Trip over the Andes

Well we've reached our penultimate stop on what has been a fantastic trip.




So far Chile has lived up to its name - Maureen and I have felt the cold for the first time in our holidays. We are using the oven in our apartment here to dry our clothes.



The trip over the Andes cannot compare to anything I have ever experienced. We deliberately chose a later trip so we could sit in the front "death" seats. The trip up was slow and laborious as the bus crawled up the Andes. It crawled so slowly that it actually stopped - for 2 hours- while we had to wait for another bus. (See panorama shot)

Having taken up seats again in a new bus, by this time we were all good friends even if we didn't speak the language. Mime is a wonderful medium. A truck over the side of the road with its wheels in the air like a dead dog didn't faze anyone.



The border crossing was cold and miserable as we waited at the Argentinian side, then the Chilean side and then to line up with the bags. My coca leaves were allowed, thankfully and a ham sandwich even though there were big pictures of hams with red crosses across them. (See picture of me at the border)

Once over the other side we waited for ages (again) as another accident meant "injun" (Tom Sawyer speak) file down the mountain. We crawled in our convoy down a most amazing set of 22 curves and switchbacks going down the mountain.

Have a look at the photo and you can see switchbacks as far as the eye can see. Amazing!! There was a curve countdown at each curve. Going down meant that sitting at the front you actually go over the edge of the mountains. (Good advice Steph) Another accident - a big semi had twisted the back off itself as it tried to turn 360 degrees. Further down another truck broken with shredded tyres and oily stuff coming out.

Sunset now and we are hopelessly late. Luckily when we came into our hostel in Santiago, they had kept our room.



Gotta go now. Going off now to a free pasta and wine night at the hostel and anyhow, I think Maureen has her head in the oven.

Mendoza

Mendoza has been another wonderful find.




Maureen and I have become Malbec converts. We have been eating in a great restaurant beside the Plaza Independencia where you can eat a great chicken lunch washed down with a bottle of malbec for AUD18 for 2! We have our favourite table upstairs with large open windows opening out to the plaza. Then we stumble back to our hotel singing "Red red wine/goes to my heeeeaad/make me forgeet/I still need him soooooooooo" and have a nice long siesta.



Today we took the 173 to Maipu and it was a bone shattering trip. A couple of girls were breastfeeding their babies as they do anywhere here. The driver had very heavy feet either full on the accelerator or brake and one hand on the horn. The people standing were alternately piled up near the back seats or joining the driver in the front. Once at Maipu we hired bikes and went tasting wine, olives, olive oil, pickles, many varieties of dulce de leche, chocolate, jams, cheeses, liqueurs (including absinthe) - me gusta! Lunch in a shady garden restaurant was home made spinach ravioli and for dessert, can you guess? A selection of ice cream including malbec and cabernet sauvignon ice creams. Muy rico.



Tomorrow we cross the Andes. We have front seats in the bus and are looking forward to climbing the snow capped mountains we can see here from the distance.



Don't want to come back :(

Quebrada del Condoritos and some thoughts

Firstly the rent a baby trick. We stopped into a very pleasant cafe on the plaza in Cordoba (called Plaza 9 de Julio, of course) and were badgered by a woman asking for money holding a baby in some distinctive clothes. It wasn't long afterwards when another woman came around holding the very same baby!! Obviously good for the baby – it was being carried around AND earned its living at the same time.






I'm writing this on a bus going to Mendoza and the driver has just overtaken on double yellow lines. The alarm that signals that the driver is going over his limit sounds annoyingly for a lot of the time. I think the driver has moved it upstairs so it doesn't bother him. A stop sign (Pare) means slow down a little, if you feel like it. Seat belts are just annoyances. You can check how full your tank is by holding a torch down into the opening. (Yes, Steph, they might drop it in, easy isn't it). A really good way of changing the sign advertising the price of petrol is with some masking tape and scissors. Oh and if you need directions while driving, just pull up level with a bus, roll down the window and have a chat with the bus driver while barrelling down the autopista.





Now a quick update on my trek into the Quebrada del Condoritos (Canyon of the Condors). It was a great trek into the mountains but as the clouds grew darker we started getting a little worried. Lunch found us crouched under some low bushes and yours truly ended up with a wet bum. But what happened afterwards took my mind off that and onto the other extremity. A loud thunderstorm came over when we were stranded on a high plateau with no trees or shelter. To make matters worse we started getting pelted with hailstones. No good putting hands over head to protect your head, hands hurt more. Ear lobes painful too. Only thing left to do is curl up like an echnida and let the backpack protect you and wait it out hoping you don't get hit by lightning. Luckily seeing condors, lots of other birds, a snake crossing our path, wild guinea pigs, hares and foxes more than made up for it. Here are some pictures of the trek.
 

a loica

Humhuaca and San Antonio

Well a big day for us today. Had to get the wake up call at 5:15 after having dinner with a very nice couple from Pennsylvania who live here 6 months of the year. Got to bed late, up early.




A couple of days ago we went to Humhuaca. Artist pallette hillsides and adobe villages. Just beautiful. Ended up very close to the Bolivian border. The coca leaves really work helping with altitude. Pity I can't bring a big packet into Australia. But I've watched border patrol so I won't even try. Below is the artist's pallette hillside.

Yesterday up to a cloud forest with a commanding view over all of Salta.

Today, we take a bus to San Antonio, 4000 m above sea level. It goes parallel with the Tren a las Nubes which got washed out last summer. Then we come back to the bus station and get an overnight bus to Cordoba where the adventure continues. Have loaded up the Kindle, MP3 player, computer, camera and Maureen's Kobo. Hope I haven't left any cables behind. Will be doing about 1400 km.

Local wines new but delicious. Humitas and empandas delicious.

Cafayate

Well it's Friday night here and the whole town has come alive. People crowding into the Plaza 9 de Julio. Big celebrations tomorrow about the Malvinas (the Falklands). Maureen and I can't work it because we thought that they had lost that war. Oh well, just party on.




Yesterday was a big day. We went to Cafayate. I won't tell you much, just look at the pictures.That says it all.



Also did some wine tasting in a couple of boutique wineries. Tasted llama salami and a lovely goat cheese. The wines were actually really good, aged in real wooden vats.



Oh and I bought a packet of coca leaves and have been told how to suck them. Apparently you don't chew them because that rots your teeth. I'm keeping it for tomorrow because we're going to Humhuaca which is about 3000 metres above seal level and coca is supposed to help you with altitude sickness.

Trip Posadas to Salta

The long trip to Salta finished at around 7:30 am this morning. It had been a long night and we had covered about 1200 km. No food served this time, we were just allowed a quick stop in front of a diner. The food at this diner didn't even attract the backpackers so I just used the opportunity to go to a toilet where I didn't have to hold my nose with one hand and the toilet set down with the other.




We passed through many dumps that looked like the Australian equivalent of Back 'o Bourke, with some rundown shacks and skinny dogs. We usually stopped outside a rundown bus station with the bus driveway consisting of churned up mud.



There were 2 babies on the trip. The one immediately in front of us was a very chirpy little baby girl who seemed to be travelling with her mother and grandfather. Ma was Bolivian and Gramps was German. Then I saw Ma and Gramps kissing. Maureen and I thought up some salacious stories around it becoming more and more bizarre.



Today we explored Salta. It's a very pretty city in a valley surrounded by high mountains. It has the obligatory plaza in the middle called 9 de Julio. (Note to self: Check if there is a law that says all towns and cities have to have a central plaza called 9 de Julio)



We went to a museum that had some real Inca child sacrifice mummies. Three children had been sacrificed about 500 years ago by the Incas and recently found. They had been sacrificed in an elaborate ceremony starting with dressing the children in their finest gear and ending with walking them to the top of a high volcano over 6000 metres high, making them drink an alcoholic drink and then burying them alive. Grisly!

Today I leave you with an interesting butterfly in the process of having a drink.

San Ignacio Jesuit Mission

Your 2 intrepid travellers be moving on now from the top right of the country (Posadas) to the top right (Salta). We move from jungle and huge bodies of water to what will be dry high mountains on a 16 hour bus trip.




My report today is a interesting experiment in humanity. The Jesuit Missions. Around then end of 17th century, the Guarani indians were being kidnapped by the Portugese slavers and Spanish bandits so the Jesuits founded some missions, beautifully built and architected for the Guaranis. They kept the Guarani social structure intact and worked their beliefs in with Christian ones. The Jesuits leant Guarni and even though the Guaranis were supposed to learn Spanish, they in fact didn't. It was a form of communism because the Guaranis had no notion of private prorperty.



There was a section for workshops that made ironwork, stonework, woodwork, crafts and arts and musical instruments. A long covered ditch ran through the main areas and drained into the vegetable gardens to fertilise them. The working day was about 7 hours when back in Europe it was 12. The rest of the day was spent in music, worship and getting along with the family.



It was in the border territory between the Portuguese and the Spanish and the Guarani were good fighters and readily coped with firearms to win battles for the Spanish crown.



It was a form of Utopia.



Got soaking wet on way home. Walked through deep puddles in a torrential downpour on way back. Red clay colouring our socks. Raincoats no help at all, just dripped water into sodden shoes. Then had to stand in an air conditioned bus for 1 hour to get home. What us journeywomen have to do!



See photos



1. Guarani houses

2. Guarani Passion Flower

3. The fog rolls into the jungle

4 and 5 are the most interesting. We got an impromptu private tour by the guide who wanted to get out of the office and pointed this one out. It epitomises what happened to the missions when they got abandoned. A strangler fig grows right over a column. What you see is a row of columns and a tree in line. Look inside the tree and you see the column.

next news will be from Salta