Archiv der Kategorie: World Trip 2018-19

Argentina, World Trip 2018-19

Mountains & Wine in Mendoza

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We arrived in Mendoza in the morning after a 18 h bus ride from Salta. It was ok though – it didn’t feel that long and we got a good amount of sleep. We were lucky to be able to check in at our AirBnB straight away, shower, do laundry, get organized etc. Later, we ventured out to see the city – one of the greenest ones we’ve seen yet. Unfortunately, weather was grey and it started to rain soon, so after seeing the main squares and streets, we returned to our AirBnB.

Next day it looked a little better, so we took a train and bus to Maipu where many bodegas are located and where we were able to rent bikes. In the course of the afternoon, we visited 3 different wine goods and did a wine tasting at each of them. While the cycling wasn’t as nice as expected (big roads and lots of traffic), it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. We realized that we definitely preferred red over white wines of the region and the rosés were barely drinkable. The views from the wine goods were quite pretty, despite the clouds that stayed persistently throughout the day.

On our third day in Mendoza, we woke up super early and caught a bus at 6 am to Aconcagua National Park. It takes 3.5 h to get there, so if you want to hike to the base camp Confluencia like we did, you don’t have another option. The drive itself was spectacular already and we were once again (like so many times on this trip) sad to be on a bus where we couldn’t stop for photos. Luckily, the landscape was still beautiful when we arrived!

We straight away set off for the hike – it takes about 6 h and the last bus is at 16.30, so you can’t be much slower than that. It’s not that we’re such slow hikers, but we (especially *one of us*) loves to take hundreds of pictures which always takes a bit, stopping a lot along the way. As mentioned, the mountain scenery around us was breathtaking! We were so lucky it had snowed the day before, so in the morning everything was covered with a layer of fresh snow… On our way back, most of it had melted already.

Even if the main attraction of the hike – Mt. Aconcagua – was hiding himself behind a blanket of clouds, we really enjoyed the hike. The surrounding mountains made up for missing out on Aconcagua and the trail leads through such a nice valley, that you have beautiful views in both directions. Very much recommended!

From Mendoza, we hopped on a bus across the boarder again – to Valparaíso.

Argentina, World Trip 2018-19

Rainbow Mountains of Purmamarca & relaxing in Salta

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Time to cross a boarder again! After only a couple of days in Chile, we took a bus to Purmamarca, Argentina. Chile, we will be back soon! The bus ride was…long and a little depressing in the end: We had left with bright blue skies and suddenly found ourselves in fog so thick the bus driver almost couldn’t see where he was going. We arrived in Purmamarca in drizzling rain and it took us ages to find an ok place to stay. Not a good start… but it got better! Much better actually. Next morning we woke up to once again blue sky and sunshine. Yay! Time to explore the colourful hills around Purmamarca that the region is known for. First, we climbed up a hill on the other side of the river where we got the typical view of Purmamarca with the 7-colour mountain in the back. Really nice!

It reminded us a little of Tupiza, although Tupiza was bigger of course. Once again, we really liked the rocky landscape, so we continued our exploration on the village side of the river, climbing up various hills and walking the much recommended Paseo de los Colorados, a dirt road that leads in a half circle behind the village, passing by lots of cool red and colourful rocks.

Purmamarca itself is a cute little village, however a bit more touristy than expected, especially when all the tour busses roll in. There isn’t a whole lot to do and see – we were done with our hikes after half a day, so spent the rest of the day chilling in the sun with some beers. Not too bad either!

The day after, we left for Salta, which took us a good part of the day again as we had to go to Jujuy first and change there. In Salta, we spent two rather relaxed days exploring the small center with its typical plaza and picturesque churches.

We also took the cable car up Cerro San Bernardo. Unfortunately, late afternoon is not a good time to go since you’ll have the sun against you when taking pictures. Still, we always enjoy viewpoints, so it was good to do and see!

The rest of the time in Salta, we took it a bit slower than usual, going out for drinks with a couple we met, eating delicious empanadas and testing one of the famous pay-per-kilo restaurants for the first time. Salta was a nice stop, even though not a very special one, and from here we took our yet longest bus ride of this trip – 18 h to Mendoza.

Chile, World Trip 2018-19

San Pedro de Atacama – in the driest desert of the world

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From the town of Uyuni, we took a bus across the boarder to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. What sounds simple took the whole day…from 5.30 am. We were not keen on waking up that early and spending the whole day on a bus, but there really wasn’t any alternative (other than going on another Uyuni Tour which would end in SP – we were even tempted to do that, but the first day would have been the same as our last day, so that would have been a waste of money). The wait at the boarder was long, all luggage got searched by hand and with dogs, as well as the bus. But in the end we arrived in the little desert town and were greeted by desert temperatures and sun! Ideal for yet another camping adventure. This time we camped next to some sheep and llamas.

On our first real day in San Pedro, we rented mountain bikes and took on the Valle de la Luna. I think last time I was in San Pedro, I went to Valle de la Muerte only – so it was something new for me as well. I just hadn’t expected it to be quite as exhausting! The sun was burning down, there was lots of dust in the air and the roads were really shitty. But of course it was still very pretty!

We had rented the bikes for 6 h which in the end wasn’t enough to see all the sights, but it was enough for us and more than enough for me and my body. Lol. At some points we parked the bikes and hiked up to various viewpoints. Really cool views and rock formations!

However, we were a bit spoiled after the Uyuni Tour and Tupiza, so didn’t find it as special as maybe someone else would. After handing back the bikes and recovering for a bit, we made our mind up to go on a tour the next day, the „Lagos Altiplanicos“ one. In San Pedro there are hundreds of tour agencies, all selling more or less the same, but prices differ a lot, so it pays to shop around. The tour took us first to Toconao, a sleepy little village with a photogenic bell tower but not much else going on.

Next, we went to Salar de Atacama, a quite picturesque lake/salt lake setting with some flamingos to photograph once again. It wasn’t as pretty as some landscape/flamingo combinations we had seen during the Uyuni tour, but still really cool.

Then we stopped at yet another little village with a photogenic church – Socaire. We also did some photo stops along the way to be able to take pictures of the mountains, which was really nice.

In the end, we finally got to the actual „altiplanic lakes“ Miscanti and Miniques whereas the first one was beautifully blue with mountains in the back that were still a bit snowy. Very pretty!!

The other lake, Miniques, was also nice but just not as special. All in all, we were glad that we did the tour and feel that we saw some nice places still. Even after the Uyuni Tour, we are still not sick of pretty lakes and flamingos. Was it absolutely necessary to do? Probably not, but like this we feel like we’ve really „done“ the Atacama desert – the rest of the other places you could see on tours just looked very similar to places we had seen on the Uyuni Tour already. So after this short stop in Chile, we ventured across the boarder again – to Argentina…