David and Edel

Iglesia San Francisco in Salta.

Salta is quite a nice city, lots of old colonial architecture, and still very hot even though it’s at 1200 meters altitude up in the mountains – not as humid as the area we left behind though. Teresa organized to finish her trip and go home, and me and Edel looked into visiting some of the cloud-forest reserves to the north. The El Rey park was difficult to get to this time of the year – one person we talked to explained that we’d need to rent our own 4×4 and then continued on to explain the safest way to cross a high river without getting the car swept away… Remembering something we had seen in Tibet Edel talked some sense into me and we aimed to get to the slightly more accessible Calilegua national park instead, after first heading to visit a couple villages up in the mountain desert.

Before leaving Salta we went to a museum set up to display the mummies of three children found on 6700 meters altitude on a mountain nearby, sacrificed by the Incas. Incredibly well preserved, as were the number of small offerings left with them, made of gold and colourful seashells and feathers from every corner of the Inca empire.

Pigeons at the Salta plaza.

We didn’t have much luck with food in Salta, while it is a big city the cuisine in parts of Argentina can get a bit repetitive…little but pizza and sandwiches on most menus. Ham and cheese is a particular obsession..you get ham and cheese sandwiches on every long bus you take and in restaurants ham and cheese gets put in absolutely everything..even a side of potatoes can arrive at the table covered in the stuff. A lasagna I had in Mendoza some week later in fact was nothing except ham and cheese..in layer after layer. Edel did manage to find one place in Salta prepared to cook seafood, though the pyromaniacs in the kitchen turned her squid into something reminding me of the Cape Horn sailing book I’m reading at the moment, where the starving sailors start eating old leather anti-chafing gear from the ship… The guidebook did list a couple alternative places, but the one lebanese and two vegetarian restaurants we tried to find had closed down (maybe burned down by the same pyromaniac?). Fruit is so hated that we even had an armed guard confiscate our peaches, apples and plums on the Mendoza bus a while later! (maybe something to do with Mendoza being an important wine-growing region?)

Cactus by the Pucara ruined fortress.

From Salta we headed for Tilcara, a cute little desert town of adobe houses at 2450 meters altitude. It is domestic tourism high-season now and many places were full when we got there. We walked off in a random direction from the bus station, and after checking a couple places a young boy spotted us on the street and led us to his mums house where we could rent the basement floor for three nights. Tilcara offered a nice break from the monotone food we’d been eating for a while recently, with some lovely restaurants serving creative quinoa dishes and even real vegetables!

Purmamarca town.

In Tilcara the first day we went to the Pucara ruins – a pre-Colombian fortress on a hill just outside town, overgrown by tall cactus. The ruins are dominated by a huge pyramid – built in the 1950’s as a monument by the early archeologists to celebrate themselves! The following day we hopped on a bus further north to another small town called Humahuaca at nearly 3000 meters – popping north of the Tropic of Capricorn on the way for the first time in three months. Humahuaca has a nice town square with an old church, and a gigantic modern independence monument up on a big hill. We picked up a couple things on the market in town, and had some good empanadas before heading back to Tilcara to catch a different bus south to a third town called Purmamarca.

Hilltop concert.

Purmamarca sits at the foot of “Cerro de los Siete Colores”, a series of multi-coloured hills behind town. We were on the way down after taking some photos from the hill when we were hijacked by a group of Argentinians who were doing an improvised concert up on the hilltop – they got more and more people to come up and join them and after a while there was a good crowd sitting up on the hill, playing guitar and drums and sharing paper carton wine, Argentinian songs and Manu Chao. We had thought they were a band at first but apparently they had just met earlier that day! Lovely spontaneity…

Cactus by Purmamarca.

After we emerged from the Ibera swamps we headed for San Ignacio, a small town close to a number of old Jesuit mission ruins. The Jesuits set up a number of large missions in the Paraguay-Argentina-Brazil jungle area, to eliminate the indigenous Guarani culture and way of life by turning them into good little Christians, in exchange for protecting them against the plantation owners who wanted to eliminate the indigenous culture and way of life by turning them into slaves. The first still being a lot more fun than the second thousands of Guarani moved to the missions. After some hundred years the Jesuits were kicked out by the Spanish crown, when they had become “too powerful”.

Strangler fig on the Loreto ruins.

We explored the ruins in San Ignacio itself first, buildings made of red brick with some of the stone carvings and decorations still surviving. In the afternoon we got a taxi to take us to the nearby Loreta and Santa Ana ruins, joined by an Argentinian student with a talent for talking his way out of the entrance fee. These ruins were less restored, still overgrown and in places covered by strangler figs to remind a little of some of the Angkor ruins. Santa Ana had a graveyard which had been used again in the early 1900’s – bit of a spooky place with open and broken coffins lying around in crumbling cemetery ruins…big tree roots growing through the roofs. Thousands of big spiders and cicadas were filling the trees.

The Trinidad ruins in Paraguay.

The next day we headed for Paraguay, to visit the Trinidad ruins on that side of the border. It took quite a number of buses to get there – beginning with one back again to Posadas, then three buses first to the border, across a several kilometer long bridge to the second border, then to the town Encarnacion on the Paraguayan side, then finally a bus to Trinidad. We entered the country legally this time, getting our passport stamped (unlike on our 5-minute sightseeing trip from Iguazu). The bus was crowded, India-style nearly. Encarnacion looks quite chaotic, partly flooded by red muddy water the day we passed through. The Trinidad ruins an hour north are much better preserved/restored than the ones on the Argentinian side – covering a big field with well tended lawns and lots of intact decorations and sculptures. The heat and strong sun as we walked around the ruins was brutal. Unfortunately once we arrived we didn’t have enough Paraguayan money for the tickets (we hadn’t found a proper changing place so had changed on the street..only as much as we thought we needed) – luckily they let us pay with Argentinian pesos instead.

Edel and Teresa in the Trinidad ruins.

On the way back we flagged a bus to Encarnacion from the road, then got another border-crossing bus but this time we got stuck on the long bridge. Crossing into Argentina seems more popular… We were standing up in the crowded bus now slowly turning into a sauna without the wind as we were hardly moving. Only gained maybe ten meters every few minutes, and I could feel drops of sweat running down my arms and legs. We could hop off and walk of course, but it would have been about 40 minutes to walk in either direction from the middle of the bridge, and we had ran out of water…nearly 40 degrees in the shade, of which there was none. Luckily the driver too was getting restless and eventually he got fed up enough to drive in the oncoming lane against traffic across the rest of the bridge.

We had a 20 hour bus to Salta, 1200km to the west, booked for the next evening. Had planned to pop back in to the San Ignacio ruins during the way, but the ticket, though valid for 15 days, allowed only one entrance… Saw some spectacular lightning in the evening from the bus to Salta – I was watching it for 40 minutes before I fell asleep and the sky never stayed dark for more than a second.

Horse riding in the Ibera wetlands.

I love swamps. Edel, who might be the worlds most understanding wife, even let me drag her off to one during our honeymoon (you couldn’t go to Cuba and not visit the Zapata peninsula wetlands now could you?). The Ibera wetlands in Argentina are the worlds second biggest, after the Pantanal in Brazil-Bolivia (which we visited and nearly died from the heat in on the last trip). From Iguazu we’re approaching the Ibera in an awkward way, honing in slowly in a big counter-clockwise spiral…heading straight south from Posadas looks smarter on the map but we’ve been advised against it…

Mercedes town square.

After the ten hour bus from Iguazu we spent the first night on the way in Corrientes, which the Lonely Planet describes as “fuck Corrientes, it’s not that interesting anyway”, while pondering the lack of budget accommodation… I miss the Rough Guide – we usually travel by it always but couldn’t get hold of it for Argentina so now we’re stuck with the Lonely Planet and its descriptions of “super happening nightclubs”, and a “Drinking” section for every place even where they don’t bother with a map (incidentally their maps are awful, printed in six near-identical shades of grey and tiny font). We stayed in a hotel by the bus-station in Corrientes, to continue to Mercedes to the south a little closer to the Ibera next. While I wouldn’t quite be ready to hurl expletives on Corrientes, Mercedes definitely has more charm – a pleasant little town with lots of rusty old cars (there even seemed to be raggers – a large boat-shaped truck with lots of people on it played music while driving very slowly around the square…). We got our swamp excursion organized – two nights in Colonia Pellegrini which lies by the Ibera lake, bus there in the morning together with a nice German hippie girl who we teamed up with, and then 4×4 transport along the road we had been warned against back to Posadas.

Black Caiman in the Ibera wetlands.

The road to Pellegrini wasn’t in that great shape either, but the bus did get us there and we checked in to a hostel in the village that turned out to be just a few blocks big. We went horse riding for a few hours in the afternoon and saw lots of birds. I had a very lively horse that liked running fast and wasn’t a bit interested in what I had to say about that. Minor problems sitting on hard surfaces after.

The next morning before it got too hot we went out by boat on the wetlands, great way to see lots of animals. We spotted lots of capybaras (at up to 70 kilo the worlds biggest rodent), black caimans, and southern screamer, jacana and lots of other birds. The lakes in the wetland are full of big floating islands of vegetation – some even big enough to have trees! Walking back to the hostel after the boat dropped us it had gotten very hot, humid and burning sun, loud cicadas everywhere in the trees. Slept away the day’s hottest hours, then went for a walk in the evening where we saw lots of howler monkeys, and more capybaras grazing by the ranger station. We were completely eaten by mosquitoes on the walk, and saw a 20cm toad back at the hostel.

Capybara in the Ibera wetlands.

For the next morning we had a 4×4 transport organized to take us back to Posadas, to find out exactly why taking the direct road instead of the longer route via Corrientes-Mercedes is a terrible idea. It was raining very heavily this morning, with thunder and lots of wind. The road was indeed awful, the red dirt turning into clay and the pickup slipping and sliding in zigzag back and forth across the road. A non-4×4 car was stuck solid in the mud just a couple kilometers from the village, and power-lines had been torn down by the wind all along the road. The first hundred kilometers took us over five hours… We had left with two cars at the same time in case one would get stuck out in the middle of nowhere – the second car got a broken gearbox at some point so had to be towed..slowing us down from a speedy 30 kmph to 20. We did make it to Posadas in the end – eventually the dirt-road connected out to a better road and the rest was much faster. In Posadas we caught a short bus-ride north to San Ignacio, to stay a few days and visit the ruins of a number of old Jesuit missions.

Baby capybara with friend in the Ibera wetlands.

Howler monkey in the Ibera wetlands.

Edel, Teresa and Anne in Buenos Aires.

We flew in to Buenos Aires just around midnight on Christmas Eve – lots of fireworks all over the city which was fun and strange to look down on instead of up at! When we arrived at the hostel the place was loud, drunken and dancing…and that’s just the staff. We spent three days in Buenos Aires, mostly just walking around the city and the San Telmo market, then caught the 17 hour bus north to Puerto Iguazu. The bus company we picked this time spiced up the unavoidable ham&cheese sandwiches by serving us wine, rum and champagne one after the other. The rum was “Old Smuggler” and the wine a special bus-brand with a picture of a bus on the bottle…

Capuchin monkey at the Iguazu falls.

Tegus lizard at the Iguazu falls.

Coati at the Iguazu falls.

Me and Edel spent half a week around the Iguazu waterfalls at the beginning of our last trip, and it’s a nice place to come back to. Within a few minutes inside the national park that contains the falls we had seen capuchin monkeys, coatis, big tegus lizards and tons of different colourful butterflies. I think I took more photos of the animals than the falls this time. The falls are of course amazing though, long curtains of dozens and dozens of different waterfalls sending clouds of spray drifting in over the rainforest – and even more full of water this time of the year than the last time we were here. This also happened to be the time of year for coati-babies – coatis are cute brown long-snouted raccoon-like animals that are hanging out in hundreds of all over the park…watching them run around and raid bins, fight, play, and generally misbehave is another highlight to Iguazu. We walked the two lower paths on the Argentinian side the first day, saving Garganta del Diablo – the biggest – for day two. This fall is really amazing in high-water – like an enormous hole or drain in the middle of the big flood-plain as you walk closer and closer following the kilometer or so of boardwalks over the water to get there. The walk takes you right up to the edge! Flocks of swallows swirl in and out by the falls, and clouds of mist that can be seen from miles away hide and reveal the Brazilian side. Anne and Teresa did the boatride right under the falls after, and came back properly soaked.

The next day, the 31st, we spent in three different countries – viewing the Brazilian side of the falls plus a quick dash into Paraguay. We booked a taxi for the day through the hostel, first crossing in to Brazil which was the simplest border crossing ever – got a stamp in the passport without even leaving the car. First we went to see the Itapu dam, the worlds second biggest after Three Gorges in China. The tour at the dam took us to a viewpoint where we could see the overflow release sending water hundreds of meters high into the air, then a quick drive along the edge of the dam, and finally a 30min film about the history of the dam that sounded like a commercial and made you want to shout out “Ok, I’ll buy it already!” halfway through. The dam generates 20% of Brazil’s electricity and nearly all of Paraguay’s, but the film forgot to mention that the 1300 square kilometer dam flooded a waterfall even bigger and more impressive than the Iguazu…

Iguazu falls.

Iguazu falls.

Iguazu falls.

Iguazu falls.

Iguazu falls.

Next we did a five minute hop across the border into Paraguay, supposedly the most corrupt country outside Africa. I’ll have to change my mind about the border crossing – this is the simplest one we’ve ever done..nobody even stopped us or looked at our passports… You don’t build a reputation for contraband by inspecting passports! This particular corner of Paraguay looked messy enough to remind us of India, with the touts even taking a step further from trying to drag you from the street into their shops – here they hunt in the middle of the road trying to stop cars!

Toucan in Parque das Aves, Brazil.

To the Brazilian falls next, first visiting a nice little bird zoo breeding endangered parrots. Covered the walk by the falls in the next couple hours – there’s less to see on this side but you do get a better overview over all the falls, and one walkway leads right out into the middle below Garganta del Diablo, guaranteeing a soak. In the evening we went looking for restaurant for our New Years Eve dinner – most of the ones that were open were trying to pull off a 5$ buffet for about 60 euro (buffet’s are where you get sick..stuff lying around lukewarm for hours..) but after a bit of walking we found one lovely place that still went by a menu. We could hear Brazil enter 2010 at 11pm, and when it was Argentina’s turn an hour later a place nearby put on some great fireworks. Shared a couple bottles of red, leaving the next day for a lazy-day before waving goodbye to Anne who was going back to Buenos Aires, and the rest of us catching another bus to our next destination.

Coati with babies at the Iguazu falls.