Argentina

I´m writing this from a desert town in Chile called San Pedro. I'm off sandboarding shortly which finishes with a sunset in the lunar valley... sounds cool. The scenery here is the main attraction and most of the tourism here is based around this. These photos were taken on the bus journey over here...

Tomorrow, a group of 6 of us are doing a 3 day tour to Bolivia, which goes past volcanos, geysers, lakes and salt flats. Its pretty tough as its high altitude. Even here, the nights get very cold, so sleeping above 4000m on the tour in a place with no heating is going to be a feat.

The sky here is also very clear so the area attracts a lot of astronomers. Last night we did an astronomy tour of the sky... the planets, milky way and constellations were all totally visiable which was amazing. It was also just about a full moon, so we got a pretty impressive shot through the telescope...

I almost didn't make it here as it was my birthday the night before a 7am coach departure from Salta. After getting to the bus station with 1 minute to spare after virtually no sleep the driver refused to let us on as he thought we were drunk. After a bit of persuasion we made it... there would have been no more buses for 3 days! I spent 3 nights althogether in Salta, in the North of Argentina. Its a big stopping point for travellers going to or coming from Bolivia so its pretty busy with a good night life... hence a good place to hang around for my birthday.

Here's a viw of the city from a cable car accessed mountain....

Before Salta I was in Puerto Madryn... a pretty dull city as it was off season and freezing cold. The only reason people go there is to se the Whales (see pics below) which were awesome....

I also spent some more time in Buenos Aires. Went to a Boca Juniors match which was crazy. The fans are like animals in that place... and the tourists have to be sectioned off...

It was also Argentinas first day of Spring so there was a big party all over the country. Everyone dresses up and stays up partying til dawn...

That's all I have to report for now... got to dash for my sandboarding lesson. The next post will be Bolivia.

Hasta Luego.

Buenos Aires... the first day of my trip. Interesting start as my bag failed to turn up on the conveyor at the airport... got it back about 36 hours later thank god but was worried for a little while! Luckily managed to do some sightseeing during the first day as once the true Buenos Aires lifestyle takes hold it doesn´t allow for much... it basically involves replacing seeing anything cultural with the all important steaks, wines, beers, bars and clubs. The clubs are open every day and nobody even goes down there until about 2am. Even the restaurants are empty until after 10pm. Hence, after strolling home at about 8am, the next day is a total write off. The meat bbqs or parissas as they´re called over here are amazing... leaves Goucho Grill at the starting line... and its so cheap you can eat and drink like king henry VIII every day. Met loads of other like-minded individuals so we generally had a top time.

Here´s a pic of me with my new best friend...

I decided to get out of there after a few nights before I got too sucked in so I booked a 22hr bus ticket to the ski resort known as Bariloche in the Southern Andes. This is where all the Argentians and Brazilians go to ski during the winter so it´s a proper tourist setup. The hostel was v. cheap... 5 quid a night including breakfast and dinner, free internet and free pool. Bargain! My first day of snowboarding (ever) basically ruinned me. After my lesson I went to the top of the mountain to check the view (see pics below) and thought it would be a good idea to try and board my way back down. It turned out to be a pretty bad idea, taking nearly 3 hours during which time I not only battered my whole body but also became the last guy on the mountain, missed the last bus home and found the rental shops were closed... thereby having to carry all my gear back to the hostel. After 2 more days of trying to snowboard my bum could take no more so I packed it in... I did manage to get down a blue slope without making too much of a fool of myself on my last day so I´m happy The night life is tamer in Bariloche although, as I think will be the case everywhere I go, the main issue (or not really an issue) is that there´s nowhere to chill out in the evenings except the bar, hence the inevitable happens. Its a hard life! Again, met loads of people from all over the world, some of which are travelling in the same direction as me so will be meeting up them with later in Bolivia.

Views from the top of the slopes!!.....

Bariloche is set beside this lake.....

Another overnight bus and I´m now on the East coast in a town known as Puerto Vadryn. Apparently it´s whale season so I´m off on a trip tomorrow to see some of the chaps. Then back up to Buenos Aires to carry on where I left off... as well as taking some sort of Spanish lessons (better do something educational), before making my way up through central Argentina to Bolivia.