San Pedro De Atacama- Salta-Iguazu Falls

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We ended our tour of the Bolivian Salt Flats by crossing the border and getting a bus to small town in Northern Chile called San Pedro De Atacama located in the driest desert in the world. Its quite touristy but nonetheless is a nice place to chill out for a few days and a great place to do some day trips. We took a trip to see The Death Valley and and the Valley of the Moon located in Cordillera de la Sal (Salt mountains), so called because the scenery is said to resemble the surface of the moon (well we wont be going there so you´ll just have to take their word for it!). It offers some errie scenery, strange rock formations created by centuries of erosion on these salt mountains, sand dunes and a beautiful place to watch the sunset painting the surrounding lanscape a mixture of reds and pinks.

Next on our interinery was a late night star watching tour out in the desert. This was a great experience seeing the Milky Way and many constellations not visible in the Northern sky like the Scorpian, The Southern cross, the Fly and even Saturn and Jupiter were visible through a telescope! Our guide, a top astromoer could predict where stars would be in a few hours time and when Jupiter would rise! Saturn looked really cool through the telescope. Though it was a very cold night and we were glad to get indoors and end the night warming up with some hot chocolate.

The great thing about leaving Chile was that we were going back to Argentina. We have really loved Argentina. We had a great few days back in Argentina. We stopped off in Salta, an attractive city in Northwest Argentina. We stayed in a great hostel. It happened to be the hostels 2nd year annivesary when we were staying there so to celebrate the owner treated everyone in the hostel to a BBQ, Argentina style which meant a feast of steak, wine, rum and coke until you could say "No, I am not able for anymore"!. We sang happy birthday in Spanish to the hostel (well Peter and I hummed along!) and had some birthday cake which was funny and ended the night in some local pub themed and called after Barney Gomezs (the Simpsons guy!). A funny place when you have had a few drinks and a great night was had by all.

After a couple of days in Salta spent mostly relaxing and strolling the streets we took a 22 hour bus journey to Puerto Iguazu, home to the magnificent Iguazu falls. The Iguazu Falls are located on the Argentina-Brazil border and are 82metres high divided by various islands into some 275 separate waterfalls. We had heard they were impressive but it was only when we got up close to them could we appreciate their sheer size and beauty. To add to their beauty from the base of the falls, a veil of mist rises into the air, creating a spectacular rainbow effect. They are so vast it was hard to take a picture that would do them justice. One of the best viewing points is at the Devils throat (Garganta del Diablo). A catwalk takes you for several hundred meters over Rio Iguazu and all the way to the edge of Devil's Throat. The power of the water and the endeless amount of water is incredible. The falls were so nice we decided to go back a second day. This time I took a speed boat trip under the waterfalls to get more up close and personal. At first we just went under a little waterfall but then the boat headed straight for and into a huge waterfall. We did this a few times with everyone screaming in the boat Needeless to say I got soaked (sitting at the very front of the boat didnt help!) but the adrenaline rush was well worth it. So our time in Argentina had come to an end and it was time to get to Brazil to spend our last 3 weeks in South America :-(
You may have noticed that the word BEACH has not featured yet in this blog but after "all we have been through!!" over the last 11 weeks its time to soak up some sun, have a few caipirinhas and sample some of the most idyllic beaches Brazil has to offer before ending in Rio De Janeioro.
we'll keep you posted

Maire x

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Photos

The Devils Throat
No end to the water