From the Andes to the Atlantic ocean

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Ola, Ola, here is the last article of Los Mineros in 2008. Thanks for your continuous support. You are almost 700 persons to have read our last entry. No doubt, one day, we´ll become famous! To increase our popularity, you can also rate our pictures, so we´ll be on the home page of the website. It looks nothing for you, but it would be a great achievement for us. Thanks in advance.

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile:

We decided to spend few days in the Atacama desert, the driest in the world. San Pedro de Atacama was our only stop in Chile this time but it was much more expensive than what we expected, especially coming from Bolivia. Therefore, we could not do as many excursions as we planned. Not a big loss though as the Atacama desert has a lot of similar landscapes to the Bolivian South Lipez. Nevertheless, the sportive Mineros decided to cycle for an afternoon discovering the Valle de la Luna at sunset. The Tour de France was hard due to strong wind. San Pedro is a pretty village but a little too touristic for us. The last night was big as we had to say goodbye to our Italian friends. Indeed, the Chilean police came at 2am to stop the music and close the bar. Fortunately we drank enough before, so we could carry on singing for 30min among a silent crowd (la solitudine...). Nobody nor nothing can stop los Mineros from partying! We ended up the night in a clandestine party (as all bars were closed) and came back at 5am.

Salta and Valle de las Colchaquies, Salta Province:

No need to say that the next day, we were not in the best shape to take a 12h bus. But something was waiting for us there: Argentinian meat (we were craving for it)! We did not stay long in Salta as it is a big city but we still managed to attend a live concert of salsa in a bar, ending up talking with the musicians.
We left for Cachi and Molinos, 2 really nice villages on the famous Road 40 (famous as it crosses Argentina from north to south for about 5000km). Life there is quiet and slow as about 2000 people live in each of them. Transportation is not that easy in the Valle de las Colchaquies, so we also had to experience our hitchhiking abilities. Good news is that we were successful only after 30min when 2 Swiss girls gave us a lift for 3h till Cafayate.

Cafayate, Salta Province:

This region is very famous for its wineries. So before reaching Cafayate, we stopped in one of them to taste the now famous Torrontes (white wine) who grows at more than 1600m! We explored the neighbourhoods hiking to a waterfall but failing due to a high water level. To forget our failure, we decided to taste more wines (even organic ones) of the region: disappointed by the reds, the whites are better!
The second day was also the second one of the Tour de France: 50km starting at 6am in the Quebrada de las Conchas. Beautiful but painful.

Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Province:

After a 20h bus, we reached Buenos Aires where Terence, Tim´s brother, welcomed us with the traditional pastis. We stayed there for 7 days visiting the city and its famous "barrios" (districts in English) like La Boca or La Recoleta. We also celebrated Christmas eve with Marc and Sylvie (Tim´s parents) who were here to visit Terence. Thanks to them for taking us to restaurants every night, helping us saving some money. In Argentina, Christmas is celebrated in the same way as in Europe with a huge family dinner but the night is ending differently. At 2am, a house party started at Terence´s place with 50 people. It ended for us at 8am, but at noon for some others...
We did not go out in Buenos Aires as we were comfortable on Terence´s terrace. By the way, big thanks to Terence for hosting us (but you still have to comment our blog!).

We are now on the beach in Villa Gesell where Argentinian tourists start to arrive for their summer holidays. The situation has now changed as we made an investment for the rest of the trip: a tent! But, we realized last night it was too small for us and our bags! We´ll inform you later about its return on investment...

We will then go south to Puerto Madryn where we will spend new year´s eve. So party hard on your side, and we´ll see each other next year! All the best to you all for this coming year!

As usual, you can find all the articles we have published since the beginning of the trip at the below link:
http://www.travelblog.org/bloggers/los mineros/

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