Sucre: As Sweet As The Name Suggests

The bus I booked out of Uyuni left at 7:00pm and arrived at 2:00am which I figured would not be a problem; a serious misjudgement on my part. After wandering around town for close to 2 hours, unsuccessfully trying to find a hostel for the night I perched myself of the steps of HI Sucre and waited for sunrise.

I managed to check in just after 6:00am after which I slept for a few hours and then went into town to explore and book a trip for the following day. I tried numerous agencies and eventually settled for a full day quad bike tour starting at 10:00 am. The rest of the day consisted of me not doing much, mainly catching up on my blogging and booking a bus to La Paz for after the tour.

Tuesday morning came around and I checked out of my hostel, which much to my surprise only charged me for one night, so perhaps the 4 hours out in the cold was worth it after all!!

After a quick overview of how to ride an ATV, I headed of into the hills with John and Roisin (an Irish couple) and Henry (our guide). The tour started well until I somehow managed to get a flat tire after about 15 minutes...not a good sign for the rest of the day!

Pumping up my flat tire

Fortunately after a quick piece of DIY from Henry we were ready to go and headed off into the hills

Even though the tour was quite expensive ($95), it was definitely worth it, especially considering the other option was a five hour walk into the hills for $50. Apart from the tour I didn't get up to much in Sucre, I just had a wander around  the town which was rather nice and then decided to head to La Paz to meet up with some guys that I had met earlier in the trip

I'll be in La Paz until this time next week and am meeting up with my Dad on Saturday afternoon...hopefully he books a decent hotel because I have had enough of slumming it in hostels

I'll write another update after he arrives...

Salar de Uyuni: Some Other Planet

Tupiza is the kind of town that reminds one of an old Country and Western film. Firstly, not much seems to happen, mainly because there is not much to do and secondly due to the fact that it is seemingly surrounded by endless mountains with no obvious way out. Due to these unique factors I decided to join in the fun and embark on a triathlon (a day of jeeping, horse riding and mountain biking) in the mountains surrounding the town

The tour was a lot of fun and the fact that it was in Spanish didn't detract from the day. I did the tour with a three French people and a Dutch girl (pictured below) who were all very nice and made the day even more enjoyable.

Ready for the ride



Riding like a professional

Start of a 17 km ride

Whilst the triathlon was a great day, the main reason I went to Tupiza was to go on a four day tour to the salt flats. I had heard that not only did a tour from Tupiza include more sights, it was also more likely that I would be able to find a reliable tour company. I ended up going with Valle Hermose Tours as they were based out of the hostel I was staying in.

The first day involved being woken at 8am to be told that we had enough people for the tour and consequently would be leaving in 30 minutes. I met my tour group; Tristan and Kirsty (an English couple), Leo (a self declared crazy Argentinian) and Javier (our Spanish speaking guide/ driver) at reception and off we set.

Don't think I'll be investing here in the near future

A very cold sunset

Hot springs with a view

The "Stone Tree"

A hotel made entirely of salt




 

Planking

What a Rig!!

Overall the four day tour was incredible and I took over 300 photos (I just included a few of my favourites on here). The people on my tour were really nice, however Leo really did live up to his crazy status (especially after he had a few drinks!!). For anyone thinking of doing the tour I would recommend the company I used; the food and accommodation were pretty good and most importantly our driver Javier was responsible, which is one of the main risks in taking the tours from Uyuni.

The tour finished in Uyuni and this is undoubtedly the worst town that I have ever visited. The main tourist attraction is an area of rusting railway carriages about 2km out of town and apart from tours to the salt flats I'm sure the main businesses are the bus companies booking tickets out of town. On that note I booked a bus for that evening to Sucre which didn't go quite as planned but I'll fill you in on that in my next post...

Salta: How's the Serenity?

Still disheartened from my bad luck I arrived in Salta early on Sunday morning, and again just walked around trying to find a hostel. I managed to find one quite near the town centre and managed to check in at 10am which was a bonus. As most of the tours seemed to be full day activities I decided to walk around town to see which monuments were photo worthy and if there was anything else worthwhile doing.

Looking down on Salta

I ended up taking the cable car to get an overview of the valley. The view was pretty good however more often than not it was blocked by either a tree or eletrical wiring...probably not worth the 35 pesos. Having decided that Salta itself was not particularly interesting I went into a tour agency and booked a 13 hour tour for the following day to Humahuaca and a few other places

Preparing some Coca leaves

The tour itself was really good, the landscapes were spectacular and the group of people all seemed nice, especially those that helped translate what the guide was saying (apparently the English speakng guide called in sick that morning). For lunch I had some sort of Llama and potato dish in mustard sauce which was very tasty...I'll definitely be having that again!

Very "Llamy"

Upon returning from the tour, still buzzing from chewing some Coca leaves I decided that if possible I would head to Bolivia that night, however as it was so late I couldn't book a bus through an agency and had to do it directly at the bus station. Fortunately I had remembered the phrase in Spanish and all went to plan resulting in a midnight bus to La Quiaca (7 hours).

The immigration process was all rather simple however I was concerned when I had to put down when and how I would be leaving Bolivia. I just left it blank and no-one seemed to check which was a relief!

I'm writing this from Sucre in in Bolivia and will post about Tupiza and Salar de Uyuni over the next few days

I'll try to keep more on top of the blogging however due to the fact it would be quicker to cook a three course meal than upload one photo it's not that easy...

Tom

Chilled Out Cordoba

No skydiving this time!!

This post will be rather brief due to the fact that I didn't end up doing much in Cordoba. The main reason I decided to go was because I had heard that it was one of the best places in South America to go skydiving. I arrived early on Wednesday morning with the hope of getting it out of the way; that is not letting it play on my mind for a few days, however due to the exceptionally good weather it was full and consequently I decided to book for Thursday.

People Watching

I was notified that I would be picked up a 2pm on Thursday by the company to take me to the dive site about 40 minutes away. I wasted the morning thinking about life and death (just kidding, I was mainly sleeping) and was pretty excited to finally do it. At 1:45 the hostel owner came up to tell me the wind was too strong and consequently that the jump had been postponed. Unfortunately the weather on Friday and Saturday didn't improve and it wasn't expected to over the next few days so I made the disappointing decision to leave and head up to Salta. Hopefully there will be the opportunity to do it later in the trip otherwise I will have to bite the bullet and give bungy jumping a nudge instead

Some Serious Street Atrt

Just a quick note to say that Cordoba has to be one of the prettiest cities I have ever been to; I'm not referring to the city itself, rather the female half of the 300,000 students attending one of the 9 universtities. Th hostel owner provided an apt analogy; "It's like watching a game of tennis...you keep looking from one side to the other".

Anyway that's about it for Cordoba...if my future career doesn't work out I may return to complete another degree, after all education is free in Argentina!!

Another post will follow shortly

Tom

Buzzing Buenos Aires

Sorry about the delay in writing this, the internet connections have been terrible...seems to be a recurring theme over here. After a peaceful few days in at Iguazu Falls, I arrived in Buenos Aires both sleep deprived and significantly out of pocket ($130 for an 18 hour bus ride). Not knowing where to stay I decided to be the typical tourist and amble around with my South America on a Shoestring in hand. I had heard good things about Milhouse Avenue and managed to find it after a few wrong turns and of course some necessary sightseeing along the way.

Famous La Boca

Coincidentally I arrived in Buenos Aires on a Friday night and after meeting an aussie and two brits in my hostel room we decided that we would all head out. According to Milhouse there is a 'pumping party' every night at one of its two locations (the other is called Milhouse Hipo) and naive as we were we followed their advice and headed to Crobar...or at least that's where we thought we were. We discovered as we were leaving and the sun was coming out that we had in fact gone to the club next door that had free entry...what a waste, we did however make up for it by staying awake until 9am for the free breakfast.

Needless to say my fellow party goers were not feeling too good on Saturday so I headed out for an amble around the city, after which I returned to prepare myself for a big night that lay ahead. For dinner we went to an all you can eat restaurant just down from the hostel which was relatively good. I tucked into some Argentinian steak for the first time and whilst it was nice I was slightly put off by the fact that the meat was still bleeding when it was served (as the saying goes I was just waiting for it to moo!!).

Saturday night's shenanigans were similar to those of Friday however we all got up early on Sunday to head to La Boca to organise tickets for the Boca Juniors game later that day. After strolling the streets for about half an hour we were spruiked by a restaurant offering us cheap empanadas and cheap beers. Half way through our meal our waiter enquired whether we wanted tickets to the game for 300 pesos (a bargain compared to the 570 being charged at the hostel), so consequently we took him up on his offer.

At this stage I must point out that tickets is a loose term for the mechanism one uses to enter Boca Stadium. For us it involved walking the streets close to the stadium for approximately two hours whilst our waiter organised a member's card for us to use to gain access. As dodgy as this sounds it is the only way to get into the game and the hostel uses the same process. Upon arrival at the gate one is told to not say a word of English, hide the photo on the card and hope for the best...fortunately for us we all got in.

The game itself was rather disappointing and ended in a 1-1 draw however the atmosphere was incredible. Drums beat continuously throughout the 90 minutes and I'm sure numerous fans barely had time to gather there breath inbetween their raucous singing. Fortunately after the game we got back to the hostel without any issues (La Boca is apparently very dangerous), and try as we might we were all unable to gather the strength to head out that night.

Feeling fresh on Monday morning we decided that a day of sightseeing was in order. We visited numerous monuments throughout the day, I couldn't tell you what they were called however the GPS on my camera was on so if you are really that interested I can find out for you. We finished the day by having a couple of beers in Palermo which was a cool, although relatively expensive part of the city. For my Community Services friends (especially Elizabeth) there was a yarn bomb although I forgot to take my camera so didn't manage to get a photo of it which was rather disappointing...I'll keep my eye out on the rest of the trip!!

Boca Juniors vs San Martin (1-1)

Tuesday was relatively quiet as I was heading to Cordoba that night and Monday night matched those of Friday and Saturday. I tried to read Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring", however the pervasive description and lack of action meant that I gave up after 256 pages (maybe I'll read it sometime later in life)

Anyway that's about it for Buenos Aires and as you can probably tell the nightlife was incredible. The city itself was to me very European with beautiful numerous plazas and streets. Probably my only regret was that I didn't manage to see or participate in a Salsa Show however I will definitely visit Buenos Aires again...so there is always next time

I'm currently trying to catch up on my blogging so my next one should follow very soon

Tom


One of Buenos Aires' many plazas



Some Waterfalls I Stumbled Upon

I had decided before my trip that my next stop after Rio was going to be Iguazu Falls, what I hadn't decided was how I was going to get there. I tried to book a flight which was around $60 online however I was notified that it could only be booked by a travel agent with a Brazilian credit card. Off I headed to the travel agent with high hopes only to be told that the cheapest flight was $200 so consequently walked out with a $60 ticket for a 24 hour bus ride. I'm sure we could have got there in 12 had we not stopped every 90 minutes for no apparent reason.

Anyway there isn't really much else that needs to be said about the falls except I visited both the Brazilian ($20 entry) and Argentinian ($30 entry) sides.

I took loads of photos so cant upload them all but here are some of my favourites



I should be very good at selfies by the end of the trip...one disadvantage of travelling alone



I just arrived in Cordoba, so will hopefully post about my time in Buenos Aires over the next few days

Until next time

Tom