Argentina North

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...the rookie South America mistake...we entered Argentina via the Paso Jama in the Andes, fuelling up our car in San Pedro heading for Susques to stop, refresh and get gas. On top of the pass (which goes up to 4830) we saw a pretty big and open gas station with a sign in front of it saying "Next gas station Susques 115km", so we decided to drive by...big mistake, in Argentina when you find a station that is open and actually sells gas, refill!! There were two estaciones de servicio in Susques, the first probably destroyed by the Spanish when conquering South America and the second one selling only Diesel...F***!! The next one was supposed to be 160km downhill, our calculations said that we have gas for approximately 140km under normal conditions (in the altitude the consumption goes up). So what next, going 115k back and losing half day (also pretty much uphill, so not 100% sure to make it) or going down, probably making it because of less consumption but maybe getting in even more troubles! After driving back and forth in the village (yes indeed, very smart) we decided to go down. This decision was made at 3400m above sea level, the station was supposed to be at 1500, so we thought its going only down. Next mistake, we had to go up to 4200 again. All in all we lost the confidence to make it, so we stopped in a little village 26k before our big goal, found a camping site and went on a quest to find gas in town with no gas stations! Everyone we asked said that there is one, but nobody could tell us where and how to get it! After approximately 30min we found a little grocery store where the girl behind the counter offered us 5 liters for the tourist price (still cheaper than Austria and Chile)! Problem solved, almost no harm, spent the night with a French family and a Brazilian vegan Hippie talking about his studies of birds...The following days we visited Cafayate and the canyon to get there and then headed for Resistencia where the next funny story took place:

Our plan was to leave the car at a camping site, buy a bus ticket and go to the Iguazu falls! Well the camping site didn't look very safe, especially when you’re not around so we asked the owner where to find a garage. He offered to lead us there with his new pickup, on the way out he talked in a guy from Belgium and his little daughter to join (nobody knows why, even not them is guess). We arrived at the garage, he negotiated a good price for three days and offered us to drive us to the bus terminal. At this point it was around 8pm, when he asked when our bus goes (we didn't had tickets or a schedule or any idea yet), we said something around ten. Unfortunately he assumed that we have already everything and are in no hurry which lead him to take us (and the Belgium family) on a city tour. It was really nice, he bought us food, showed us his church, the school of his son and also the local football stadium, buuuttt we couldn't enjoy, since we didn't know when where and how to get a bus, but didn't want to (and also could not-Spanish problems) say something! All in all we made it and it was an evening we will always remember (the bus was at 22:40).

In Iguazu we had two beautiful days at the falls and very entertaining evenings with new found German friends Holger and Andreas chilling at the hostel!

After returning to Resitencia and picking up the car we headed towards Uruguay, getting stopped by the police and also bribing them, the first time with a roll of toilet-paper-no joke-maybe that was on the way to Resistencia, the middle of Argentina really looks the same everywhere…

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[Veeerraaa]

...a mi me gusta mucho... :)