Today we decide to visit the BA suburb of La Boca. La Boca is one of the most picturesque places due to its colorful port setting. The corrugated roof style of the houses and the customs reflect the European influence, mainly southern Italian, who arrive between 1860 and 1910. The so-called "a Piccola Italia" (Little Italy) is stamped with medirerranean style, from its typical restaurants "cantinas" to its architecture. Brightly painted multicolored houses, inhabited by families, called "conventillos" give La Boca its main characteristic. La Boca has always been a working class neighborhood and in the past, people used the paint left over from ships to paint their houses. You will notice that sidewalks are elevated to prevents flooding from the Rio de la Plta. Started the day walking through Plaza de Mayo in search of ... read more

Left Salta at 9am in the morning an ariived at Buenos Aires by plane. Collected our baggage and waited for a cab to the hostel. The view from the airport was amazing, ocean straight ahead. We checked into our hostel right in the city center overlooking Avenida 9 de Julio. Its name honors Argentina's Independence Day. (July 9, 1816). It is claimed to be the widest avenue in the world. The avenue consists of twelve lanes, six on each side. And can be a nightmare for predestrians to cross. With the Obelisk of Buenos Aires located in the center of the Plaza de la República (Republic Square), the spot where the Argentine flag was flown for the first time in Buenos Aires, at the intersection of Nueve de Julio and Corrientes avenues. The obelisk dominates the ... read more

Today we left the dry town of La Quiaca and caught a bus (Balut - best bus so far) to Salta. The journey is approximately 7hrs. We spent most the day on the bus, stopping along the way to pick up and drop of people. The scenery along the way was spendid. We also manage to eat more bread, this time in the form of sandwiches - so its a bit better as there is some meat in it =) Catch a can to our hostel, lovely place it was. Unwinded and had a cup of tea and a bath before setting of to explore our surroundings. Main aim being to find the nearest supermarket and have a decent meal with some good alcohol. Manage to organise this good meal and some wine (good quality in ... read more

So we arrived at around 4am today and after we finally made it to our accomodation, we managed to get a couple of hours sleep. Next we need to find someone doing a day tour to the Salt Lake and transport out of Uyuni to Villazon (Bolivian/ Argentian border). We manage to organise a day tour to Salt Lake leaving in 15mins. There is another transport strike we are told and we the bus or train leaving today are not leaving - our options are to hire a private jeep to Villazon (not a real possibility - too expensive) or wait for two days and we might get transport then. Cheap transport in and out of Uyuni is almost impossible to find as the buses and rail only operate on certain days! We decide not to ... read more

We had bought our ticket yesterday to go from La Paz to Tiwanaku on a day tour. The tour bus collected us from the hostel. It was a nice small group. This was an amazing for me, as I had never read or even heard about Tiwanaku, so naturally I was curious as hell. Anshu was not to excited - all ruined out. Our first stop was on top a hill overlooking a huge valley and snow capped mountain range in the backgroud. Here we were shown the site of some offerings made to the Gods by normal people - these includes burnt coco leafs, llama foetus, and other such stuff. We were also told about a local legend that believes the two mountains in the backdrop were brothers and ends with how one chopped of ... read more