'laguna' is a salt lake full of bubbling geothermal springs and home to a small flock of flamingoes. It is situated at 4,250m above sea level and takes 5 hours of steep winding dirt roads crossing icy rivers and rocky plateaus to get to. It's the highest we've been on this trip so far and the highest Lynn's been ever (excluding in an aeroplane, of course!). Oxygen is a little thinner and you start getting altitude sickness if you haven't acclimatized quickly enough - nausea and headaches mainly. I was ok but Lynn had a headache probably because it was her first time at this sort of height. The lake, when it came into view, proved to be the most vivid blue colour and surrounded by snow capped mountains and volcanoes including Volcano Pissis which at nearly 7,000m is the tallest volcano in the world, though it is now extinct.
Day 3 was to "Parque Talampaya" which is full of the most spectacular rock formations. Over thousands and thousands of years the rain and wind have eroded the rocky landscape to create the most fantastic rock formations and canyons and they are enormous. Some of the formations have names depending on what they look like so you have "The Dog", "The Condor", "The Cathedral", "The Monk", "The Tortoise" and, amusingly "A King Sitting On A Camel"!
We arrived back in La Rioja at about 19:30 and had booked our tickets on the coach to Salta leaving at 21:30 the same evening. This time however there were no direct sleeper coaches so the journey was not very comfortable. The journey took 11 hours and neither of us slept for more than a couple of hours over the entire length and it was very sporadic sleep too - 30 minutes every couple of hours before yet another stop; all the lights go one; people milling about making alot of commotion and knocking you with bags as they leave their seats or get on.
We were both exhausted by the time we got to our hotel in Salta and Lynn went straight to bed. I managed to find a place to save our 3rd batch of photos to DVD so now the collection is up to an impressive 1,700 for me. I've been searching everywhere for an internet cafe with the necessary software to allow me to upload some more of my photos to the blogsite but there isn't any about. As soon as I can upload some I shall as I can't wait to share some of these places with you all.
That's about it. Next week we're leaping west over The Andes to try our luck in Chile once again as we tick off the Atacama Desert on our 'To Do List' and from there we head northeast to Bolivia and the heart of the Andean region.
Keep sending the emails, it's wonderful to hear from you!
Toodle Pip!
Rich
I have come to the conclusion that you, my friends are the sort of people that watch the Formula One Grand Prix not to see who wins but to see if there are any BIG crashes. Or to put it another way - you've been reading my travel reports not to share in the enjoyment of my adventure but to witness the occasions when I suffer illness or misfortune. My last report told of our bad luck in Chile with hotels, toilet troubles and riots and I had the biggest response yet telling me how much you enjoyed reading about it all. Well, I'm glad my discomforts entertain you so much and thank you sincerely for all your emails!
This episode sees us heading north through Argentina from Mendoza where we'd just arrived prior to my last travel report to Salta in the top northwest of the country and our last stop in Argentina. I'm sorry to say that there were no major mishaps or near-death experiences to enliven this section but maybe in the next one, eh?!
So, from the last report: We spent 3 days in Mendoza, Argentina's 2nd city. We didn't get up to much; We lounged about, went to a Thermal Spa Resort which I briefly mentioned at the end of the last episode for some pampering and relaxation; We read our books, put our feet up and revelled in the fact that we had left Chile and our troubles behind us!
From Mendoza we headed north to the city of La Rioja, a pleasantly short 8 hours away by coach. The main reason for stopping off here was that to go from Mendoza to Salta (our next destination) would involve a 20 hour bus journey on largely uncomfortable roads. Doing the journey in two stints seemed a wise move and this spontaneous decision to break up the journey gave us a chance to check out somewhere we didn't really know much about (except that it's name appears on wine bottles!).
La Rioja is a small city, famous for it's wine, olives and walnuts and is the capital of the La Rioja province. It is situated in the foothills of The Andes and turned out to be a good base for exploring the nearby National Parks. It is not so good if you need a haircut and is the only city so far encountered that doesn't have 'an authentic Irish pub'. After one and a half days of meticulous 'up-one-road-down-the-next' searching I finally located a hairdressers that was open (actually it wasn't open but the owner (who lives next door) saw me knocking and chased after me on his motorbike to call me back) so that I could get my 5 week old hippy-like locks shaved back to a far more tidy stubble-look.
Whilst in La Rioja we took a 3 day excursion to 3 nearby(ish) National Parks. It was a spectacular trip with just Lynn and I and our guide and was further enhanced by the unbelieveably good weather we had to accompany us. The sky was a clear blue without the slightest trace of a cloud for the entire 3 day tour. Considering one of the parks we went to (Reserva Laguna Brava) is only open to tours for 2 months of the year because for the other 10 either rain or snow make it unreachable means we really were incredibly fortunate!
Day 1 saw us leaving La Rioja for "Parque Ischigualasto" aka "Valley of the Moon" due to its bizarre sculptural desert rockforms. This park is also where the oldest and largest dinosaur skeletons have been unearthed. It's a surreal and beautiful landscape and we spent the day here before heading to the town of Villa Union which would be our base for visiting the other 2 parks.
Day 2 saw us heading to "Reserva National Laguna Brava" which for me was the most spectacular of the three parks. The 'laguna' is a salt lake full of bubbling geothermal springs and home to a small flock of flamingoes. It is situated at 4,250m above sea level and takes 5 hours of steep winding dirt roads crossing icy rivers and rocky plateaus to get to. It's the highest we've been on this trip so far and the highest Lynn's been ever (excluding in an aeroplane, of course!). Oxygen is a little thinner and you start getting altitude sickness if you haven't acclimatized quickly enough - nausea and headaches mainly. I was ok but Lynn had a headache probably because it was her first time at this sort of height. The lake, when it came into view, proved to be the most vivid blue colour and surrounded by snow capped mountains and volcanoes including Volcano Pissis which at nearly 7,000m is the tallest volcano in the world, though it is now extinct.
Day 3 was to "Parque Talampaya" which is full of the most spectacular rock formations. Over thousands and thousands of years the rain and wind have eroded the rocky landscape to create the most fantastic rock formations and canyons and they are enormous. Some of the formations have names depending on what they look like so you have "The Dog", "The Condor", "The Cathedral", "The Monk", "The Tortoise" and, amusingly "A King Sitting On A Camel"!
We arrived back in La Rioja at about 19:30 and had booked our tickets on the coach to Salta leaving at 21:30 the same evening. This time however there were no direct sleeper coaches so the journey was not very comfortable. The journey took 11 hours and neither of us slept for more than a couple of hours over the entire length and it was very sporadic sleep too - 30 minutes every couple of hours before yet another stop; all the lights go one; people milling about making alot of commotion and knocking you with bags as they leave their seats or get on.
We were both exhausted by the time we got to our hotel in Salta and Lynn went straight to bed. I managed to find a place to save our 3rd batch of photos to DVD so now the collection is up to an impressive 1,700 for me. I've been searching everywhere for an internet cafe with the necessary software to allow me to upload some more of my photos to the blogsite but there isn't any about. As soon as I can upload some I shall as I can't wait to share some of these places with you all.
That's about it. Next week we're leaping west over The Andes to try our luck in Chile once again as we tick off the Atacama Desert on our 'To Do List' and from there we head northeast to Bolivia and the heart of the Andean region.
Keep sending the emails, it's wonderful to hear from you!
Toodle Pip!
Rich
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