No, this isn’t a post about dogs ;)

WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) is what this post is about. We signed up for the Argentina WWOOFing site, one of the worst websites I’ve seen in a while actually… I’d love to rewrite it. Anyway, once you’ve signed up then you get access to all the contact information for WWOOFing places in that specific country. Costly sign up process if you’re going to a lot of countries. We subsequently heard of workaway which seems like a much better bet as most WWOOFing sites are on it, and it’s one (lower) cost for the entire world.

Anyway, Aldea Lunca is a lovely spot 15km or so outside of Jujuy in the North of Argentina. Their full-time WWOOfing spots were all taken, but they had an option where you pay 910 Pesos per week per person, and you do 4 hours of work too, that was the option we went for.

We took the local bus from Jujuy and were met by two kiwis (Sam and Georgia) off the bus, and with them we walked the 2 1/2 km to Aldea Luna, our home for the following week. There’s zero internet there, and power only for a few hours on Saturday – so bring all your gear fully charged! It’s a 940+ hectare area of mostly bush, but there’s a large garden to tend, a really massive project – they’ve been living there for 10 years now.

There were quite a few people volunteering when we arrived, maybe 10 others? that dropped down a bit while we were there, and I’m sure it’ll pick up again. They pretty much have volunteers all year round. You work 6 days a week. Breakfast at 8am (9 on Sundays, your day off). Then work from 9 -> 1pm, lunch, and the rest of the day off. You’re expected to help with the dishes and cooking and general tidying up too of course. Their system for the washing up was open for gaming, as it was up to you to put your name on the list ;) Still, what sort of terrible terrible people wouldn’t put their name on the list? Not me anyway ;)

We did a lot of weeding, quite a lot of hacking at things with machete’s (good times). There were snakes (didn’t see any) and lots and lots of spiky plants which I’m still picking thorns out from (despite leather gloves). The food was vegetarian, and absolutely fantastically amazingly delicious. Their chilli sauce was just brilliant, I’m hoping the recipe will go on their website sometime. Ever seen a basil plant as big as this one? I hadn’t!

The family were lovely. Maaike had (has) a bit of an upset stomach, and Elizabeth prepared special food for her so that it would be kind on her stomach. Martin was extremely jolly and just a pleasure to work for.

On the Sunday we went for a walk to a highpoint with Sam and Georgia, a nice view about. The dogs came with, and (as per usual) you were picking burrs out of their jackets for days to come.

Probably my favourite task was helping to rebuild the road. There’s an awful lot of rain in the rainy season, and the road basically gets trashed. So, a couple of times a year bits of it have to get rebuilt. Martin discovered that the river on the property is basically the perfect self-refilling quarry. There is every grade of rock, large, medium gravel and sand, perfect for rebuilding roads!. The resource consenting process doesn’t apply so much out in the wilds it seems ;). I did enjoy picking and stringing up the chilli for drying too.

And then all too soon it was time to go. We had planned on being there for 2 weeks, but time is running out as we only have until mid May to get through Bolivia, Peru, Equador and Colombia… fun times ahead :)

Oh, and finally, a picture of a way smaller bug, and a very large spider (that it was beating up quite badly)..

From Tilcara we headed North for a break from our holiday ;) .. we went to the (nice) Malka hostel, a recommendation from Maaike’s friend Eefje. Another stunning drive through a very eroded landscape.

Tilcara has a nice feel about the place. A pre-colonialisation town with a partly restored Incan town/fort. They made a monument to the archaeologists who investigated the place. They built the monument at the top of the town..

Unfortunately several houses, workrooms and a main square used during the Incaic Period were destroyed to build the monument

…
Nowadays, together with the rebuilding of the structures and the vehicle road, the monument is a sign of the different interventions made during the 20th Century. Pucara de Tilcara does not only provide information regarding the people of the past, but also about the development of Archaeology as a discipline.

They also have a lovely botanical garden, featuring lots and lots of cacti!

We also did a quick walk up the hill overlooking the “fort”, which gave a nice view of the prominence of the terrain, as well as the size. There were about 2,000 people living there back in the day.

The following day we did a hike up to Garganta del Diablo, a big canyon a 4km hike from town. It was created during some tectonic upheaval. It looks like there used to be a way to get down to the canyon floor, but it looks like that has been nuked at some point. It’d be fun to abseil down and have a wander about.

Another long bus ride, this time from Mendoza to Salta. 20 odd hours or something. Good time for reading books, and updating my vimwiki_markdown gem. Essential for all those vim readers out there ;)

It has been quite nice using the laptop on the long bus rides, even though I only get 4-5 hours of battery as it’s a little old. However, once in Bolivia and Peru, I’ll not use it on the busses.. too much asking for trouble.

Anyway, Salta, founded in 1582, and with quite a lot of nice 19th century buildings, it’s a nice place to walk around for a day or two. Lots of cathedrals. I quite liked the Franciscan one where they had some nice monastic chants playing over the speakers. I also liked the floor that made me feel like I was in an Escher painting.

A definite highlight was the high altitude archaeology museum. For the Inca, mountains were places of worship, and so there are a lot of burial places high high up on the mountains. There was an amazing find of 3 complete mummies up on Mount Llullaillaco. Somewhat controversial as it meant removing the bodies from the mountain. They were probably from rich families, and the children would have had a ceremonial marriage cementing relations between families / geographical areas. Then the children were brought back to their villages, feted, then brought up the hill, given a ceremonial drink to knock them out and finally buried alive. An interesting exhibition though and worth a visit if you’re in the area.

We also took a visit to the Museo de Ciencias Naturales (natural history?). Lots of armadillos. I likes armadillos I does, and pretty bufferflies, and very tiny birds and a Trilobite

On my brother Matthews advice, we took a day trip from Mendoza to Puente del Inca and surrounds. It’s a beautiful drive up there from Mendoza, crazy eroded rock everywhere.

Along the way passing an old historic (pre Spanish) bridge, now mapped on OpenStreetMaps ;) . They diverted the river a little to keep the bridge from being eroded.

We also passed Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of Asia(6,961m), before heading steeply up to the (old) border crossing into Chile. They have now built a tunnel, so most traffic goes that way. We did see bikers coming up to the crossing though, so I’m not sure if they aren’t allowed through the tunnel, or if they just like a very long hot ascent.

The highlight thought was Puente del Inca. It’s not a bridge made by the Inca ;) but a natural phenomenon, except for the hotel which is built into it (long since abandoned, after upsetting the natural balance of the place). There are a couple of different theories as to how the bridge was formed. Maybe an ice-bridge formed, allowed the calcification to start, then melted. Another that there was a landslide slowing and altering the flow of the river, allowing the salts to precipitate, then the river re-established its natural course and the bridge was left in place. Who knows. Darwin also popped by when he was in the area.

The hotel was used for treating rheumatism, skin diseases and syphilis amongst others. They had to have fans to pump air around, as otherwise you’d suffocate from the high CO2 concentrations. I wonder at what point they worked that out? ;)

One thing to note is the train track (abandoned) which runs all the way up the valley. A huge feat of engineering I guess, but a little expensive to maintain I suppose. I wonder if they’ll turn it into a bike-ride someday?!

19 hours bus ride from Barriloche to Mendoza. Maaike slept most of the way. It’s awful travelling with someone who is a ridiculously good sleeper. Just lying there, sleeping, happily… rubbing it in for 19 hours. Still, I saw an amazingly amazing lightning storm while we drove, so there were some perks ;)

Anyway, Mendoza. I like it. I liked our Hostel (Hostel Mora). Very fast and reliable Internet. And free breakfast, with pancakes! I know it’s not all about the Internet and breakfast, but .. well… makes me happy ;) Mendoza has really nice wide open tree lined streets. There are a surprising amount of holes where the trees are coming up, the sorts of places you could easily fall into while drunk.

Mendoza has been nuked by a few earthquakes over the years, hence the wide streets and not particularly tall buildings. Not everything has been repaired – at least, this monastery wasn’t. The museum we went to had lots of info, but all in Spanish. Google Translate did help, but it’d be very nice to be fluent here.

It is, as you may know, wine country too. We took the bus out to Maipu and walked to a couple of them. We could/should have hired bikes, but we were happy with just the couple we did see. Also chanced across a distillery which is now added to OpenStreetMaps ;) . Tasty stuff. Interesting to hear the (Swiss) proprietors stories about running a business here. Backhanders, rent going up %30 in a few months time (inflation is on the up here), the costs of exporting being fairly prohibitive. Tasty spirits though :) Mind you, the OSM app let me down a tiny bit here, one of the roads we tried to go down was private (had a gate across it), we did find another marked road which we managed to snicker through.

Then the wine tasting. I’m so uncultured, I just enjoy the taste and I’m not too worried about the colour (other than is it reddish or whiteish). I also wonder how much is autosuggestion when they talk about peppery notes etc. Still, learned how you’re supposed to evaluate/appreciate the wine. Also learned that to call yourself a varietal (Malbec etc.) then it depends on the country, but you don’t have to have 100% of that grape in the bottle. In Argentina, you have to have at least 85%.

Another interesting thing we learned was that they combat frost by using fuel oil… ick. In NZ they have big blowers (or helicopters!) to move the air. Seems a little more pleasant (if way more expensive). The other thing we learned was that, due to climate change, they can now grow the Cabernet Sauvingon grape here. Harrumph.