Oct 2007

We decided to pass through Northern Argentina on our way from Bolivia to Puerto Iguazu. We stayed a little longer than planned in Salta mainly because of the massive steaks and cheap red wine. Excellent!

A few points we learnt about Argentina very early on; order a steak and you get half a cow, you can get very drunk on nice red wine that is dirt cheap, live like the locals and don´t even think about going out to eat before 10pm. I think I like this place!

We tore ourselves away from Salta and took our first 24hr bus trip (we´ve had a lot more since!) over to Puerto Iguazu in order to see the Iguazu waterfalls. We saw it from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides - the first one more impressive I think.

View from Brazil

Next stop, Rio! Turned out to be a wise decision as we didn´t plan on visiting here originally - exactly how we expected it be to, lovely beaches, friendly locals and lethal cocktails at the hostel bar.

Out first outing was to a football match to watch Fluminense play at the massive Maracanã stadium. The guy organising the tour was a huge fan himself so we ended up in the terraces with the local nutjobs ... lots of flares and flags and a 2-0 victory for Fluminense. Ole! Brilliant atmosphere - looking forward to seeing another match in Buenos Aires if we can.

View of Sugar Loaf

Had to get a photo of the Copacabana!

The Big Man at sunset

We made a few more stops down the Brazilian coast to soak up the sun and lounge about for a bit longer on the beaches before hitting Buenos Aires - and more steak.

Right, it´s been a while since I´ve updated this so I´m going for the photo option rather than text!

Or first stop in Southern Bolivia was Potosi, claimed to be the highest city in the world and the site of Cerro Rico - the ´rich mountain´. Silver was discovered here in 1550 and promptly shipped back to Spain ... Potosi in it´s heyday was larger than both London and Paris. Now it´s a pretty colonial town and the mountain is mainly mined for tin, I declined the offer of a tour to go down there but the boys braved it.

Potosi miners at work

Next stop, Uyuni and the largest salt flats in the world. They weren´t lying, there´s a lot of salt! The area used to part of a giant lake, when this dried up it left behind around 4,000 square miles of salt.

A very bad optical illusion ...

We spent a couple of very cold days and nights around the salt flats and out in the Bolivian wilderness, the second night we slept in what can only be described as a shed - we were all in bed at 8pm as the holes in the windows were blowing a gale and we only had one candle between six. Had a great time though!

Probably the coldest I´ve ever been ...

Next stop, Northern Argentina and into Brazil.