Sausages and salt flats

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Lou: Hola!

Well we're halfway through our trip so thought it was about time for an update. We weren't sure we were going to make it here in the first place as we had an hour to make our connection in Frankfurt, which seems to be the biggest airport in the world! We literally had to take a train to another terminal, go through security again and run to make our flight! Once on board, it was lovely though, the flight attendant even spotted us trying to take a selfie and whipped out a Polaroid camera, as you do! There was fog over Buenos Aires so we turned round and landed in São Paulo instead to refuel and waited for the skies to clear.

We made it to Buenos Aires, a little late, and to our hotel which had fantastic murals on the wall and a jacuzzi in the room. This was very welcome after leaving British summer weather to nippier weather. We spent a few days in Buenos Aires visiting the Plaza de Mayo (the main square), La Boca with it's brightly coloured houses and tango dancing and the sprawling antiques market at Plaza Dorrego. Mark had fun guessing the Argentine sportspeople who had statues along the river and we saw capybaras and loads of different birds in the ecological reserve.

We went out one day and the streets were packed with parades and music - we found out later it was the anniversary of Evita's death. Our hotel had recommended a BBQ restaurant where we got a ridiculous amount of food - a huge platter of meat and cheese to start, bread, empanadas, salad bar, and whatever meat you wanted. We also went to a chocolate shop where Mark intended to buy one chocolate and ended up with a box so we are certainly eating well!

From Buenos Aires we headed to Mendoza on an overnight bus. As it's been a while since we've done a big trip, we thought we'd break ourselves in gently and book first class. This bus was incredible! The seats went all the way back so I could literally lay flat; we got pillows, blankets, individual TVs, 2 hot meals and there was free wi-fi!

We arrived in Mendoza having had a great night's sleep, which was a good job as our hotel left a little to be desired! We had a wander round Mendoza's many squares and the next day headed off on a wine tour. We visited 4 wineries. The first one was fantastic, however we got proper glasses of wine rather than tasting size portions and they kept filling them up, which meant things went downhill after this! Mark, however, was pleased that he kept getting extras of the gourmet lunch we had at winery 4 as I couldn't stomach all of mine!

From Mendoza we crossed the Andes (the most stunning border crossing, ever!) into Chile and headed to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is on the coast and built on a hill and from the bottom it looks like the houses are just cascading down. It is covered in murals and street art, which meant it took a long time to get anywhere as every street corner we were stopping and taking pictures.

In Valparaiso we took a boat tour round the harbour and saw sea lions and did an amazing cooking course. I was excited before we even started because rather than going to where the class was held we had to meet the chef at a landmark and were told we would spot them by the red hat - I felt like a spy!

There was just the two of us on the course; our chef took us to the market to buy all the ingredients fresh and we could pick what we wanted to make. We learnt how to make baked razor clams, empanadas, pebre (like a Chilean version of salsa and ours is still the best we have tasted in Chile!), corn pie and caramel flan. We had great fun, washed everything down with pisco sours and wine and even had some empanadas left over for lunch the next day.

From Valparaiso, we day-tripped to Vina del Mar where we got to see a moai (the giant heads from Easter Island) at the archaeological museum. Then we headed to Santiago for a couple of days. Like in Buenos Aires, we happened upon a load of crowds which turned out to be a Bolivian folk carnival! We got the furnicular up Cerro San Cristobal for views over the city and wandered round the artisan craft markets.

We flew to Calama - amazing views of the Andes taking off and the Atacama Desert landing - and from there headed to San Pedro de Atacama. This is where the scenery got truly stunning. We visited the Valle de la Luna which really looks like it could be on another planet. Amazing desert landforms shaped by the wind, old salt mines and the colours at sunset were stunning. We also did a tour to the altiplano lakes and saw flamingoes!

From San Pedro, we set off on a 4 day tour to Bolivia to see the Salar de Uyuni. We were a bit apprehensive about this part of the trip as we'd heard that it would be ridiculously cold, the food wasn't very good and that the drivers could be drunk or race which obviously isn't safe! We were also worried we'd end up stuck in a jeep with someone really annoying for 3 days.

However, we needn't have worried because our trip to Bolivia was the start of Team Flamingo! We met Marilyn and Kim, a Swiss and a German, at the border and decided to go in a jeep together and Ryan and Ellen, another British couple joined us too. Marilyn and Kim both spoke fluent Spanish which was a huge bonus as they could translate! Over the next few days, it really didn't seem like we'd all just met as everyone got on so well; we were definitely the jeep having the most fun!

As for our driver, Clemente seemed to know the landscape like the back of his hand, had been doing this tour for 14 years, somehow took it steady yet seemed to get us everywhere first and didn't rush us at all.

We saw white, green and red lakes, incredible desert landforms including the rock tree, geysers, thermal pools and of course the immense salt flats. Pictures just do not do the extent and beauty justice. Great company, stunning scenery, definitely the highlight of the trip so far. Sadly, we left 2 members of Team Flamingo in Bolivia and the rest of us headed back to San Pedro, where we are now.

Although, again we weren't sure we were going to make it back. We set off from Villa Mar in the dark at 5am for the Chilean border, but every so often the driver would stop the jeep and run round the back, not saying why. Kim decided to remind us of scary movies like Wolf Creek which helped the mood!

We did make it back in one piece, however it was blummin' cold on the border and even started snowing! We celebrated arriving back in one piece by going out for parrillada (like a huge mixed grill) and drinks with Kim and Marilyn.

The next day we had a wander round the shops, went out to eat again and then said goodbye to the girls as they headed to Peru. We wrapped up for an evening stargazing where I saw 5 shooting stars and through the telescopes we saw baby stars, dying stars (a big blue supernova) and even Saturn.

Today we were up at 4.30 to visit the Tatio Geyser field for sunrise and tomorrow we head back to Argentina...

Ciao for now!

Louise and Mark xxx

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