bonnie & clyde

we took our nightbus and arrived early morning in san pedro de atacama, a very quiet and desertlike town with mudbrick houses and tourist agencies abound. we´re not the only tourists here, but it doesn´t matter, the town keeps its cool! first thing first, look for a couple of tours to do around here, because the landscape is amazing and the activities are plentiful! forget what we said about the most beautiful thing we have ever seen, this is the most beautiful thing we´ve ever seen! the same day we did a tour to valle de la luna, including valle de la muerte. it is in fact very much like what a moon landscape would look like, dry as hell and peaky mountains as far as the eye reaches. we stayed till sunset and were lucky enough to have full moon as well. the next day we got up very early as we left for tatio geysers up north at 4 o´clock. the ride was bumpy and above all long but we got there just before sunrise to see the damps of the 80 geysers painting the landscape. beautiful beautiful! afterwards we headed to the hot water springs, a small swimming pool at 4300 meters, but hot hot hot. chances don´t come that often to be doing this! one more day to stay in san pedro before heading off to argentina again, and the last day we went to the pukara de quitor, an ancient incafortress.
the next day we took our bus to salta, a whopping 10 hours, and 2 customs to pass by. it didn´t really matter as the landscape along the way was again one of the most beautiful ever seen with many mountains with many many different colours. if that would bore us we had a trilogy of airport disaster movies to keep us entertained. they showed airport 75, they showed airport 77 and to finish it off the showed airport 79!!! glad to arrive in salta.
Salta is a pretty bustling town, not too big but certainly big enough. very nice to stroll around in. the firts night we went to the barrio next to our hostal, where many bars and restaurants reside. the day afterwards we went walking around the city and had a sniff at the local market San Miguel. We finished the day by looking up a concert in our barrio.
Next we´ll be taking off for the Quebradas surrounding Salta, we´ll keep you posted!
ciao

We have had some lazy days up until now, but we needed it after Santiago!
We saw some beautiful wonders of mother nature though, Elqui valley, so nice and quiet... a fertile valley in between dry mountains where the national drink of Chile is made, Pisco (Pico Sour, mmm). Nothing to do in these little towns in the valley, but to enjoy the view...
We wanted to get back to Argentina from there, but this seemed to be impossible, as there was only one pass to cross the Andes, and there was no public transport on that pass, only a few cars if you are lucky, but we decided not to take the risk to go hitchhiking, as we heard that some other tourists had to return... so no other possibility but to stay in Chile, and cross the border with Argentina in the north of Chile, but no worries
We decided to stop over on the way to the north, in a nice beach resort, Bahia inglesa, with beautifull white beaches and a turqoise sea, another day of relaxing...
On the 8 hour bus ride, we litteraly saw not a single human being, only desert, dry mountains, and lots of sand... really beautifull scenery, incredible, wide planes with nothing as far as you can see, it makes one dream away...
Tonight we take a night bus to the north, San Pedro de Atacama, crossing more desert!

Hello!
At the moment, we are in Santiago, Chile, a really great city!
Last week we stayed around Uspallata, Las Cuevas, to enjoy the nature, beautiful! At the hostel there, we were only with 5 guests, so it was very quiet, very nice! We did some great walks at Parque Aconcagua, Puente del Inca, and the last day there we walked up on a mountain to the top where there was a statue of the Christ, and the border between Chile and Argentina, a beautiful view! High, sandy mountains, quite dry, but very impressive! (see pictures facebook)
Friday we arrived in Santiago. We are staying with a friend we met in Brasil, who showed us Santiago's nightlife (lots of fun), and daylife... and we went to Valparaïso, a really beautiful town by the sea, very artistic, built in the mountains!
Tomorrow we are heading of to the north of Chile, see some stars!
Seeya!

Where were we... in Buenos Aires!
Well, we had a really great time there, especially because we met a lot of Argentineans there, or 'Porteños' (that's how they call the Argentinians from BA, it's a bit of a denigrating denomination people from the rest of Argentina give to the inhabitants of Buenos Aires, but nowadays it's a neutral denomination).
We met a really nice Argentinean couple, who took us out for some beers, then an Argentinean guy we met in Puerto Iguazu, who took us out for some 'parilla', the local 'asado', bbq, worldfamous, Bart is going crazy with the amount of meat they eat here, it's like they eat a whole cow at once! but really tasty!
We also went to visit the family of an Argentinean friend of ours, and they received us like they would receive their own family! The sister and her boyfriend picked us up at our hostel, then the father drove us around in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where we went to visit the house of the brother and the house of the mother. At the evening we all ate together, we discussed and laughed a lot, really nice!
Buenas Aires has a lot of different great areas, we stayed at San Telmo, then you have Palermo, the shopping neigbourhood (tha's where I went crazy and Recoleta. where they have a huge cemetary, which is like a village in itself, with streets wher you can get lost, and where Evita has been burried.

Then we went to Rosario, a smaller city, but still quite big and western, but we met a friend of us there we met also in Puerto Iguazu, who took us out for some beer at the riverside.
The next day we went to Cordoba, a nicer and smaller city. But as we were really looking for some nature after all the cities, we went to visit the little towns around Cordoba. The first day we had bad luck with the weather, so we could not actually go hiking, but the next day we went to Belgrano, a beautiful town, where we did some hiking up to a mountain, with some great views, really nice! We met some people on the way (a Columbian guy and Argentinean girl) who invited us immediately to join there picknick (we hadn't even presented ourselves yet, the people are extremely open here!) So we met them again at night, for some 'fernet con coca', the local drink. Then we headed back to our hostel, the nicest and most peaceful hostel we have had up until now I guess, like a farm, in the middle of the forest, with a swimming pool on the hill, relax...

Then we took a nightbus to Mendoza, famous for its winery, and they were just celebrating there annual wine festival! So we went to the festival, in a beautiful amphitheatre on a mountain, where the special guest was Mercedes Sosa! The next day we rented some bikes and went on a wine tour, we visited some wineries, with the usual tasting... the ride back home was a bit more difficult
But on the bus or at the hostal (it is not really clear), I got bitten by fleas! At least, that's what we think it is, because today I went to the hospital (as it is only getting worse and the medication does not work) and the doctor admitted that he 'really had no idea what it was'! really comforting... I am covered with bites, and it itches sooo much, I don't get a lot of sleep, but I guess that's what a 'real' traveller has to go through right ?

So today we arrived at Uspallata, and now we have really fled the big city, because it is all nature here, a gorgeous scenery, with lakes and high mountains covered with snow at the tops. We are sleeping in a tiny town in the valley, where there is nothing to do, but it is really beautiful here!

For our pictures go to my facebook! Let us know how youa re doing!
ciau!

The Iguazu falls are one of the most beautiful things on earth,we were a bit blown away by its magnitude and beauty,it's (again the most beautiful thing we have seen in our lives! The first day we did the argentinian side, where you get a panoramic overview of the falls,it was really sunny with lots of rainbows in the water,we thought this could not get any better... until we crossed the border and saw the argentinian side! There you almost walk into the falls ; you can't be afraid of hights because at some moments you are really on top of a huge fall,you get really wet,...and the best part comes at the end: Devil's gorge, it's impossible to describe,you will have to see the pictures!
At the moment we are in Buenas Aires, an incredible city! It has like a double personality, at the one hand it is really hip and cool and lot's of things to do (they have the hippest shopping neighbourhood I ever saw!),but on the other hand it is so poor and corrupt,with a lot of hidden criminality. We met some Argentinian people and they explained us the actual situation of Argentina,and it is quite different from what you get to see as a tourist...
It feels really western and european here, it reminds us a lot of Barcelona. We also met a lot of argentinians already,who are really open-minded people,so we are already invited to birthday parties and BBQ's
Hasta luego!