Blogs from San Juan, Argentina, South America - page 5

La Rioja, though dull by day turned out to be more interesting by night. By then we´d settled down in the store room that the hotel owner had set up for us to use and temporarily settled our stomachs with some rather dubious yellow candyfoss from an enthusiastic and talkative street vendor. We coped with this by adopting the standard British approach when confronted with an excitable person, first tried by us in Madrid airport, of assuing that what´s being said is whatever is most convinient for ourselves and acting accordingly, often leaving foreigners so shocked that we are allowed to proceed unimpeded. Thus we had been the first to board our flight on the assuption that the fellow was shouting "Yes of course you should board first, please continue" and in a similar manner procceded ... read more

Voyage jusqu'à San Juan et premier réel désert argentin! cool.. jusqu'a ce que l'autobus tombe en panne et reste sur place au milieu de nul part pendant 10 heures.. résultat, je n'ai pas pu aller directement à San Agustin et je fut obligé de dormir à San Juan. Mais voilà que l'auberge est merveilleuse et il y a une excursion jusqu'a la Valle de la Luna disponible à partir de San Juan, en plus il y a un party le soir même car c'est l'anniversaire d'un des employés. Vraiment cool comme soirée j'ai rencontré plein de gens et même une future archéologue qui aime autant que moi le lithique! cependant le temps passe vite et j'ai passé une nuit blanche puisque je devais partir à 5 heure du matin pour la valle de la Luna (250 ... read more

Leaving the twisty roads of the Andes crossing behind, we arrived at San Juan back in Argentina. Having chosen a hotel within walking distance of the bus station, we decided to give a taxi a miss and started to make our way there, only to find the city's prostitutes as soon as we turned the corner lining the street behind the station. Bit of a shock, as we thought we may have just wandered into a dodgy area (though it was still broad daylight), but they didn't seem to give us a second glance so no problems here. A greater shock was the infernal heat, especially after having visited much cooler places over the previous 3 months; we certainly wished we had paid a bit more for an air conditioned room, as ours only had a ... read more

Oh my god theres a knock at the door! It´s only 7am, but today we are going to Talampaya Park north of Valle de la Luna. We have been told it is equally as good but totally different with regards to scenery. After our long and bumpy bus ride we arrived at our destination in the scorching desert heat. We were told that the best and cheapest way to see the park was by mountain bike!(15 pesos,3 quid) We got our bikes and helmets and off we went through the soft and bumpy terrain. This place is a lot smaller version of the grand canyon, 125 million years ago it was a big river surrounded by farmland we later found this out by some Petroglifs (ancient drawings on the rocks of farmers herding their Llamas) The ... read more

San Augustin is in the middle of no where (again). It´s landscape is very dry, desert with mountains. We like it it´s very friendly. On the coach we went through all the little mountain villages and they live very poorly, here the houses ae not much more than huts. We woke up nice and refreshed so we hired 2 bikes from the hostel, Campo Base. We were told to go to a little village called La Madajita in the mountains(searching again, oh dear), so we set off. First we found a nice lake surrounded by cactus and palm trees. Our ride through the mountains was lovely if not hard going! We rode through streams, thick sand, rocky tracks all while the sun was beating down on us. After hours we came to a fork in the ... read more