Viaje Grande al Norte & Bolivia

Okay once again it’s been awhile since I wrote so I’m just going to write about the 8day trip I took to the North of Argentina & Bolivia with my 4 German friends, Marcel, Helena, Marco & Pascal. It was a great experience even when I was about to kill my friends for only speaking German for almost the entire time (they are also fluent in English…) I’m writing day by day because I don’t know what other way to remember…

Friday- We left the bus terminal at 9pm for Salta. Busses in Argentina are much different than the busses I have experienced in the US. They have “semi-cama” and “cama” seats which make it somewhat easier to sleep. It isn’t wicked comfortable, but more comfortable then an airplane (but what isn’t?). It took us about 14 hours to get to Salta so we arrived around 11am in the morning. We found our first hostel and then took a city bus tour around the city. I wasn’t that impressed with the city but it was alright. That night we went downtown for dinner and drinks and watched some performers from outside restaurants. They were dancing some kind of flamenco style dance, and the men were dressed as Gauchos. They were so good!

View from the road in the providence of Salta :)

It was really interesting to see the difference in how the people looked in Salta compared to the people in Cordoba. Because Salta is farther North and closer to Bolivia, the people look more indigenous, are darker skinned, and generally shorter. It’s crazy how even in the same city people can look so different! The other thing I noticed was that the Spanish spoken here is much clearer to understand. I am really seeing how thick the Cordoba accent is. They also use different slang which was also expected…

Can't help but do cartwheels on an abandoned road like this

Tons of cows in the road while we were driving...

Sunday- we got up and left Cordoba bright and early in a rental car because the busses do not go up into the Salta province where we wanted to explore. We drove up through Jujuy, stopped for lunch, and then continued up into the mountains. We spent the day driving around and exploring small pueblos (villages) that were literally in the middle of nowhere (almost 6-7 hours past Salta). We took so many pictures, and it was really cool to feel so isolated. Little did I know that we would feel even more isolated when we arrived to Bolivia… We stopped in Pumamarca and found a hostel and had dinner there. It was a bit touristy, but we had no choice since we needed to find a place to sleep.

All of us in Pumamarca

Monday – We started driving to the Salt Flats (Las Salinas) de Argentina. It was about a 2 hour drive from Pumamarca, and on the way we stopped to enjoy the view at one of the highest points in the area. From the road, the hill didn’t look too high and my friend Marcel and I wanted to climb to the top to get a better view of the surrounding mountain peaks. Little did we know that this “hill” was extremely deceiving and was actually way steeper and higher then we anticipated. Nevertheless, we started climbing and about halfway up we were both so dizzy from the altitude and were having trouble breathing. Because we were halfway there, we decided to just keep going but literally had to stop every few steps just to breath. Now I guess I know how smokers must feel hahah it’s a terrible feeling to not be able to breathe! We finally made it to the top and it was incredible. Pictures could not do it justice, it felt like standing on the top of the world.

The small dot in the left corner is my friend Marcel - gives the picture alittle perspective

Enjoying the view from the road to Las Salinas

Although going up and down took over 1 ½ hours (our other friends were pissed and waiting for us haha) it was so worth it. Afterwards, we went to Las Salinas and sampled the salt there and took pictures…the sky was so blue that the white looked really neat. On our way back to Salta, we saw a herd of wild llamas and I was dared $10 pesos to chase after them so of course I couldn’t turn the offer down…once we returned to Salta and returned the rental car, we bought bus tickets to the border of Bolivia and left around midnight.
Word to the wise: DO NOT go to a foreign country like Bolivia and decide to “wing it” without a tour book, information, and plenty of money.

Las Salinas de Argentina

Chasing the llamas...haha

Tuesday – We arrived at the Bolivian border at 6:30am, one hour early. The busses NEVER arrive early. We exited the bus and everyone was wearing blankets and huge coats. Of course none of us researched the weather up in that area, and we just assumed that because it was closer to the equator it would be warm. WRONG. Because it is more of a dessert climate, the days are hot, and nights/mornings are freezing. And the bus terminal was a good 20 minute walk from the actual Border. We arrived at the actual border to find that it didn’t open until 7am. Okay fine… so we shivered in the cold for 10 minutes and then exited Argentina (by the way it was still dark outside because the sun hadn’t risen yet) We walked over to the Bolivian side only to find that they were still closed for another hour and would “open at 7am”. Bolivia has an hour time difference, one hour behind. So we got to shiver outside for another hour huddled together with our flimsy hoodies and flipflops. I felt like such an idiot tourist…

SO. At 7am Bolivian time, my German friends handed over their passports and got into Bolivia. When border control looked at my passport they shook their heads at me and told me I needed a visa, that is it a new law for this year in Bolivia. GO FIGURE. $135 American dollars… and I barely had about $50 pesos on me because I was just planning to get my money in Bolivianos at the bank in Bolivia. Thank God my friend Helena had enough money to lend me for my visa. I had to first find a “Casa de Cambio” to change my money to American dollars, and then make a photocopy of my passport, then fill out a mountain of paperwork for the Visa. What a headache…and all of this on 2 hours of sleep and in the freezing cold…yay. An hour and a half later I had a visa to enter Bolivia free of charge for 5 years. I’m going to have to make use of that once I get to Peru…

So we then realized that at the border of Bolivia, there isn’t much. At this point we were starving and none of the Germans were able to get money out of their banks in this town so I had to withdraw money for everyone…another long and painful process. Afterwards we grabbed a quick coffee and got bus tickets to the nearest “city” called Tupiza. We spent 4 hours on a bus that was literally driving in the middle of the desert. I am not exaggerating when I say there was no road. Apparently most of Bolivia is like this and they are working on making roads, but for now the busses off road the entire way. Since we were the last to get tickets, we had to sit in the last row and felt the worst of the bumps. A huge 2 liter water bottle fell on my head while I was trying to catch a nap (which was impossible anyway) and with the coffee we all had to pee SO badly it was terrible! But it was comical at the same time because at this point we were so tired from not sleeping for 2 days that we were just laughing at everything.

So it’s still Tuesday (I know, felt like the longest day of my life) and we arrived in Tupiza. We paid to use the bathroom and looked around and saw that this “city” was nothing more then a small town in the middle of nowhere. I felt like I was out west in the United States. It was gorgeous, but extremely small. It was funny because literally all the other foreigners from the border were on the bus with us, and everyone was so confused as to why this well known place of Tupiza was so small. The guys wanted to buy tickets right then and go to the next city, 8 hours away, but I refused. We got into a heated argument because Helena and I didn’t want to go to an unknown location even farther up into Bolivia without having any information/rest. We finally convinced the boys and found a hostal and figured out our plans for the rest of the week. After having a llama steak for lunch (which I loved by the way) I took at nap at 5pm and I ended up sleeping all night until the next morning. Traveling is exhausting…

Wednesday – Today we went horseback riding for 3 hours and it was a blast! We were the only ones with our guide so it was nice to not be in a huge touristy group. IT was the boys’ first time so that was comical… the horses would randomly start racing each other and cantering and the boys would freak out it was great to watch. We saw a bunch of rock formations and mountains on the ride, and it had been awhile since I had ridden so I really enjoyed it. Not to mention we only paid about $9 each to ride for 3 hours…it was so cheap.

Me & Junca

After the horseback riding, we quickly grabbed our stuff and Pascal, Helena and I set off on our Jeep Tour with Hugo. We drove for 6 hours to the “city” of Uyuni which is near the Salt Flats. It was the most gorgeous ride of my life. We wound up and down mountains on a dirt road (way better than in the bus), enjoyed the views and saw so many different types of landscapes. We also saw tons of llamas, many that were in the road. They look so funny when they run... we also ate shredded llama (kind of like shredded beef but tastier) for lunch with tamales, egg, and corn. Hugo was 22 years old, and really quiet at first because we were speaking English. We then decided we should only speak Spanish since it’s kind of rude to be in the car with someone who couldn’t understand (although the Germans had no problem speaking mostly German with me around the entire trip…oh well). We learned a lot about his family (he has 7 brothers & sisters…big families in Bolivia) and his interests. He showed us a huge variety of music that they listen to in Bolivia, everything from the more indigenous music to the reggaeton that has become so familiar from Argentina. Finally we arrived in our destination… during sunset…a hostal made completely of salt, complete with an outhouse and no showers (I got very used to not showering for days… not something I enjoy doing but you get used to it). Hugo made us dinner and despite the mice, we slept very well.

Part of the drive in the Jeep :)

Thursday – Hugo woke us up at 4:30am to get in the car to get to the middle of Las Salinas (120 sq km of salt flats) by sunrise. The sunrise was INCREDIBLE being in the middle of the salt flats. All you can see is the mountains in the distance, but mostly it just looks like a flat bed of snow. There was not a cloud in the sky when the sun rose and it was spectacular. After the sunrise, we drove to an island in the salt flats where we explored and had breakfast with tons of other foreigners & their jeeps. There was a baby ostrich wandering around, and as it came close to me, I was so busy taking pictures that I didn’t even realize that it was coming for my breakfast. One second later it snatched my bread off my napkin and left… story of my life. We toured Las Salinas for the rest of the day, and got to shop too. I couldn’t believe how cheap all of the handmade stuff was. I got things for my cousins and family back home, and spent less than $12 for 6 hats, a scarf, blanket, and a bag. Afterwards drove the 6 hours back to Tupiza. We didn’t want to say goodbye to Hugo since he became our friend during the trip, so we took him out to dinner (a luxury for Bolivians since they can rarely afford it… and it is so cheap for us). It was hard to say goodbye but he told us if we ever come back we’d have to look him up.

Beautiful sunrise on Las Salinas Grandes de Bolivia

Us & Hugo after dinner :)

Friday – We got up at 3am so we could get our bus out of Tupiza by 4am to get to the border to return home. Of course something got screwed up with our bus connections (between the border and Cordoba) and we missed our bus at the border because going through Immigration took too long. After 4 hours of waiting in the heat, we were able to switch our tickets and went through Salta instead. All in all, it took from 4am (in Tupiza) until noon on Saturday to get back to Cordoba. So exhausting…but very worth it. It felt good to be “home” in Cordoba. I missed my hostfamily and friends even though it had only been 10 days…I have no clue how I am going to say goodbye in less than 2 weeks…