Tim_Day 34-37 (Salta)

Day 34
We woke up a little tired and a little run over. I wanted to get up and start doing erronds early since it seems to take so much time to get anything done. We ran pretty much the entire day doing erronds. About 10 hours worth. You would´nt think you could spend that much time but you can and I can´t figure out anyway to cut the time down. All we end up doing is circles.

But after a really hard day we had a rental car parked at our place, food for 2 days, our reservations on a bus leaving in a couple days, and a couple cigars for the road the next day.

We decided to rent a car for 2 days to see some of the country around Salta. The guy who sold us our bus tickets in San Martin said that the trip we were about to take was the best trip of his life. That sold us on it and we put up the cash to get the car.

We sleep ok that night. Not to good overall and we only got about 6 hours total since we wanted to walk up early to get out of town. The bad nights of sleeping were really starting to wear on us and we were overall getting ¨catty¨with each other.



Day 35
Woke up bright and early in the morning. In fact it wasn´t bright it was actually dark but by 7:00 when we headed out it was bright. I backed the little FIAT that we rented out of the small gateway and off the curb. Damn city. I was really worried having such nice car in a country of crazy people. When I say nice car that´s nice car for down here. Not nice car in America. I mean it had four wheels and only a couple small dents.

Anyway we hit the road and I was shifting through gears and running red lights like a crazy Argentine driver in no time flat. We found our way to the road they suggested. The pavement lasted for about the first 30 minutes and the next 10 hours were spent off roading on old ass backcountry dirt roads. It was so much fun. We were crossing rivers and scrapping the bottom of the car all over the place. It was great. Ana wasn´t so excited since she had never been off road before in a car.

The landscapse was magaical as we started there were thick mountains with a the road following the river all the way up. We never got going to fast because the second you thought the road was good there would be a little river in front of you that you needed to cross. We say some really small communities in the outback. Little towns in the middle of nowhere. Houses were made of mud bricks and even the ceiling was covered with mud. Cactuses were all over the place and the landscape just keep unfolding infront of us as we drove through it. It seemed like every new turn and valley was a new and amazing mountain range with brialliant red, greens, yellows, oranges, and browns.

After about 5 hours we stopped in a little town for lunch. The people are starting to look more indian and more Bolivian. What I expected to see since were not to far from the border. It´s nice to see the change in people and cultures. I love Argentina but I want to explore some new people and we were starting to do that. The people in this little town were very poor. They didn´t have much at all and it´s what I´m sure were going to see a ton of in Bolivia. There faces show the hard lives they live. There leather dark skin shows how hot the summers must get in the area.

It was funny to see them stare at you. Ana experienced the same thing. They would stare at you for an uncomfortable amount of time with a face that seemed to have no expression. It wasn´t doesn´t seem like they are judging you or thinking bad or good thoughts about you. It´s like they were mezmorized for a moment and information only seemed to be being captured in their heads not processed. It a stare you see in kids all the way to adults. It was a funny feeling to feel that way again. I want to run from it but at the same time it´s not threatening just different.

We got back on the road after I ate my triple decker peanut butter sandwich. Which was great. I bought 2 jars of peanut butter in Pucon. They had a little section of exotic food and I paid an arm and a leg for those two jars. Well worth it though.

The roads after lunch got progressivly worse. People told us they were unpassable a couple days before but we should be able to make it now. That´s always reasuring to hear. I told Ana don´t worry but inside I was a little worried we would be stuck for a while somewhere. I don´t think it would be that bad just would have sucked.

Lucikly though we made it the next 5 hours to the town of Cafayate where we were assurred paved roads for the rest of the journey. We did pass a couple of people that said we should bring water for the car not to over heat. But it wasn´t that bad and it just made Ana more worried.

The landscape was amazing on the last part of the route. It was like driving through what I thought Mars would look like. Huge bolders in all directions with brialliant colors all over. What made it even more cool was there were only a few cars we saw on the whole road. Being out there by ourselves made it even that much more amazing.

We got into town in Cafayate and got a room. We were beat and we were getting cranky at each other. I was tired of driving and we were in the car for about 12 hours total. Long time. We ate at a local resturant and had some great pizza and another liter of wine. There was an amazing thunderstorm in the distance that created an unbelievable cloudscape on the horizon. Right at sunset it was really magical and I think if you had the right camera and the right shot it could have been an award winning shot.

We ate and drank. And drank. Then drank some more. We found out later that a liter is about 1.5 bottles of wine. We didn´t know that since the wine came in a metal container. That city is know for it´s wine and has massive feilds of vineyards. About 10 times the size of Temecula. I don´t know if it was the wine of the fatigue but me and Ana got pretty drunk. We stumbled to the square and watched a local group of preformers preform for the kids. Blowing fire and stuff. We then bought some small candies and headed home.

Right before we got to our place we saw some foozball tables outside and decided to play one game. We ended up getting in a game with a couple local kids. Was fun. They were having a great time playing with the funny drunk Americans.

We had a blast and finally crashed at the place. Was a very huge day full of adventure and fun. It seemed like that morning was a few days ago there was so much that happened. The funny thing was as tired as we were we both slept really bad that night. First it was too hot. Then we had to get up to put on repellant for the misquitos. Then we woke up and I was cold. I pulled the curtains off the wall and had to repair them in the middle of the night. The dogs were barking all frecking night and I imagined having a 22 and gunning them down. People and music peppered in the mix also to keep us up.

Bottom line was we didn´t get much sleep. It´s was too many nights like that and I think it was the malaria pills were taking. The side effects of the pills are having sleeping problems and bad really vivid dreams. We haven´t had the dreams so much but we did have trouble sleeping and both of us were really restless in general. Oh well.


Day 36
Woke up around 9:00 and ate some breckfast. Headed south to see the city that was hidden in the mist. It ended up being a really cool drive on nice paved roads. Only thing that sucked was the river crossing every .5 miles or so. You can never really rest driving. You always are shifting and breaking. After about 2 hours we made it to the mist valley. Was really cool the mist was so bad I had to have my windsheild wippers on. We found the little city and had some empanadas. They were good and a nice rest. The town was fun and we headed out just after lunch.

We spent the rest of the day going through amazing landscape. Stopping on the side of the road and taking picuters. I´m sure the photos wont´t be that impressive but the feeling when your out there is. The quiet wind and the openess of the space really are impressive.

We made it back to town in the evening right at the perfect time to fight the city traffic. There is no rules on the road and you can never really tell if the street your on is a 2 or one lane road. People do whatever they want. I didn´t like it since I didn´t want to pay for the car if someone else scrached it. Luckily we made it and turned the car in right before they closed at 9:00. It felt like a 1,000 pounds had been lifted from me when I turned in the car.

We cooked some really bad pasta for dinner. It´s always nice to have a crappy meal after a long hard day. But luckily the wine was good we had with it. At only one dollar a bottle I think we´ll be drinking allot more.

We both slept better that night. I took a sleeping pill to insure that since the next day we would be sleeping on a bus again.


Day 37
Woke up and started running erronds again. We found out that money is going to be a pain in the ass on the first part of our trip so were working that out. Also send some cd´s of images home since the mail in Bolivia won´t be as nice as it is here in Argentina.

Were now sitting in a little cafe paying the cheapest price since for internet access. Only 33 cents a minute. It´s nice because we can both catch up on things. Make out VOIP calls and just relax a little. We head out in a couple of hours for the bus station for another fabulous overnight bus ride. We´ll see since we end up at the new city at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Should be another fun filled day.

Were off to Bolivia. Man I hope they have meximelts in Bolvia? At least a Chulupa. So far none of these idiot Argentinian´s understand me when I say I want a number 7 combo with a meximelt on the side. What´s up with this country?

t*