Heh, so, as mentioned in the last post, I’d had an evil night before this trip and was feeling quite ill in the morning. Fortunately though, the hostel staff took very good care of me and found some decent pro-biotics to help fix the system. Our other two fellow adventurers on this trip (Cam and Sophie – both from Christchurch!!) also had stomach issues! While a bad thing, in the sense that it’s not nice having stomach issues, it was good in the sense that we could all relate to each other, tell war stories etc. ;)

Anyway, the first day was quite a long, covering a lot of distance. Fortunately there were enough and frequent stop for all necessities ;)

We were to see more of the llamas (a few different species?) llama & vicuña(smaller). Our excellent guide, Elvis, told us that llamas are the most polite animals because they all toilet in the same areas. It was quite hard to know what was fact from fiction with Elvis, however, you can see the quite distinct areas where the animals do seem to toilet.

Then it was time for lunch. I forgot to take a picture of what I ate. The food was excellent, however, I was just eating rice this first day. Maaike had her own back from when I was eating all the delicious food at Aldea Luna and she was the one having plain rice ;)

Breakdowns on the trip were not infrequent on the first day. Not our car to be fair, one of the others. Elvis explained that while in town all the companies compete for the business, out in the desert they’re one big family (for security purposes). Still, I wonder if there are sharp words when back in town for the more lackadaisical operators… I wonder.

Next up was the “Ghost town” of San Antonio. According to Elvis it was the top three “richest towns” in the world, back in its heyday. I can’t find any sources to back up that statement though. That said, it was a major centre of the Spanish colonial extraction of gold & silver, so, I’m sure a lot of wealth was extracted from here anyway. Had a population of 2,000 odd.

Then a little more driving to reach the hostel for the evening. We were all a little knackered by the time we got in, sometime around 8pm ish. A long day, but a good day.

The next morning up early and off to see some llamas. Photogenic creatures to be sure.

They also tell jokes to each other, as you can see in these before & after photos.

Then a quick drive to one of the first (smaller) salt flats. They’re mined for various salts, lithium, regular sodium chloride and borax – which is used in detergents. We did see some flamingoes here, which made us very excited. You can see in the first (green) picture below here, a quite fragile habitat, complete with signs telling you not to walk on it. It was disappointing to see some French tourists running across the mounds. They did get off once told… still..

This entire area is littered with volcanoes, and we passed some boulders which had been ejected in one of the eruptions.

We arrived at our first major lake.. which I think was Laguna Verde. Here we saw a cycle tourist.. I didn’t manage to talk to him, but, I hear, he was having a pretty hard time of it. It’d be very very difficult going, what with the endless miles of gravel, dust, salt, and very little water you can drink. I believe he’d started at Alaska 8 or so months before. Solid effort.

Next up was a soak in the hot springs followed by lunch. A lunch I ate, a milestone if ever there was one.

After lunch it was on to a thermal area. Not particularly (ok, at all) roped off. I was actually quite surprised to hear that there had only been 1 death in the last few years (a Chilean jumping up for a selfie beside a bubbling mud pool…). Nasty way to go. Someone did burn their legs extremely badly a month ago, though I don’t think they lost them. Respect the boiling mud folks.

Next up was Laguna Colorada, the red lake. We were extremely lucky to have some flamingoes very close to the shore were we could easily photograph them… I did try to cull the photos down, but hey, there were just too many I liked ;). The red color is caused by sediments and a certain type of algae in the water.

The next day started off with visiting Árbol de piedra (stone tree) and other formations around it. They’re ventifacts (what an awesome name that is). Sandstone in this case.

Ventifacts are rocks that have been abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished by wind-driven sand or ice crystals

We also saw lots of fossilised? coral dating back to when the entire area was one massive lake. I think Elvis was suggesting that it was all at sea level once upon a time (before the Andean uplift), but again, I can’t see any evidence to support that, and 3500m would be an awful lot of uplift from sea level. More lakes, more flamingoes at close up.

We had lunch at Laguna Negra, one of the few (if not only) freshwater lakes in the area. I think the rocks were volcanic silicia ventifacts ;) The moss grows at 1mm / year.

After lunch we had a quick stop at an area of exposed old lava flow. Where the rock has been exposed it has eroded less quickly than the surrounds, being harder volcanic rock. You can also see the unfortunate state of not having toileting facilities, and people not even attempting to bury their deposits. It’s a shame really. I guess the cost of putting in and maintaining toilets would be fairly prohibitive, but still. Also pictured is Elvis (with shades) and Fernando (our driver)

Next up – the salt flats themselves – next post :)

Our time in Argentina was drawing to a close. After Aldea Luna we headed back to Jujuy for 2 nights. Time to do some much needed washing & eat some ice-cream before getting the bus to Bolivia. Yes, eating the ice-cream was important, as Maaike has been telling me horror stories about not being able to eat ice-cream in Bolivia!! Quelle Horreur.

5 hours to the border. Climbed up quite a bit, we’d be at 2,800m or so by the evening.

Maaike had said it was likely to take all day before we’d get through the crossing, however, things have changed in Bolivia in the 8 years since she was last there. The crossing only took 45 minutes. Funnily enough, we had crossed into Bolivia before actually getting our passports stamped. I wonder what would have happened when we tried to leave Bolivia without having been stamped..

There were heaps of money changers, so we were able to change the Pesos for Bolivianos. The exchange rate was actually quite reasonable really, knowing that you’re stuck ‘n all.

Then a minibus trip to Tupiza. Maaike .. complained.. about how the roads were paved and about how lucky I had it. I like being lucky ;)

In Tupiza we booked a 4 day tour of the (worlds biggest) salt flats at Salar de Uyuni. I also came down with a rather nasty D&V bug, second time this trip :( . The hostel/tour operators gave me some probiotics (pictured below), which cleared things up within 24 hours. I had thought this was actually an antibiotic, but it isn’t.. it’s the bacterium Saccharomyces boulardii and it basically corrects the balance in the stomach… Well, I guess it is bacteria you’re introducing.. does this mean the bugs inside the stomach will build up resistance?! one hopes not. Anyone qualified feel free to comment ;)

It really was magic stuff, I was feeling basically perfect within 24 hours, and I don’t need to feel bad about contributing to antibiotic resistance either (I think)

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