Journey through South America. Argentina
Argentina
Puerto Iguazu
Temperature 40oC
Height: 0m
Flights behind: 4
Moves behind: 1
The bus rushed through the night streets of Argentina. Inside, there were pleasant sensations that our planned difficult route was starting to unravel by a thread, and the date of crossing the border coincided with the planned one, which means we are doing everything right, and the stamps of the two countries already flaunt in the passports. There was a guy on the bus who knew English. This is not something that made crossing the border easier for us, but simply saved us in solving a bunch of misunderstandings. At about 22:00 the bus stopped at its end, and we ended up in the city center. The first thing that pleasantly pleased us was the nightlife and the fact that everyone was sitting and eating everywhere, all the restaurants were filled to the brim with Argentines, everywhere the musicians played their romantic Argentinean hits, pleasant, 30 degree heat literally melts in the nighttime tropical humid air. A fragment of the booking shows that the hotel is somewhere on a parallel street, but from which side this parallel was determined by the whole city. We were all sent in different directions as if they wanted us to get to know this wonderful city better. When we once again passed by the confectionery near which our friend-translator from the bus was sitting, his girlfriend decided to treat Dasha with ice cream from her spoon, and he decided to deal with our card. We sorted it out for a couple of minutes, and his girlfriend kept praising the ice cream of this confectionery and continued to treat us strongly to it. This whole story touched even more, and the ice cream was so delicious that we stopped by more than once to buy a small bucket. The final point in this search for a hotel was put by a guesthouse, the owner of which knew where our hotel was, and her fourteen-year-old son successfully translated from Spanish into Spanish for us. He probably thought he was speaking fluent English, of course. Argentines, unlike Brazilians, are smart at understanding gestures and by playing a short game of crocodile, you can solve any issue. Argentina has one feature that complicates tourism a bit, the dollar is black. They apparently had a crisis and the official rate of the bank is 8 pesos, but you can buy a dollar in a very limited amount. You can sell a dollar from your hands for 14 pesos (14 UAH), but each hand has its own course. But you can change the currency around the clock with anyone, everyone is happy, especially for 11. I don’t know what kind of waterfalls there will be, but in the city from the very first minutes I liked everything so much that there was a fear of traveling further “What if it doesn’t get any better”.
Waterfalls
Argentinean sunny morning and we are going on a comfortable bus to our second obligatory point of the route. No queues, and in general there are not really people as such, it's good that today is Monday. We decided to get acquainted with Argentinean waterfalls as close as possible, in the truest sense of the word. First, we were taken somewhere for a long time through the jungle, and then we were transferred to some kind of open-type boat with high chairs and given waterproof hydrobags. In the bag, a gift of 30 soaked pesos was waiting for us. When everyone loaded onto the boat, this boat turned around and rushed at speed towards the waterfalls. Our ship was rushing up the Iguassu River, on the sides there were powerful whirlpools and rapids. The sight of the power of the water was breathtaking, on the sides there were tall cliffs with tropical jungle, at times there were bridges over small waterfalls along which people walked.
Not knowing the obstacles, our ship confidently rushed along the river, and huge waterfalls began to appear in the distance, this did not stop our ferry much, we confidently rushed to the very center of the rising water haze. Not far from the waterfalls, the boat stopped for everyone to take exotic photos, then, on some Spanish command, everyone abruptly began to hide the photographic equipment in hydrobags. The ship began to give gas, and the heart of adrenaline, it was clear how our guide put on his raincoat and then the water trash began. Powerful streams of water were from all sides, the water haze turned into an impenetrable wall that pinched all tourists. Cries, joys, tears of sobbing, each squealing about his own as best he could. When it seemed that it was already necessary to breathe water instead of air, the boat floated out of the waterfall and dived into another. It’s not like there are walls of splashes anymore, it’s just that water was flooding me from the starboard side with an endless stream, there was still more screeching, there was really a lot of water this time. The boat finally sailed out, in the center stood a satisfied guide, everyone sat dumbfounded and moved away from what had happened. The guide jokingly shouted in English: “Well, one more time? ” The cries of the crowd were like after an unsuccessful joke from Petrosyan himself. According to the general tone, one could hear that many received much more than they expected, and some will obviously never decide on such an excursion. The boat slowly sailed away, the Argentinian guide beaming good-naturedly at all 32, looked at the crowd for a while, and then slowly put on the hood of his raincoat and pulled it tight, not a good sign... What do you know about the big wash? Only that Malakhov leads her in the evenings. The big wash is when 30 people are forcibly dragged across a waterfall three times in a row. There were already, probably, cries of true fear, not delight. In the trash of wet people, the boat landed on a rocky shore, oh yes, we have a towel with us, which for some reason we did not put in a hydrobag... We dried ourselves throughout the day, we really liked the tour. We stand soaked to the skin, and we still have the whole day ahead.
At first, the towel was worn like a banner, so that it would dry out at least a little. What can I say, but the waterfalls from the Argentinean side are of a completely different format, you must definitely visit from both sides, each has something special of its own. It's time to have something to eat, the prices in Argentina are simpler, but nevertheless, they again unfastened the pies for dinner in a sushi restaurant with wine. Argentine raccoons seemed not to see the tourists, tried to get food out of their hands at any cost, it was impossible to sit at the table at all, wave don’t wave your hands, but they still don’t see you “A guide to the galaxy for hitchhikers” says, an essential item for an interstellar traveler. It's good that we read the guide in college times and the towel was used for one of its direct purposes. Wet carrots and raccoons are powerless, while he was fighting off some, the other was already climbing into the bag that was in his other hand.
Having refreshed ourselves with “Dinner at a sushi restaurant”, we continued our exploration of the wonder of the world. One of the waterfalls looked like a large stream of boiled condensed milk, there was a superb bridge above the other, birds lived on the third, right on the sheer cliffs, near the powerful streams. You can talk about waterfalls endlessly. A narrow-gauge free train runs through the reserve. On this day, we had a lot of free time, having rolled on the train, we made another circle around the waterfalls. It was a sad moment that if you leave now, it is already unknown when you will return to them, and it is impossible to see enough. From all these waterfalls, thirst began to torment me very much, and I don’t really want to spread the next $ 2 for 0.5 water. At the beginning of the reserve, there was a free fountain somewhere, while we got to this fountain, I was afraid to die of thirst. We couldn’t find the fountain for a long time, and when we finally found it, it turned out to be without water, I was surprised how no one’s skeleton lay next to it, is it really so free for $ 2 for water to unfasten. I went to some nearby institution and showed the Argentinean an empty bottle. Fortunately, he understood me the first time, because if he had started to clarify something in Spanish, I'm afraid that I would not have reached the end of the conversation. And now, in a moment, I became a man again!
Argentine dinner
As mentioned above, Argentines love to dine. Having chosen a more romantic restaurant for ourselves, we began the meal. The first thing that caught my eye was the inexpensive wine. For a bottle of wine in a restaurant, you need to pay from 60 pesos (60 UAH). The special guest of the program was a lead guitarist who looked like a young John Travolta. What songs did he sing, Argentine music sounds so pleasant that you can listen to every song endlessly. Although Spanish is not clear to us, romance does not need a translation. Eating a large Argentinean steak with palmito (the middle of a palm tree trunk), we enjoyed his music, next to him, in a bucket of ice, sweet Norton wine languished. With each sip of wine, the music became more and more pleasant, I even recorded a video from one of the songs as a keepsake. This whole night's dinner was accompanied by a pleasant nightly thirty-degree heat. I wanted this dinner to never end, and given that our flight part of the trip was coming to an end, I didn’t want to leave the city so much that now, when I first remember the trip, I immediately remember this moment of paradise. We listened to the soloist until he went on vacation, and then we decided to wait for him and listen to a couple more songs. It was probably our most romantic dinner ever. We converted pesos into hryvnias using a very complex formula. But sitting in a restaurant and counting how much some purchase cost us, it turned out that 13 pesos is 13 hryvnias. Here came an unreal insight. However, the joy of discovery was dispelled when I looked at the bill for 288 pesos with a new look, although after the Brazilian prices, this is just like 7 small pies. Having decided on the way back to take a little walk along the bypass street, we got lost, so that not a single map helped. When we decided to watch the recorded video in the morning, we found out that we had two videos recorded, 1 second and 3 seconds long, and Norton obviously interfered with the recording. No matter how much we want to stay, we will not change the route. But there might be time for a bucket of ice cream.
Waking up early in the morning, we went to explore the surrounding parks along the Iguazu River, and on the other side of the Brazilian coast. The paths along the parks were red, as the soil of this area is enriched with iron. A morning walk through the Argentinean tropics was very memorable for us.
It was a very small airport with a big plane. And the chance of a flight delay at this airport is 100%, as shown by a special website on flight delays at Argentine airports. Oddly enough, we took off just in time.
Buenos Aires
Temperature 22oC
Height: 0m
Flights behind: 5
Moves behind: 1
As they said in advertising, "And the satisfaction is bueno! " We are flying in an airplane over the city and it is already scary from its endless horizons. It's good that we rented a hostel in the center. In this city, more than ever, we needed to quickly resolve the issue with a quick check-in, since we arrived at 13:00 and departed at 08:00 the next morning. That is, everything that we have time to work up in a day is all ours. And for this flight I had to pay more hryvnias by 500, otherwise they would have arrived at 16:30. And there would be very little time. One of the reasons we traveled without luggage is to save time on getting luggage in 8 flights. We pass everything promptly at the airport, we go quickly to the right bus and then unexpectedly. The driver is trying to explain to us with gestures that the passage is only on cards. But where will the arriving tourist get a card for the capital bus. For a moment it seemed that now there would be an unreal hemorrhoid, but then luck not only smiled at us, but took us into its strong arms. An English-speaking girl enters the bus and explains to the driver in Spanish what she will do for us with her card. The driver, having listened to the essence of the situation, said that he was ready to take us for free, tickets cost about 25 pesos (25 UAH). The second gift of fate turned out to be that the girl is going to her sister, who lives near our hostel, so she will sit in a taxi with us and show us where to get off. Less than an hour after getting off the plane, we were already at the hotel.
On the way, the girl gave us a short tour of the city, most of all I remember how some building used to be traditionally painted with the blood of cows. Also, our friend, pointing to the paving stones, said that it leads to the presidential building and was well used during the elections. In the meantime, the paving stones led our taxi to the hotel. A hotel - I once said loudly, I meant a hostel, although, perhaps, a hostel is too luxurious for such a home. The man from the reception, Mr. Daniel, gave us our "Room" and the key. There was a record-sized painting in the room, it was like two caps from mineral water. There was also a very high ceiling and everything inside was very dilapidated. The door could not be locked properly. In order to open it, it is enough to push it a little harder. Mr. Daniel gave us a padlock. Everything in this hotel literally said - your room will be cleaned as soon as possible. Or such an impression was due to the sitting Argentine lads near the hotel lobby. Receptionist Daniel spoke good English and looked the most reliable. We decided to immediately arrange a taxi with him in advance. I started with the phrase "It's good that you speak English. " He decided to reassure us by saying that Mr. Gustavo would be working in the evening, and Comrade Roberto, who also knew English quite well, would replace him. Taking half the money with us, we set off to explore no less criminal Buenos.
Dasha and the flower
We had a printed guidebook, but the list of places was not numbered, so it was impossible to compare sights with a map. But in fact, we need to move towards the obelisk. In the center of the city, a chic square was waiting for us, flooded with sunlight. Near some state. buildings hung out a group of police with shields at a low start. All the sights of Buenos were tidy, but surrounded by a fence. For example, if you want to go to the park, look for where the entrance is in the fence, if you want to go to a beautiful building, look for the entrance again. Everywhere is beautiful, but in the fences. Next, we had an acquaintance with the Argentine McDonald's. When we were in Cyprus, we got to McDonald's for weeks of Argentinean food, it was unrealistically tasty and positive. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the Argentinean McDonald's. It's just low end fast food, especially for cleanliness. Half a day in the Argentine capital is just right.
Thorn Tree
Until dark, we walked through the streets and parks and even visited their university, where there was an exhibition of brooms. Yes, it's a broom. The most interesting thing began in the evening, when all the residents began to go out into the park to run. There were as many runners as if a world marathon record was being set. As long as we walked in the evening parks, so many endless streams of runners lasted. We returned to our district on the Argentinean metro, it was just a concept, to ride in Argentina on the metro. In Buenos, the metro closes at 21:30, which is rather strange for such transport, but we really liked the station. Just a work of art from mosaics and paintings.
On the subway
When we decided to eat traditionally at 21:00, it turned into a whole problem. Unlike Iguazu, here in the evenings it is not customary to sit in cafes. All cafes and restaurants were closed, although McDonald's was ready to receive us at any moment, but somehow we didn't want to. After an hour of searching for places, we found a pizzeria. The pizzeria positioned itself as a good quality restaurant. When they brought us a large pizza in a huge frying pan, they defiantly showed the viscosity of the cheese, putting it on our plate. It really looked impressive. We also invited our Argentine friend for dinner - Mr. Norton 2012 vintage. I don’t really remember what kind of harvest there was, but it was not in vain.
Our trip consisted of two pre-planned parts - "Measuredly planned" and "improvisational". This evening was the last of our first part of the trip. The restaurant was full of positive peace. The very realization that you were in Buenos Aires, at a distance of 12.839 km from your home, you were having dinner in a restaurant, it was simply euphoric. Vinzo came to an end, and the head became light as a cloud. On the way back, Dasha was a piglet who carried a floating balloon by the rope. The biggest pizza for dinner is a strategic decision when traveling, you can take the rest with you, and in the morning there will be something for breakfast on the road.
To be honest, there was inner fear before the next day of the trip, this will be our sixth last flight, then only by land and until our next plane the distance is about 2.700 km and the whole country is on the way, we have 10 days to have time to get there and see everything planned, tomorrow we will have to overcome 5 cities and arrive in Tilcara before nightfall, where a booked hotel is waiting for us, and the day after tomorrow we will overcome 4 cities and spend the night on a train that should take us overnight to the very heart of Bolivia. In general, the plans seemed irresistible. Swimming into the room, we were very glad that we were not robbed. But at night I propped the door with a nightstand. At 6:00 in the morning, the alarm clock raised us, and we rushed through the morning Buenos to the airport, there were no people on the street yet - everyone was fast asleep after night runs.
Salta
Temperature 22oC
Height 1180m
Flights behind: 6
Moves behind: 1
8:45 We take off for a flight, during the flight we maintain inner balance and accumulate strength, the evening pizza was just right.
11:30The plane starts landing in some kind of desert, it was clearly clear that we had changed the climate zone. The city is visible in the distance. We catch a taxi driver at the airport and specify the price, so that he will take us to the center, and then to Tilcara. I was afraid that the taxi driver would simply twist his finger at his temple. The taxi driver did not understand anything, because he did not know English, but another one immediately approached, a little older and quite intelligent looking. “To Tilcara, which is 200 km from here? ” Here came the first relief, I was afraid that the distance would be quite sad. "Of course I'll take you" There was a second relief, for 1100 pesos ($100). It’s already completely relieved here, I was afraid that the price would be generally in excess of the cosmic one.
Of course, this could have been googled in Kyiv, but it would have been just a drop in the ocean of googled information.
12:30We are in the center of Salta going to explore its beauties. The most important task was to attach all our things to the thread. In some hotel, they did not want to take them, citing that it was dumb. We could not find any other hotels, but we found a market. Seeing the market, Dasha realized very much in the subject. A minute later, I was shoving my backpack into the market's little storage locker. After a couple of minutes of fighting with backpacks, our things are under the reliable protection of the market. Forward to the cable car, this is probably the only attraction, but the whole of Salta opens from it, and in general the views are beautiful. We admired the view of the endless city from the mountain, and we need to hurry on. There was a mobile fast food truck at the foot, and we tried the local Lomito there, this is an unrealistically sized sandwich consisting of ham, cheese, scrambled eggs and a special cooked Lomito meat, the sandwich is seasoned with sauces and comes with a large fries. I could barely manage mine, and half of Dasha's will still go to the next breakfast.
Lomito
14:00 We start our movement to the mountains, here the tourist has the right to choose which road he wants to take. There are two of them - new and fast or old in the mountains, but exotic. So the choice is clear here. The serpentine was still the same, the views are cool, but in our Carpathians it can be even more beautiful. On the way we were stopped by a police post, seeing the tourists in the car. First, the police separately interrogated the driver, who he was and why he was driving, then they separately interviewed us, seeing that the answers coincided, we were asked the control question “How do you like Argentina, is it impressive? ”, We answered the truth, since it is really impressive in the good sense of the word , the police let the car go further.
14:30 Another post. This time, Lady Sheep decided to take a nap on the road, blocking the path. But when she saw that there were obviously tender tourists in the car, she let us go further.
16:00 It is not clear why there is a sharp desire to be photographed with some portrait of the president. And most importantly, what a coincidence that we had a large photograph of Putin in our folder. Briefly explaining to the driver why I should now be photographed against the backdrop of the city with a photograph of the president, he stopped. It was unique. In addition, this was our first check of the driver for honesty, since some tourists, just during a stop in this city, the taxi driver left with all their things.
During the selection of the angle, the driver, all the time rummaged in the trunk, where our things were, soon, like a true Argentine, he took out a thermos and a cup, played himself a cool mate.
We go further, the driver warns us that we are gaining altitude and soon it will become noticeable. The height is high, but here we open unplanned sights - the Argentine mountains. They are simply unsurpassed, these rocks of different colors are dotted with cacti. The farther, the more beautiful it became, along the road now and then a wide dried-up river appeared, waiting for the rainy season.
Pulmamarka
Seven Colored Mountains
17:30 Seven-colored mountain knocked us down, the driver specifically drove into this city so that we could walk there. The beauty of these mountains finally brought Argentina to the first place in the ranking of the countries of this trip. The most interesting thing is that we did not particularly have plans to visit the mountains here, nowhere was it written how beautiful it would be. Perhaps it was necessary to stay in this city for the night in order to get to know this miracle of nature better. The thunder rumbled so that it was clear how close we were to clouds and thunderstorms, although the setting sun still illuminates us.
"Palette of the artist"
For the entrance to one of the mountains, some trading grandmother decided to take money, but unfortunately, “no one understood” her Spanish. That is, the mountain, like all the others, was free, but my grandmother decided, what if it would work, but it didn’t work. We ran and watched everything that was possible until the downpour completely swallowed us up. We emerged into the car like from a swimming pool. Well, it was beautiful there. About an hour later we arrived at our overnight stop - Tilcara.
Tilcara
Temperature 20oC
Altitude: 2465m
Flights behind: 6
Moves behind: 2
18:30 It was hard to imagine that in the morning we were still in Buenos. And then our first big victory on the trip, we completed one of the most risky routes. As soon as we entered the city, the thoughts of spending the night in Pulmamarca were dispelled. Here the town was even more spectacular, of course there were no seven-colored mountains, but everything was very thematic everywhere. Everything is in some kind of Texas style, starting with the fonts on the signs. The owner of our hotel scored on the price from the booking and took us an order of magnitude less money. The room itself was also unrealistically beautiful. In this cozy town, everything was generally designed in the theme of some kind of western.
Warm things began to slowly take on their meaning. And then with a jacket in Rio at 40 degrees it was somehow strange. Cheap and tasty fast food was sold on the street, and this is the main sign of a cool city. Having chosen a theme restaurant, we went to an evening meal. The restaurant had a lot of books and vinyl records, as well as an all-Spanish menu. Having ordered one dish for two, but the largest in the list of nyasheks, we drew attention to a page that did not require translation. Our friend Norton was not present, but another semi-sweet local friend joined in instead. Of course, we are not very professional in wines, but Argentine wines are really tasty. Our dish turned out to be a large plate with all kinds of snacks, probably designed for vodka. In general, this restaurant was not designed for direct dining here. But the plate was large, and we still ate.
Having a rest in the library
And in South America, bread is almost never served, and if they do, it is not at all tasty and small. Although we learned in Spanish how the Pan bread would be, they still could not understand us in many cafes, thinking that we wanted fanta. The city just struck us to the very heart with its seasoned Western theme and kindness of people. And our hostess’s husband, apparently, worked as a movie star, he looked so that even I fell for him))) When we bought T-shirts, the saleswoman did not want to make a discount, to my remark “It’s really expensive for us, ” she replied, “You have no idea how expensive it is for me, but I'm just a hired worker. At night I woke up at about 03:00 and did not want to sleep anymore, and my head was cracking. Until the end of the trip, every time I woke up having slept at about 03:00 and then hardly fell asleep, somehow in the mountains the body goes through a rather strange acclimatization. Then in the early morning all day cheerful, you go to bed and all over again. In general, for some reason I didn’t really want to sleep.
The back of my head started to hurt a little, but I did not attach any special importance to this, and what can you do especially, because we are in the mountains. Unfortunately, it was not just a headache, these were the first symptoms of altitude sickness. In order for mountain sickness to pass, it is impossible to gain altitude for two days, but in any case, it was impossible for us along the route. I naively thought that the head would soon pass, but it turned out to get used to the headache faster.
From the very morning we went to climb the mountain "Pucara de Tilcara", for some reason we were not enough height. The next most gorgeous views of the mountain landscape opened from the mountain, and there was a town below. The route to the mountain was a little dangerous, in some places it was necessary to go through a very narrow area over a cliff.
And for some reason I was also afraid that we would now meet a spectacled snake. Probably, it was after watching the movie "A Million Ways to Lose Your Head in the Wild West. " Fortunately, or unfortunately, we did not meet a snake. Happiness consisted in the fact that the whole remained, and regret that the journey would have been even more spectacular.
Pucara de Tilcara
When we bought ourselves a bus ticket, we took the departure at 11:30. Luckily, we didn't know how risky we were taking the time for our onward journeys. The cashier did not know English, but she was skillfully at the game of crocodile. She was great at imitating a double-decker bus with her hands, and we easily chose our seats by the front window on the second floor.
Having settled in a cozy bus, and throwing our legs up, we began our final Argentine move. The road was like some kind of Texas shown in the movies. At first, there were still many colored rocks on the sides, but then they gradually turned into a desert with small vegetation. The road went to infinity beyond the horizon. It was clear how sandy tops were spinning in the distance, and along the roads now and then llamas were grazing.
Some Argentine walked alone from one horizon to another. On the bus, I felt sleepy, but I tried to doze to a minimum, since it was very beautiful on the sides. I once really set myself a wishlist to see such a road, among the wild landscapes of a western. On this road, one of the important events happened, we drove 15 km from the point, which is the opposite of the hotel in Hong Kong, where we stayed a year and a half ago. That is, this hotel was exactly on the opposite side of the earth.
At one of the stops, local grandmothers offered street food, it was impossible to refuse. A couple of days later, re-reading the notes of other tourists, we subtracted a warning that on this route, in no case, do not buy street food, you can get very poisoned....Luckily, it didn't hit us. After 4 hours, the bus arrived in some, I apologize for the expression, India.
La Chiaca
Temperature 20oC
Altitude: 3442m
Flights behind: 6
Moves behind: 3
It was some kind of complete rubbish, something unimaginable was happening at the station, as if the city had survived a zombie attack and now the global renewal of the nation. Leaving Dasha to guard things, I ran to the toilet while Dasha was standing, the station began to flood with water and Dasha had to migrate with things. In short, what happened at the station defies description. To the question "Bolivia? " local confidently pointed the finger direction. There means there! We walk around the city with things towards the border, we had to go a lot, but it was quite funny, we felt like Mexicans who were going to make an illegal crossing.
Course - to the border
Over time, the long-awaited bridge appeared in the distance, to which a small queue led. Going to the window, and handing over the passports, we received an exit stamp. There was a pillar in the middle of the bridge, on one side it was written "Argentina" and on the other "Bolivia". And here it is an important moment, the first step on the other side! Oh yes, we did it! Without knowing it, we illegally crossed the border without an entry stamp, we confidently moved forward...
Last meter to the border
