Salta

Salta, Argentina was a bit like Iquique, Chile  ... Great hostel and great people. Absolutely loved this place!

Had considered staying for 2 nights and ended up staying for 5.

Monday 14th Febuary

I always hate arriving into a new town late at night ... my bus from San Pedro which was scheduled to arrive into Salta at 22:00 eventually arrived at 00:30. I took a taxi to HI Backpackers Hostel, Salta and checked in for 2 nights ... 4 bed dorm ensuite (50 Arg$ per night).

 http://www.backpackerssalta.com/indexeng02.html 

 

At breakfast next morning I met a few backpackers ... Kenneth (from Belgium) and Claire and Anna (from England) and I hung out with them for the morning.

Later in the afternoon, I took a walk around town and climbed to the top of Cerro San Bernardo which had excellent views over the city of Salta. I met a local lady (Mirta) from Salta who showed me around. We got as cable car back down to the city park and took a walk back into town. (The more local people I meet, the more I realise how bad my Spanish is ... I really need to take some lessons!).

Back at the hostel that evening, I had to decide what tours to do around Salta .... so much to see and do! I booked myself onto a tour tomorrow to Cafayate (220 Arg$). Have heard so many people talking about Cafayate so I had to go and see it.

Spent the evening back at the hostel just relaxing and chatting to other backpackers. The hostel do free dinners in the evenings so myself Anna, Claire, Kenneth and a few others had dinner that night in the hostel.

Tuesday 15th Febuary

Early start for the Cafayate tour .....

Bus picked us up at 07:30 from the hostel. Everyone on the tour was staying at the hostel so it was a good way to meet other backpackers. Claire and Anna were on the tour too and some Columbian and Argentinian tourists. Great day out ... one of the best excursions Ive been on and the crowd that were on the tour were great. Met some really nice people. The route from Salta to Cafayate is amazing with stunning scenery.

Some pictures of the Cafayate excursion group:

Some photos of Cafayate and a visit to a local Bodega winery.

Some pictures of the scenery on route from Salta:

It was quite late getting back to the hostel that evening. I showered, changed and had some dinner. Later I took a cab downtown and went to a few music bars followed by a club, where I met up with Margarite, a dutch girl who I had met in Iquique, two weeks earlier .. small world!

Wednesday 16th - Friday 18th Febuary

I had originally planned to check out today but extended my stay in Salta for another 3 nights. I love backpackers hostel Salta ...  really feel at home here.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were lazy days in Salta.

Met two really nice Irish girls (Vicky and Sam) from Dublin who were sharing my dorm in the hostel.

Wednesday night was BBQ night at the hostel for 25 Arg$ ... lovely salad and steak. Yummy. I´m really going to miss these Argentine steaks. We spent the night drinking at the bar in the hostel and watching a traditional music and dance show. Great craic .. and met loads of other backpackers.

Anna, Claire and Kenneth left the hostel tonight. Was sad to see them go .. and would have liked to have spent more time travelling with them. I met loads of other backpackers at the BBQ and a huge crowd of us all headed out afterwards (about 5 taxis took us all to a club). A very late night ....

Thursday and Friday were spent relaxing. Lashing rain in Salta during the afternoons though. Could not make up my mind what to do and where to go after Salta ... eventually decided to do another excursion on Saturday and head to San Salvador de Jujuy for two nights before heading further north to the Bolivian border.

Friday nights free dinner in the hostel was pizza .. yummy. There was a good crowd of backpackers out at the hostel bar drinking beer and wine .. so the craic was great.

There were a few people heading out to a club after, but I decided to hang out at the hostel bar with a few others and drink more wine. Bad decision!

Saturday 19th Febuary

Very early start ... 06:30. I shouldnt have drank so much white wine last night! Very sore head today!
Check out and tour bus picked me up at the hostel at 07:00 for day excursion ´Train to the clouds´ (280 Arg$). We don´t actually take a train as its the rainy season and the train only runs from April to October, but this excursion follows the same route. The tour goes from Salta to San Antonio de los Cobres, to Salinas Grandes to Pumamarca and back to Salta via San Salvador de Jujuy. I was checked into a hostel in SS de Jujuy for Saturday night so I brought my backpack so I could get dropped off in Jujuy as the tour made its wasy back to Salta.

Some pictures of San Antonia de los Cobres:

Salinas Grandes:

Streets of Pumamarca:

The tour finished about 18:00 in Pumamarca, and I got dropped off in Jujuy about 19:30.

Will miss Salta so much ... really had a great 6 days there ... great hostel and great people.

San Pedro de Atacama

Monday 7th Febuary

Arrived into San Pedro about 09:30. Met a nice couple from Sweden (Alexander and Hanna) on the overnight bus from Iquique who were also staying in Backpackers Hostel San Pedro so we all made our way to the hostel together.

I wasn´t feeling the best when I arrived into San Pedro ... bit of a flu or a cold (probably from all the late nigts in Iquique). After arriving to the hostel, Fabiola, the owner gave us all a run down on what to do in and around San Pedro. I wasn´t feeling the best but figured I would join the others and go on an excursion in the afternoon to Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). Glad I went .. absolutely amazing views.

Tuesday 8th Febuary

Feeling miserable today. Really bad cold and I´ve aches and pains all over. Went to the chemist who refused to give me antibiotics without a doctors prescription so I had to go to the emergency room in the local clinic to see a doctor. I was in and out in less than 5 mins with a prescription for antibiotics. All for free!

I also got my ticket to Salta, Argentina for next Sunday (31,000 CHP ... very expensive!). No places on the bus until then so I´m going to be spending 6 nights in total here in San Pedro. Alot longer than I had hoped. 3 days (maximum) is required for San Pedro, but as I was not feeling the best, I figured I could just take it easy here after all the partying in Iquique the week before!

I spent Wednesday and Thursday hanging out at the hostel, and walking about San Pedro. Nice town, but very touristy and can be quite expensive.

Friday 11th Febuary

Was feeling alot better today so decided to go on another afternon excursion .. this time to Laguna Cejar and the Salt flats outside San Pedro. A few other backpackers from the hostel were also going (Anna and Chris from UK and Juan from Spain). Laguna Cejar is a salt lake .. so you cant actually drown even if you tried which is good for me as I cant swim. Anyway .. it felt very strange floating on the salt lake ... but good fun.

After, we went to the Salt flats near San Pedro and took some funny pictures:

Some photos of sunset at the Salt flats:

Fabiola prepared food and some Pisco Sours for everyone to watch the sunset at the Salt flats.

Saturday 12th Febuary

Very early start today ... was up at 3am as I was getting picked up at 4am by a tour agency to go and see the geysers outside San Pedro. This is one of the most popular tours to do in the area but the early start is a nightmare. Everyone had to wrap up really warm as the geysers are at a high altitude and its really cold. We arrived at the Geysers around 06:30 ... had a short tour followed by breakfast.

Later we visited the thermal baths near the Geysers:

We started making our way back to San Pedro about 10:00, stopping off in a few places to take some pictures of the wildlife and also a small town.

We arrived back to San Pedro about 13:00 so had the rest of the afternoon to hang out in San Pedro, have some dinner and relax back at the hostel. 

Sunday 13th Febuary

Bus to Salta, Argentina (630km) ... to be honest, although I liked San Pedro de Atacama after spending 6 nights here I was looking forward to leaving. Myself and an Australian girl from the hostel both had tickets for the same bus so we headed down to get the bus about 10:30. I think the bus eventually arrived at 12:00.  So happy to be heading back to Argentina and looking forward to seeing Salta as Ive heard so much good things about the place. On the otherhand also a bit sad leaving Chile for the last time ... have seen so many fantastic places in Chile since I first arrived here back in late November.

Iquique

What can I say about Iquique? ... Fantastic!

Tuesday 2nd February

I arrived here from Arica (4 hours trip, 325 km) ... had planned to stay for 2 nights but ended up staying till Sunday! I cant say enough good things about Iquique but as I write this blog I´m trying to think back what I actually done for my 6 days in Iquique and all I can remember is steak dinners, niteclubbing, so many new friends and lazy days on the beach. I´m so happy I came to Iquique and even as I write this I want to go back!

Iquique is just what I needed after spending the last few weeks travelling from town to town in Chile and not really meeting up with any backpackers. Iquique is full of them ... well at least my hostel was. I checked into HI Backpackers Hostel Iquique on Tuesday afternoon and was sharing a 6 bed dorm with some English, Australians and Chilean. The hostel is pretty big and probably has room for about 50 or 60 backpackers.

http://www.hosteliquique.cl/english.html

My room and some views from the hostel:

Its probably easier if I give an overview of my 6 days rather than a day by day account. The hostel is located right across the road from the beach so suffice to say I crawled out of bed in the morning and made my way over to the beach to sunbathe for the day.

This was literally how I spent every afternoon in Iquique .. me and a crowd from the hostel on the beach and in the sea (Iquique has really big waves .. but so many jellyfish)! It was really good .. even if you made you way over to the beach in the afternoon on your own, there was always a group from the hostel there and everybody just seemed to join up in one big group. Was really good for any solo travellers.

The hostel had BBQ`s on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and the food was super.

Lovely steak and salad and red wine. BBQ nights are always great for meeting new people, and usually after the BBQ everyone hung out at the hostel having a few beers and then onto a niteclub about 1am.

I really cannot possible mention all the great people I met at this hostel but here are a few pics from BBQ nights and of some of the people who made Iquique great for me:

On Thursday I decided I better get away from the beach and take a look around the town centre (even if it was for only one hour or so).

I had planned to travel back up to Arica as I heard there was a folk and dance festival on at the weekend but apparantly I got my dates wrong as it was for the following week. As it turned out there was a folk and dance festival on in Iquique Thursday - Saturday. On Friday myself and some friends from France and Australia (Paul and Kerryn) made our way downtown to check it out. We saw some traditional folk music and dancing from different countries in South America. Was nice to see it but it wasnt exactly a festival .. more of a stage in the town centre and people gathered around to watch it.

Sunday 6th February

A very hectic Saturday night meant that I was really tired on Sunday and I also had to check out early. Spent the afternoon on the beach (as usual) and got a lovely Chinese takeaway (which was almost as good as Chinatown in Lucan!). Got my overnight bus at 23:55 to San Pedro de Atatcama (c.480kms, 13,000 CHP, 9 hours incl the layover in Calama as I had to change bus).

Very sad to leave Iquique :-(