Blogs from San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy, Argentina, South America

Aldea Luna was Awesome! One whole month without any contact with the outside world except the radio and visitors that came to the reserve. A private nature reserve deep in the yungas in Jujuy, the most North-Western province of Argentina, Aldea Luna was the cherry on my Argentine Pie. The owners are Martin, Elizabeth, their 13-year-old son Matias, and their friend Gerardo. All wonderful people. Many different groups of people came and went during my stay and I met people from England, France, Holand, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Germany, Canada, Kentucky, Washington, and New York. The work was always something different and almost always fun. The one job that I really didn't like was sifting sand out of a huge pile of stones, it involved attempting to shovel loads of stones onto a big wire grate that ... read more

I was told it would take me between 8 and 13hrs to cover the 370km between Potosi and the Bolivia-Argentina border. I was also told that the road was absolutely horrible. Hearing all these terrible stories and knowing how the roads in Bolivia are, I decided to leave at 5:00am for Argentina. It turned out that the road was not as bad as I was told. The dirt sections were fairly descent and they were followed by paved stretches. Still, it took me 8hrs. to get to Argentina. I also had the first tire puncture of the trip and I had to cross 2 or 3 rivers with the water reaching the top of the cylinders in my motorcycle. On the Bolivian side of the border crossing I had no problems. They stamped my passport, grabbed ... read more

We wrote this a while back, but hadn't had a chance to publish it yet... On the 13th we bussed it from Tilcara to San Salvador de Jujuy (pronounced who-hwee but John took to calling it ¨hooey¨). There we met Louise (from Scotland), Thomas (from Liverpool) and Pace and Laura (fellow 'Mericans who have just finished their 2.5 year Peace Corps stint in Malawi and decided to bike around Argentina before going back). We had breakfast together and then decided to all go to the hot springs. This was really just a modern pool but quite at bath water temperature. That night (Valentine's, actually) we drank some wine at the hostel and then went to a club to see a folklore band. Unfortunately we have no photos of these fun events as we were busy talking ... read more

It was a bad ball bearing day. New ones were fitted to Richard´s front hub, and I had new pedals for my bike, as no more new bearings were to be found. Thus refurbished, we bade fond farewell to Ramon and his family, getting up extra early to wave them off to their respective workplaces. Mother Tina saw us off with presents of chocolate rabbits and easter eggs to complement our new collection of cuddly toys. A few kilometers later I chuckled when I bit into my chocolate egg to discover a small plastic spanner and a hoard of sugar ball bearings. What a fun family! I was glad that we had coached them into a perfect rendition of "Och aye the noo" in readiness for Nick and Vicky´s visit in a few days´time. Thus fortified ... read more