WEATHER: Hot and 24C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Not having to ‘winter’ up this morning
BUMMER OF THE DAY: An early start
BUYS OF THE DAY: Proper snacks from an Argentinian service station – just like back home
WORD OF THE DAY: You got the key? I’ve got the secret…..
We have a border to cross today and it can take anywhere from 2 hours to 8 hours, so we are leaving early to get a good start before it gets busy and if it does take a while we have some time up our sleeve to play with. Throw into the mix that we also need to add an extra hour to our day when we enterArgentina; it was going to be an unknown day till we pass the border.
I checked the internet this morning for flights from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, as I am going to be flying up while the group hightail it up in the trick at the end of January. I am giving myself more time to get my Brazil visa and apparently there isn’t that much to see along that stretch of 5 days. Lizzie and Paul were interested in doing that as well, till we looked at the cost of the flights and 7 night’s accommodation and it was going to cost an additional $600 per person, so they are now not going to do it, but I really don’t have a choice – I will need to contact David and Cheryl as they were asking me where I was going to be early February and now that I have nearly 11 nights in Buenos Airies, maybe they could come for a visit? I’ll need to message them when I get some internet.
So we were up at 5.15am and on the truck and leaving Tupiza at 6.40am. After a light breakfast that the hotel provided we only had an hour’s drive to the border. The road conditions have already improved as we head towards Argentina and if they stay like this I will hopefully be able to get back typing my blogs as we drive. The roads we have been on the last 2 weeks have been just too bouncy that I haven’t been able to type properly as I have been hanging on for grim life to the table as we bounced and rumbled our way through Bolivia.
The Bolivian processing took a little longer than anticipated and you want to know why? The exit processing agent was watching soccer highlights on the TV for 20 minutes, before he decided he better get back to work and start processing the queue as it started to back up with over 40 people now in line behind us. Thank goodness we got there when we did and we were at the head of the queue They looked quite friendly, so I asked if they would stamp my Globetrotters book, as I still didn’t have my Bolivian stamp, I had a lick lick as a back-up, but what was the worse they could say – no, but they were friendly and after a quick flick through I got a departure stamp in and another tick in the box. Bolivian stamp – check!!! Okay so I didn’t mind him watching the TV for 20 minutes that I now had my stamp. We also had time to exchange our left over Boliviano’s into Argentinian pesos. We are initially only in Argentina for 3 days, but after 24 days in Chile we cross back into the country again for another 3 weeks. So I just converted what I had left and anything left over after 3 days I will keep for my re-entry in January. I’m not sure what the rate was for Boliviano to Peso but for the USD to Peso the rate is at 4.25 for a dollar. So I think I am going to use my 5 times tables in Argentina, I am better at them than my 4 times tables.
The Argentinian side was a bit more confusing. We lined up to get processed, but we had to wait for Gray and the truck to be cleared and he was 11th in line as the trucks before him were getting their manifests completely checked. So we sat to one side and waited till we go the green light from Gray and his paperwork for us to then get stamped and permitted to enter Argentina. It is good to point out that if you enter Argentina via land you don’t have to purchase a visa, if you fly in, like I did for my Antarctica cruise, then Australians have to pay a 100USD for a visa valid for 12 months. I didn’t mind paying the 100 bucks as I thought I would get some value for money on the trip as we enter in and out of the country four times plus what I had already done, but just for the one entry makes it hurt the hip pocket a little more, the buggers.
So in the end it took just over 2 hours to be processed by both countries. As we pulled out in the truck the exit queue to Bolivia was over the bridge and 100 people deep. So even though we had an early start it was totally worth it to avoid that line that was waiting in the sun. The customs guy was probably back to watching his soccer highlights again for all we know. Catch ya later …suckers……. I wonder being at 3600m if this is the highest country border crossing in the world? Another stat to add to the list maybe?
WELCOME TO ARGENTINA.
Straight away you could notice the difference in countries. The roads were better, the houses are finished, there aren’t people walking on the side of the roads, there aren’t a lot of poor looking villages, it really does look like a different country, oh that’s right it is. The countryside reminds me a little of Morocco but with more cactus. I wasn’t expecting to see llamas, but besides cattle, there was still a fair share of them around. They are pretty cute and I think I am going to have to buy one before too long, not a real one of course!!!
We got an unexpected stop at the Tropic of Capricorn. I have crossed this before when I was in Namibia, so it was pretty cool to cross it again on another continent. The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, marks the most southerly latitude on the Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This event occurs at the December solstice, when the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun to its maximum extent.Tropic of Capricorn is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It currently (Epoch 2011) lies 23° 26′ 16″ south of the Equator. It is currently drifting north at the rate of almost half a second (0.47″) of latitude, which is about 15 meters, per year (it was at exactly 23° 27' S in year 1917). The Tropic of Capricorn is so named because about 2,000 years ago the sun was entering the constellationCapricornus (Capricorn is Latin for goat horn) at the December solstice. In modern times the sun appears in the constellation Sagittarius during this time. The change is due to precession of the equinoxes. The word "tropic" itself comes from the Greek tropos, meaning turn, referring to the fact that the sun appears to "turn back" at the solstices.
It was a bit more elaborate than the African one, it was just a sign in Namibia, where here it was a massive sundial with a stone etched with Tropic of Capricorn and there were 2 stalls of souvenirs also here. We didn’t buy anything, but points to the sellers trying to nab some dollars from visiting tourists. I also got a Bernstar jump here to add to my growing collection that I will need to find time to start uploading as I think I haven’t loaded any jumps since Europe and considering that was 6 months ago.
Our lunch stop was at a YPF petrol station, which is like a BP or Shell back home to the Argentinians and this was our first taste of western influence again in South America. The toilets were clean, we had to pay a peso (.20c) and the petrol station itself was W…O….W. There were normal fridges, with normal COLD drinks, Frito Lay chips on the shelves, chocolate bars, cappuccino machine and ice-creams. It was literally like walking into a servo back home. This is what road side stops are about people! Apparently they generally also have Wi-Fi connections, so we will be looking forward to that. I loaded up on some truck munchies with 3 bags of chips and some soft drink to pop into the truck fridge.
The temperature has also noticeably changed here. We have dropped in altitude now to 1200m and even though we were complaining about the cold, it is bloody hot, and we are only at 1200m, what temperature will it be once we drop out of the Andes al together? I hate to think, but the upside, you know there always is, is that we can start to work on our tans again.
Our stop for the next 3 nights is a city called Salta. We finally arrived at 4.45pm and instead of going straight to the camp site, we got dropped off in the city for an orientation tour and also to make a booking tomorrow for the guys to ride horses. I am a no go for the horses, but after the ride there is an Argentinian BBQ, which I wouldn’t miss for the world, so Kate and I are coming along for the ride to the ranch, free time while the guys gee gee around and then back for the meatfest! Oh yeah, now you’re talking! Salta has a great vibe to the place. It is a large city, with lots of Artesian shops and ‘normal’ shops to keep us busy on our free day we have here the day after tomorrow. It reminds me a little of Paris, with the French looking buildings, the main square, Julio No. 9 was pretty with a lot of trees and greenery. We were shown the main pedestrian shopping streets, the bank street and then we walked back via some back streets to get back to the waiting Rosita to take us to our camp.
We are back into tents for the next 3 nights here and we are looking forward to it a little bit…really we are. Kate and I just want to get a good tent, the last one we had was missing a few peg legs and we weren’table to secure the rain protector sheet properly, which didn’t matter when we were camping in the desert, but there were some dark clouds starting to appear, so we wanted to make sure we were well equipped this time. The first tent we got was a dud, well the rain cover, so Kate pulled out another tent to swap the rain cover while I continued to put up the tent. I must say, the tents aren’t that hard to put up, they are just different from my Africa trip so I really need to stop comparing. I know it drives Mark nuts, so I told him this afternoon that everytime I compare our trip to my Africa trip I owe him a beer. Since the next 9 nights are camping, it is going to come into its own over the next 2 weeks, but I will just need to bite my tongue. Looking at the itinerary after Santiago we have 39 camping days out of 46, so it really will turn into a camping trip into the next section. We lose 3 people in Santiago and pick up 5 newbies, fresh blood and I can say it will be welcomed.
So with a new rain sheet, our tent up, a new tent bag and a name tag, so we can keep getting the same tent, we have now set up home for the next 3 nights. The camp has a massive pool, like 10 times bigger than an Olympic pool, but there is no water in it and the showers and toilets don’t seem too bad. There is hot water and they flush, so what else could we want. We went to use the toilets at 7pm and they were closed as they were being cleaned! A weird time to be cleaning them, peak shower times after a day out but we sat outside and waited for 20 minutes before not being able to hold on anymore and we had to push out way in. Well if they have cleaning times posted outside then they wouldn’t get interrupted right!
Welcome to Argentina. We are only in the country for the next 3 days, before heading into Chile for 2 weeks and then back into Argentina again for the following 3 weeks, but it is totally different to the last 2 countries and it makes a nice change.
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