After leaving San Pedro de Atacama and crossing the frontier to Argentina (no comment about the 3 hours of “siesta” on the border station), we headed once again to Salta, the city where I spent a few days around Christmas. As I had already seen a few sites there (mainly canyons), we decided to do only one excursion and went to Cachi, a small and lovely village in the Andes. For the first time since ages, we did some jogging and especially at the beginning it felt horrible! The town is not as spectacular as the previous places we had been to, but it was a nice and relaxed day, with delicious Argentine empanadas and ice cream. For Esteffen three other Argentine specialties were of interest: the daily bank run in the morning (you should start worrying if there is NO huge queue in front of every bank), the obligation to pay everything in cash (e.g. the “rapipagos” where you can clear off your monthly rent, electricity and internet bills), and the fact that there is almost never “cambio”: if you pay with 100 AR$ (more or less 12 €) it is not possible to give you the remaining change of converted 1.50 € without going to a bank – which can last! As an economist seeing a non-working system was very motivating to him ….

Next we had a looong but comfortable night and day bus ride to Mendoza, where we stayed at the “Casa Pueblo Hostel“. We were really surprised to find such a green city: every, and we mean EVERY street is lined with trees on both sides, creating a green roof over the road, and there are lots of parks – one of them is large enough to spend a whole day there. To me it seems that Mendoza is one of the cities with the highest quality of life in Argentina. Since the whole region is especially famous for its wine, we also did a winery tour by bike (thanks to Mr Hugo for his warm hospitality). Compared to the others, we probably hold the record in bike kilometers and the negative record in wine tasting. We visited only one vineyard (second oldest in that region, Bodega Familia Di Tommaso), but this one we enjoyed, just as the olive farm we stayed at afterwards. Continue reading →

So as I told in my previous post, I spent the last 5 days in and around the beautiful city of Salta in the north-east of Argentina. Without realizing it, you are already rather high in the Andes (about 1500m above the sea level), but Salta itself is just not looking like such a mountain city (although it is still very beautiful). Nevertheless it is pretty easy to get to smaller traditional villages and regions having an elevation between 3000m and 4000m, where luckily the Coca-leaves help a lot against the altitude sickness, as they improve the oxygen uptake.

Compared to Iguazú, the Salta province is really dry, hot and it almost never rains. And also the people and the feeling here are much more typed: you could easily think you were in Peru or Bolivia without seeing any changes, as they say “we look equally, have the same spirit, wear the same clothes and listen to the same music”.

I have done two excursions, one to Cafayate and another to Humahuaca. Both of them are two small villages having an amazing “quebrada” (ravine) as main attraction, where the shape and the colors of the rocks are incredible (see the photos). We also met some locals who spontaneously invited us to join them drinking some wine and eating empanadas (the area is well-known for having the best empanadas from all Argentina, and they indeed deserve this reputation). It was very nice to share such a moment with them, you wouldn’t be able to feel that kind of friendliness by doing only official tourist-tours.

I spent the rest of the time at Salta in the Sol Huasi Hostel, enjoying my time with many cool guys from all over the world, talking and laughing a lot. And we also had a great Christmas party, with a delicious dinner and (of course only a little bit of) alcohol, then music, dancing and partying all the night …. I really don’t know why the next day was rather relaxed and that quiet! Continue reading →

After a comfortable, 18 hours long night-bus ride, I arrived to Puerto Iguazú, the last city in the Provincia de Misiones before the Brazilian and Paraguayan frontier. My first impression of this region was that it is much greener but also a lot poorer than the Provincia de Buenos Aires, where I have lived for almost 5 months.

I stayed there three days in the Hostel Inn Iguazu, which is in fact rather like a real resort hotel with a very big swimming-pool and lots of French guys …. the hostel, and also the whole region is very international, means it is the first place in Argentina where everybody speaks English, of course due to the main tourist attraction here: the Cataratas del Iguazú:

We went there two consecutive days, the first one to see the falls from the Argentine side and the other day to watch them from the Brazilian side. We also took a helicopter to see them from above, a water-boat to get a wet shower from underneath, and you are allowed to swim in the river at a place with only little flow. This natural wonder is absolutely unbelievable and indescribable, the photos only can give you a small glimpse of the size and the tons of litres that are falling down every second. You really HAVE to see this great place once in your life!

I was really impressed by the intactness of the nature, you are really feeling like as if you were at the Amazonas with lots of jungle plants and animals. And also the tropical rain is simply crazy: the sun is shining, and one minute after it is raining in a way I’ve never experienced before, and 10 minutes later the sun comes back again, as if nothing had happened.

By the way, I have fulfilled one of my challenges, because a “remis”-driver asked me whether I am from Argentina (that was such a great feeling). And right now I have just arrived to Salta in the equally named province …. let’s see what expects me here! Continue reading →