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South America » Argentina » Salta » Salta
April 3rd 2009
Published: April 3rd 2009
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HOla,
Well we survived another 20 hour bus ride. We went from Buenos Aires to Salta. Salta is in the northwest part of Argentina. We are actually in the foothills of the andes again. The elevation here is about 4000 feet. So the bus ride was typical, long, overnight, long, and semi comfortable. Although we did have what they call cama seats, not quite the best, but one step under the best seats you can get. So we could recline a lot, plenty of room, they actually gave us dinner, and some drinks, and breakfast,and lunch,, so pretty spiffy. But still after about the 15th hour it doesnt matter how plush your seat is, it still sucks.
We left BA around 9pm (bus was half hour late) and arrived in Salta around 4pm. Salta is a pretty nice city, lots of green, mountains in the distance, a nice square in the city center, plenty of eating options, and no shortage of locals trying to sell you stuff. Our hotel is facing the square, so we are right in the middle of the action. After a lazy day our first night, we tried to get some erons done yesterday but it was some sort of religious holiday, or something here and all the shops were closed. So we took a gondola ride to get a high up view of the city. And just walked around checking things out. Our biggest goal was deciding how and when to get to BOlivia. We could either go west back into chile, and then a bus up to uyuni where the salt flats are, or we can go north from here to the border, then walk across the border, then catch a 9 hour train to uyuni. Well a lot depended on dates. We only have limited time left, we fly home april 21st, confirmed ! hopefully, haha. So we have a tight schedule to try and fit everything in. Well the first thing we have learned about bolivia is nothing is for sure, nothing runs everyday, everything is subject to change. The town of uyuni is a nothing town, only there to take people to and from the salt flats, and lagoons. Uyuni like every other town in bolivia is around 10000 feet elevation. We tried to actually plan ahead a little and book some rooms in la paz, which we will be going to after uyuni. We figured since it is easter week and apparently that is a huge holiday around here we would try and plan ahead. Everyone is off work and school and out for a vacation. Well the busses and trains only run certain days of the week, and on those days, maybe they go, maybe they dont. Very frustrating to try and be professional and actually plan and book things ahead of time,something we never do. Anyway with all that, and such a lack of info on the net we ended up making phone calls to boliva to get info. We decided we must go north. We booked a 7 hour bus leaving here saturday at 5.30am to the border town, then we will walk into bolivia, and then cross our fingers and hope we can go buy a train ticket for that afternoon to uyuni. And then if all that works out, we will arrive in uyuni around midnight, sleep, wake up and start our 3 day tour of the salt flats and lagoons. Which would then dump us back in uyuni on the 7th in the afternoon, and then we will again cross our fingers and hope to catch a train to some other town, where we then will hope to catch a bus from there to la paz that same day, and somehow arrive in la paz sometime on the 8th. And keep in mind over 50 percent of the roads in bolivia are still dirt, and bad dirt at that. So this has been our life the last 2 days, way too much time on the internet trying to get information, email tours, busses, and waiting for responses.
Ohh well i guess we will just enjoy this town for now and the sunny warm weather while we have it i hear the mountains of bolivia can be quite cold at night.


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