Buenos Aires, Argentina (and Gnocchi!)

A further 19 hour bus ride brought us south to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, where we arrived yesterday. We had read in our Lonely Plant travel guide about the tradition in Uruguay of many restaurants serving gnocchi on the 29th of each month, just before pay day. Why our obsession ? Well, it is Heather´s favourite dish ! We didn´t quite make it to Uruguay in time, although we intend travelling there for a few days. We discovered that many restaurants in downtown Buenos Aires follow the same routine, and last night filled ourselves with enough to spare to cover for lunch today. Buenos Aires so far is fantastic, with many historic buildings, parks and green areas, ornate churches, restaurants and cafes, and some very friendly people. Astonishingly we have found some downtown accommodation that is cheaper than any other place in Argentina on our travels so far (and it is school holidays). We have already walked for hours, and seen amongst other sites the pink palace (Casa Rosada), where Eva Peron, and many subsequent political leaders, have given famous speeches to the crowds from the balcony.

Iguazu Falls, Argentinian Side

Like many locations on this trip, our expectations have been totally exceeded by our visit to the Iguazu Falls. The size of the falls in terms of width and number of separate waterfalls is staggering. The weather was partly cloudy on the first day, which made for some spectacular views and photographs, and many rainbows as the sun broke through the clouds. The infrastructure around the falls is very good - to cope with the number of visitors which was over bearing in places. We visited the falls again today, but caught the earliest bus there before the main tour groups arrived, and were the second group in after a belgian backpacker. The three of us all headed on a 3km forest trail which we had to ourselves for two hours. A beautiful morning walk, and this time we had a great sighting of two wild toucans.

Bus Travel, Argentina

So far our experience of bus travel in Argentina has been good and so much more comfortable than Peru or Bolivia. Yesterday we completed a series of trips lasting 29 hours, our longest trip yet: Cafayate to Salta, Salta to Resistencia, and Resistencia to Puerto Iguazu. We are now right up in the north-east corner of Argentina, on the border with Brazil, and the location of the Iguazu Falls. We have dropped in altitude some more and now definitely back in a rain forest area. Our plan is to take another couple of days break before heading south towards Buenos Aires.

Cafayate, North-West Argentina

A combination of very unusual regional characteristics made for a great and varied three day stay in Cafayate - impressive landscape in places (see previous blog entry photos); a very arid environment with vinyards, wineries and wine tasting; a quiet and small little town but filled with character, and good restaurants and food. During our stay we sampled a few of the local wines, and were introduced to a white wine we both enjoyed, specific to Argentina, namely torrontes. On our second day, we hired bicycles and headed out of town for a picnic and what turned into a 30km ride. Not far out of town, we came across hundreds and hundreds of parakeets roosting in oak trees lining a gravel road, the noise deafening as they were disturbed when a car passed.

Quebrada de las Conchas, Cafayate, Argentina

An extraordinary landscape - other wordly !

North-West Argentina

A stark contrast was evident as we walked across the border into Argentina from Bolivia. The infrastructure and border control was a step up from what we had experienced in Peru or Bolivia. Our journey commenced at 04h00 from Tupiza to the border town of Villazon. Subsequent to that we have travelled into north-west argentina to the city of Salta, and a day later a few hours further south to the small town of Cafayate. The town is a great base for a few days stay before heading east. Argentina is considerably more expensive than either Peru or Bolivia, especially the accommodation, but what goes with that is some certainty that there will always be a hot shower and the bus will be on time and in good working order.

Tupiza, Bolivia

A far cry from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but we did go horse riding one day in the region of their last stand, close to Tupiza, Bolivia. The river gorge was beautiful with eroded sandstone features, and riding along at the horses pace was tranquil and relaxing. Tupiza is more famous for being one end, the other being Uyuni, of the tour that goes past volcanoes, blue and red lagoons, and the largest salt flats in the world, namely, Salar de Uyuni. We must be amongst only a few tourists/backpackers who pass through south-western Bolivia and do not do the tour. We decided we are Bolivia´d out after almost five weeks in the country, and looking forward to getting into Argentina. A possibility is to do the salt flats tour on our way back up the continent for our return flight out of Lima. We had our first attempted theft on the bus trip from Potosi to Tupiza, before the bus had even left the terminal. Heather noticed immediately her day pack was taken, and we were able to get the backpack returned without any further incident.

Potosi, Bolivia

We have travelled up in altitude again and are now above 4000m in the ciy of Potosi, which used to be the silver mining capital of the world. The advantage of low cost backpacking travel is that we get to experience a bit more of the local culture and lifestyle. At times we make the decision to stay in a private reserve, nicer hostel or eat at a more expensive restaurant. A lot of the time though, and especially in Bolivia, we have got closer we think to seeing and understanding the local poeple. We travel on the normal buses, collectivos, walk everywhere in the towns and eat cheaply (stomach problems permitting !) We couldn´t describe some of these experiences as enjoyable, but certainly eye-opening, humbling, a definite growth in ourselves, and understanding of the daily challenges other people face in the world. A direct example of this has been the last couple of days where we have understood a bit about the mining operations and conditions close to Potosi. In Sucre one evening, we watched a documentary, The Devil´s Miner (2005), on child miners in the Cerro Rico, the silver mine just outside Potosi. The film was shocking and described the life of a 14 year old boy who had worked underground since the age of 10 in unbelievably bad conditions. He was the sole provider for his fatherless family, and also managed to fit in school studies as well around his mine shifts. Out of 5000 miners still working the huge deposit, an estimated 800 are children, despite government laws prohibiting it. In the life of the mine of over 450 years, over 8 million people are estimated to have died from working in the mine, many due to silicosis pnuemonia. Most miners are not espected to live beyond the age of 45. The film set us up well, as this morning we joined a tour to the mine that included the miners market, small refinery, and a tour into the mine itself. The tour was very well run and organised, but the conditions underground are primitive, very manual, unsafe and very unhealthy. After my short stint in South Africa working on a deep gold mine, I lasted just to the end of Level 1 and had had enough. Heather, the real trooper, continued on down to Level 2 and 3, and just found the conditions awful.

Plush Crested Jays, Amboro National Park

El Refugio Los Volcanes, Amboro National Park

For three days out of Samaipata, we stayed at a private lodge located in a spectacular area of Amboro National Park, surrounded by steep sandstone hills. The cloud forest was dense, and the walks awesome. Our guide was a young teenager boy of the Bolivian family running the lodge, and he had great skill in hearing and spotting the cloud forest birdlife, and other animal life. The place was very tranquil and peaceful. Throughout the day we heard the frequent calls from flocks of parakeets flying above the forest canopy, of which we definitely identified at least three different species. Tracks of puma were also visible in the soft river sand.

Inca Wall, El Fuerte, Samaipata

Samaipata, Bolivia

This morning we arrived in Sucre, the judicial capital of Boliva, after a rough overnight bus ride from Samaipata. We had based ourselves in the quaint, quiet little village of Samaipata for five days investigating the local area as well as a part of the Amboro National Park. We had gained altitude from the low lying rain forests to between 1500 and 2000m, as the village is located in the Cordillera Oriental, and with huge stands of cloud forest in the area. On our first afternoon we visited a nearby archaelogical site, named El Fuerte, dating back to pre-Inca days. We also had a great walk the next day through some of the countryside to a series of three waterfalls. We hired a local guide, Marco (see photo), who was very cheerful but hard of hearing. As appears to be typical of the bolivian guides, they all carry a large machete. Bolivians love salt with their food, and we have been told a local can survive in the jungle with just his machete and salt. If he happens to have forgotten his salt, he should return to the city and buy some !

Bolivia Blahs

A few days that have not quite gone according to plan and our research, and we are currently based in Santa Cruz for a couple of nights. Stomach bugs are just a part of this type of travel in South America, and after my extended struggle in the highlands of central Peru, Heather has not had a good response to Bolivian food. Our stay at the wildlife rehabilitation centre lasted just one night of camping. On arrival we were surprised to find a small army of 50+ volunteers already there, and we spent part of the afternoon helping with construction work - not at all what we aniticipated. Our bus trip yesterday was miserable lasting 12.5 instead of the planned 5 hrs. Three extended stops for flat tyres with the bus having no spares. The Lonely Plant travel guide notes the pessimism, melancholy and sometimes rebellion of Argentinians that has been shaped by the historic political turmoil of the country. Our experience is that this is also directly applicable to Bolivia, who maybe just in the last couple of years, finally has a president who is working for the people of the country. Nearly 200 changes in government in its last 181 years as a republic. In general, though with exceptions, we have had little of the friendliness and helpfulness we found in Peru. Bolivia is also very run down, and it is obvious that it is the poorest of the South American countries. Very sad when we have experienced just a small slice of the magnificent natural areas in the country, epitomised by the Madidi National Park with one of the greatest biodiversities in the world (over 10% of the world´s bird species), and a variety of indigenous cultures.

Asencion de Guarayos

We arrived in Asencion de Guarayos late last night, on our way later today to a wildlife rehabilitation centre called Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (www.intiwarayassi.org), where we hope to volunteer for two weeks. We had travelled by bus from Trinidad after flying there from Rurrenabaque. Again we had chosen the flying option, (not too expensive), rather than a 16 to 18 hour bus ride. Trinidad is a simple busy town with very few tourists, and in fact most travellers head to Rurrenabaque from La Paz, and directly back to La Paz. Motorbikes and scooters are the main form of transport in these towns, and people of all ages use them. They are also the main form of taxi, and we utilised two to head to the bus station in Trinidad to buy our tickets - no helmets are worn ! We had struggled in Rurrenabaque to get our Bolivian tourist cards extended, with a different version of the rules explained to us on each visit. Eventually mine (Irish) was extended in Rurrenabaque, and in Trinidad we went through three officials to extend Heather´s (Canada). The local official though was very helpful using an online translation program to communicate with us - Spanish to English.

Wildlife of the Bolivian Pampas

Pampas, Rurrenabaque

After a couple of days of relaxation in Rurrenabaque, and a chance to get practical things like laundry done, we headed off on another three days tour out of the tourist hub. Three hours from Rurrenabaque is the small town of Santa Rosa close to the start of the river tour on the Rio Yacuma. Over the three days, most of the time was spent cruising along the river with an astonishingly high density of wildlife. Numerous alligators and caimans could be seen on almost every exposed river bank, as well as many capybaras, three different monkey species, and many, many different bird species. The most amazing sighting though were river dolphins, that appeared to be numerous in number, and on every boat trip we encountered them. One of the activites was a morning walk in the pampas wetland next to the river in search of anaconda. We were unsuccessful, but were not disappointed by this. The level of guiding on the trip was definitely questionable compared to Serere, and from what we have heard, nearly all the pampas tour companies have a similar approach. It is the norm to find and handle the wildlife. Our guide caught a young alligator at night, guests are encouraged to swim with the dolphins, and we spent a morning piranha fishing with no catch and release philosophy. We have heard that the anaconda population of the area is considerably reduced from previous years due to the handling. After the second night sunset stop at one of the camps, it was obvious that our guide had also taken the opportunity to consume beer, and he managed to crash into another boat at some speed on the way back to our camp !