How do you like my new map?
I have also created new album for you to check out.
I have also created new album for you to check out.
Monday, 3/3. 4,170
4,170 is the highest point in the Ands that i reached today.
I went to Purmamarca, my last easily reachable point if interest in Jujuy. The plan was to go to Salinas Grandes somehow. This is a little spoiler before Bolivian solar Uyuni (and uyuni is one of two reasons I am in South America).
Carnival continues all week and Purmamarca is not an exemption. However, restaurants are still closed for siesta during the day, so I did not have a chance to try llama meat. Oh, well, in Bolivia then.
I also found a cemetry, of course. Unlike in BA, graves are with photos. And a lot of photos. They pretty much tell all life story of a person.
Salinas are 64 km away through the mountains. I could feel how altitude were changing: although the scenefy was absolutely fantastic with all these colours and cactuses sticking out of the rock, I could not open my eyes, i felt so sleepy. Note for Peru: go up slow and buy coca.
Salinas are beautiful and surreal, blinding (especially on sunny day without sunglasses - well planed as usual).
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Tuesday, 4/03. Quebrada de las Conches.
In order to save some money on accommodation, I took a night bus from Jujuy back to Salta. I planned to go either to Cafayate or Cachi, depending which bus comes first. I a bit overestimated journey time and arrived at 4am. First bus (to Cafayate) was at 6.50am.
Ok, 3 hours of sleeping, reading, staring in front of me and I am again sleeping comfortably on the bus. Which is a shame because the road from Salta to Cafayate is very beautiful (as I could see everytime I opened my right eye - just to close it again).
Nevertheless, I had a chance to enjoy the scenery on the evening tour around la Quebrada.
Mountains look surreal: like in the movies when they use this green/blue screen behind to create surroundings later. Everything around moves, but the mountains stay still and they areso huge, it is unbelievable. The colours are rich and vary: red, green, yellow, brown - and it is just mountains! With blue skies, green trees and running white water.
We've passed by very small village with just a few houses, and I could swear a parrot that was sitting on the roof kept repeating 'Hola bonita' slowly moving closer and smiled (or was it heat stroke?)!
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Wednesday, 5/3. In vino veritas
Cafayate is quiet small town ~200km from Salta. It is also Nothern capital of wine making in Argentina. Wineries are here in every street and around. They look very Italian and with mountains, vineyards and olive trees it would look like Italy or Greece if not cactuses on the slopes.
I actually started drinking wine yesterday when after the tour we went to one of the wineries for dinner with a group from the tour. I met a girl I was with in Iguazu!
Ahora vamos hablar Espanol, necesito practicar.
Decidi ir a las cataratas en 6km de la ciudad, pero me conoci una pareja de Buenos Aires en la ruta que fue a la Bodega cerca de cataratas. Como siempre (pff), cambie mis planes y fui a la Bodega con ellos.
La Bodega es una de mas mejores de la region. Despues un visita corta, habia degustacion de vinos locales, torrontes y malbec. No me gusto mucho.
Claro, era tarde y no fui a ls cataratas.
Por la tarde, visite una otra Bodega cerca de mi hostel. This one has huge museum with barrels and old Italian equipment and no stuff around.
Here I think I was stealing grapes with a guy who works in a restaurant at the Winery. I have had so much grape today, I can barely breath. It is very sweet, I do not understand why people waste such a good product on wine...
...I hope I will not have problems with my stomach tomorrow, I need to go back to Salta.
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Thursday, 6/3. Way back
У меня болезнь. Назовем ее автобусная сонница. Я уже писала про нее: как только я сажусь в автобус, я сплю. Ок, в прошлый раз по дороге в Кашафате я спала, потому что ночевала на автостанции. Обратно я взяла билет на днейвной рейс, чтобы оценить красоты Руты 40.
Хватило меня минут на 40. Потом глаза как-то сами собой закрылись. Ну как? Как можно увидеть страну, если я, блин сплю все время, что не сплю??
С такими мыслями я вернулась в Сальту.
Few observations: this nation likes to queue more than English! There is no people in one ATM, but they will stoically queue to another for half an hour!
I got used to hear 'Que linda' from european looking guys, but when quechua tells me 'Hola, mi amor', it causes cognitive dissonance. For some unknown reason I think that they are better behaved and more discreet. What a mistake.
Friday, 7/3. Hola, Buenos Aires
I am unexpectedly back to BA! Буэнос Айрес - город-праздник! I felt like coming back home.
How did I end up in BA? Beginning this week I have contacted a couple with whom we sort of agree to go hiking. They were flying from Salta to BA mid week to go to Ushuaia! First, they were really close. Second, Ushuaia!!! So I booked my tickets and contacted my host in BA to let them know that I will be in BA for one night and if they wanted to meet.
And yes! I had wonderful asado in Parilla (finally checked!) with Mana, Diego and their friends. There is huge advantage to eat in Parilla with Argentines, they know what to eat with what wine, how it should be cooked... and they pay.
We went to fancy night club after, where you need to know password to come in. I was not allowed to enter with my bagpack, but there were people who know people, so I got in.
Next morning I left at 3.30am to catch my flight.
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Saturday, 8/3. End of the World
I am in Ushuaia!!! End of the world, the most southern city of Argentina, gates to Antarctica.
It is summer, but it is cold like in Europe now, snow covers top of the mountains. The landscape changes every hours: it was snowing during the day in the mountains.
Place looks very scandinavian, crazy views all around, can make photos of the same places again and again and it will look different. It is also crazy expensive.
As I did not sleep all night, I could not understand first what I should do and was walking up and down the main street for a while. Then I met with my friends here, also (surprise!) Another girl from the school was here. We went to Uruguay together. She is staying in the same hostel as I (surprise!).
It is end of the World: everythin is closed here on Sunday, so any excursions, tickets should be bught today. Not time to think!
It is end of the World, but there are plenty of people from everywhere. I even saw huge group of Russians here!
As usual in hostels, people are open for communication. I started talking with Israelis, got invited to share dinner with them. At the end we went to get some pizzas with Emily (girl from the school), german couple and English guy. Guess where English guy is from?
Cirencester. Studied in Stroud. Stroud. Stroud. It follows me.
Ok, he is pilot in Hong Kong now. But Stroud.
How is Stroud/Stonehouse/Gloucester/Cheltenham doing?
They have Irish pub here that actually looks like a pub (not Irish though), and it is full of foreigners. My roommate is right: she might be the only Argentinian tourist in whole Ushuaia.
Stroud. Can't believe it.
P.S. They actually acknowledge international women's day here. Cute
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Sunday, 3/3. Penguins, penguins, penguins
Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino! Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino! Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino! Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino!
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4,170 is the highest point in the Ands that i reached today.
I went to Purmamarca, my last easily reachable point if interest in Jujuy. The plan was to go to Salinas Grandes somehow. This is a little spoiler before Bolivian solar Uyuni (and uyuni is one of two reasons I am in South America).
Carnival continues all week and Purmamarca is not an exemption. However, restaurants are still closed for siesta during the day, so I did not have a chance to try llama meat. Oh, well, in Bolivia then.
I also found a cemetry, of course. Unlike in BA, graves are with photos. And a lot of photos. They pretty much tell all life story of a person.
Salinas are 64 km away through the mountains. I could feel how altitude were changing: although the scenefy was absolutely fantastic with all these colours and cactuses sticking out of the rock, I could not open my eyes, i felt so sleepy. Note for Peru: go up slow and buy coca.
Salinas are beautiful and surreal, blinding (especially on sunny day without sunglasses - well planed as usual).
Tuesday, 4/03. Quebrada de las Conches.
In order to save some money on accommodation, I took a night bus from Jujuy back to Salta. I planned to go either to Cafayate or Cachi, depending which bus comes first. I a bit overestimated journey time and arrived at 4am. First bus (to Cafayate) was at 6.50am.
Ok, 3 hours of sleeping, reading, staring in front of me and I am again sleeping comfortably on the bus. Which is a shame because the road from Salta to Cafayate is very beautiful (as I could see everytime I opened my right eye - just to close it again).
Nevertheless, I had a chance to enjoy the scenery on the evening tour around la Quebrada.
Mountains look surreal: like in the movies when they use this green/blue screen behind to create surroundings later. Everything around moves, but the mountains stay still and they areso huge, it is unbelievable. The colours are rich and vary: red, green, yellow, brown - and it is just mountains! With blue skies, green trees and running white water.
We've passed by very small village with just a few houses, and I could swear a parrot that was sitting on the roof kept repeating 'Hola bonita' slowly moving closer and smiled (or was it heat stroke?)!
Wednesday, 5/3. In vino veritas
Cafayate is quiet small town ~200km from Salta. It is also Nothern capital of wine making in Argentina. Wineries are here in every street and around. They look very Italian and with mountains, vineyards and olive trees it would look like Italy or Greece if not cactuses on the slopes.
I actually started drinking wine yesterday when after the tour we went to one of the wineries for dinner with a group from the tour. I met a girl I was with in Iguazu!
Ahora vamos hablar Espanol, necesito practicar.
Decidi ir a las cataratas en 6km de la ciudad, pero me conoci una pareja de Buenos Aires en la ruta que fue a la Bodega cerca de cataratas. Como siempre (pff), cambie mis planes y fui a la Bodega con ellos.
La Bodega es una de mas mejores de la region. Despues un visita corta, habia degustacion de vinos locales, torrontes y malbec. No me gusto mucho.
Claro, era tarde y no fui a ls cataratas.
Por la tarde, visite una otra Bodega cerca de mi hostel. This one has huge museum with barrels and old Italian equipment and no stuff around.
Here I think I was stealing grapes with a guy who works in a restaurant at the Winery. I have had so much grape today, I can barely breath. It is very sweet, I do not understand why people waste such a good product on wine...
...I hope I will not have problems with my stomach tomorrow, I need to go back to Salta.
Thursday, 6/3. Way back
У меня болезнь. Назовем ее автобусная сонница. Я уже писала про нее: как только я сажусь в автобус, я сплю. Ок, в прошлый раз по дороге в Кашафате я спала, потому что ночевала на автостанции. Обратно я взяла билет на днейвной рейс, чтобы оценить красоты Руты 40.
Хватило меня минут на 40. Потом глаза как-то сами собой закрылись. Ну как? Как можно увидеть страну, если я, блин сплю все время, что не сплю??
С такими мыслями я вернулась в Сальту.
Few observations: this nation likes to queue more than English! There is no people in one ATM, but they will stoically queue to another for half an hour!
I got used to hear 'Que linda' from european looking guys, but when quechua tells me 'Hola, mi amor', it causes cognitive dissonance. For some unknown reason I think that they are better behaved and more discreet. What a mistake.
Friday, 7/3. Hola, Buenos Aires
I am unexpectedly back to BA! Буэнос Айрес - город-праздник! I felt like coming back home.
How did I end up in BA? Beginning this week I have contacted a couple with whom we sort of agree to go hiking. They were flying from Salta to BA mid week to go to Ushuaia! First, they were really close. Second, Ushuaia!!! So I booked my tickets and contacted my host in BA to let them know that I will be in BA for one night and if they wanted to meet.
And yes! I had wonderful asado in Parilla (finally checked!) with Mana, Diego and their friends. There is huge advantage to eat in Parilla with Argentines, they know what to eat with what wine, how it should be cooked... and they pay.
We went to fancy night club after, where you need to know password to come in. I was not allowed to enter with my bagpack, but there were people who know people, so I got in.
Next morning I left at 3.30am to catch my flight.
Saturday, 8/3. End of the World
I am in Ushuaia!!! End of the world, the most southern city of Argentina, gates to Antarctica.
It is summer, but it is cold like in Europe now, snow covers top of the mountains. The landscape changes every hours: it was snowing during the day in the mountains.
Place looks very scandinavian, crazy views all around, can make photos of the same places again and again and it will look different. It is also crazy expensive.
As I did not sleep all night, I could not understand first what I should do and was walking up and down the main street for a while. Then I met with my friends here, also (surprise!) Another girl from the school was here. We went to Uruguay together. She is staying in the same hostel as I (surprise!).
It is end of the World: everythin is closed here on Sunday, so any excursions, tickets should be bught today. Not time to think!
It is end of the World, but there are plenty of people from everywhere. I even saw huge group of Russians here!
As usual in hostels, people are open for communication. I started talking with Israelis, got invited to share dinner with them. At the end we went to get some pizzas with Emily (girl from the school), german couple and English guy. Guess where English guy is from?
Cirencester. Studied in Stroud. Stroud. Stroud. It follows me.
Ok, he is pilot in Hong Kong now. But Stroud.
How is Stroud/Stonehouse/Gloucester/Cheltenham doing?
They have Irish pub here that actually looks like a pub (not Irish though), and it is full of foreigners. My roommate is right: she might be the only Argentinian tourist in whole Ushuaia.
Stroud. Can't believe it.
P.S. They actually acknowledge international women's day here. Cute
Sunday, 3/3. Penguins, penguins, penguins
Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino! Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino! Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino! Penguins, penguins, penguins! Пингвины, пингвины, пингвины! Pingüino, pingüino, pingüino!
ПИНГВИНЫЫЫЫЫЫ!!!
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