Exploring La Paz
Topic: Bolivia
We are staying right in the middle of the witchcraft market area in La Paz. The first thing we see when we come out of the hotel is a stand full of dried whole goats and bats and a lady in a bowler hat selling spells and potions. It is a lovely part of town however, hilly and cobbled. We have spent the last couple of days exploring the city and the museums - it is so interesting.

The first museum we went into was the Coca Museum. Chewing coca does release cocaine but having coca tea does not. For 20 years in the early days of Coca Cola, the drink contained cocaine! It doesn't now of course but they still use Bolivian coca leaves for flavouring.

The buildings of Plaza Murillo are especially impressive. 16 year old soldiers guard them with their fingers on the triggers of their machine guns. This makes me slightly nervous in case they sneeze and accidentally shoot!

Market stalls sell all sorts of things from DVDs to Toblerone to slippers to bandages. A lovely narrow windy cobbled street called Jaen has beautiful colonial houses. Some of which are now museums.

The contemporary art gallery is housed in beautiful European-style 19th century building. Most of the others on the same street have unfortunately been replaced with 1970s concrete buildings.

It feels like everyone is in fancy dress in certain parts of town. The shoe shine guys wear baseball caps covered with balaclavas so that you can barely see their eyes. This helps them to avoid breathing in car fumes I am guessing. They often wear khaki. David says it's like Derry circa 1985. You want to say to them "ok ok, shine my shoes but don't kneecap me".

In the business district however, people are dressed in suits and very sassy. It is clearly a two-tiered kind of society.

The food hasn't greatly inspired me so far. Meat and fried potatoes pretty much. I eat each meal thinking "is this the one that is going to make me sick?". So far so good though.

Train and bus to la Paz
Topic: Bolivia
Our carriage on the train bound for Oruro was only partially occupied - some locals, some Canadians and us. the Canadians and I swapped photography tips and took it in turns to sit at the open window to get the best shots of the incredible scenery outside - massive gorges, fertile planes and tiny villages. The rest of the passengers preferred to sit with their shutters closed watching Pirates of the Caribbean followed by Dr Doolittle on the TV. Even when it went dark, I enjoyed looking at the gorges illuminated by the full moon. I didn't get much sleep. I kept wriggling about and snuffling (the effects of the Yellow fever jab I suspect). The sun rose about 6am and the scenery had changed dramatically. It was now hills, green-tinted salt lakes and hundreds of improbably pink flamingos reflected in the lake. Many of the other passengers watched Bolivian folk videos in the dark.

The train arrived in Oruro 15 and a half hours after leaving Villazon. We bought tickets for the bus to La Paz and had time for a quick cup of coca tea before we left.

One of the Canadians got his wallet stolen from a vendor on the bus. he called for the police who weren't at all helpful so in the end he just gave up and got back on the bus. I felt really sorry for him and the other Bolivian passengers were really embarrassed and sympathetic. We reviewed our security practices - it could easily have been us.

The bus journey was 4 hours through the Alti Plano including a stop to change the flat tyre about halfway there. The villages along the way looked very poor and people seemed to have nothing to do except sit on big piles of rubble watching the buses and trucks go by. We tried not to fall asleep even though we were so tired. We played a game we had invented in Sri Lanka where you have to spot things (remember that 1970s game? you tick off things like humpbacked bridge and level crossing?). Our Bolivian version included the following:

- Woman in a bowler hat hundreds)
- Llama (none as it turned out)
- Load of lads in a back of a truck (a few)
- Live sheep strapped on a roof rack of a bus (2)
- An abandoned adobe house (loads)
- An adobe house with a tin roof held on with rocks (loads)
- A donkey (loads)
- A car (one or two)
- A thatched roof (a few)
- Political graffiti (loads)
- A political demo (3 - the elections are on the 15th)
- Women playing soccer (1 game - classic! They play dressed in their massive petticoats and are pretty skillful)

When we weren't playing that, we watched a made-for-TV movie called "Substitute Assassins" dubbed in Spanish or listened to one of our fellow passengers give a sales pitch. One started "Your health is the most important thing. Now I have your attention...." and went on to explain how her teas could cure everything from cancer to AIDS because they purify the liver. It was a pretty successful presentation as lots of passengers bought some.

Finally, we approached El Alto region of La Paz (a fast growing city in its own right) and then descended 500m into La Paz which occupies a giant crater. Home for the next 4 days.

Happy Birthday Dad!
Happy Birthday Dad!

Border crossing to Villazon
Topic: Bolivia
As we were leaving the hostel in La Quiaca, Argentina, the manager gave us some advice about our trip to Bolivia: "Don't drink the water. Don't eat the meat. Don't touch the vegetables". I asked him what was safe to eat. He thought for a while and finally came up with "galletas" (biscuits).

Coming out of the hostel I almost bumped into my first sighting of a woman wearing a bowler hat. We were close to Bolivia now.

The Argentine section of the crossing was straightforward and took 30 seconds. The Bolivian side was longer as we had timed it so we were behind a bus load of Bolivians en route to Buenos Aires. We knew there were 50 of them because they held numbers and were put in order. While we waited in the hot sun, we stood on the bridge looking over at the trickle of water in the dusty river bed below. three men carrying bundles were legging it across. A pack of dogs ran the length of the left bank, a pig the size of a donkey sniffed at something on the ground. A 7 year old urchin tried to help us fill in the green forms and offered to be our guide to the train station. We ignored him and he latched onto 2 French girls instead. Finally we got to the front of the queue and were both given a 30 day stamp.

After getting our train ticket for the 3.30pm to Oruro, we went to explore the town starting with a quick stop for coca tea. The marketplace was bustling and selling all sorts of delicacies - empanadas, noodles, chicken, bread etc. We bought some snacks for our trip including some roasted beans which tasted like chestnuts. In the central covered market, merchants sold spices, toiletries and basket ware. A man slept face down behind his stall while a 3 year old played with a pile of beans. Another woman slept seated with her face squashed against a flour bag.

We sat in the church square for a while people watching. Quite an assortment of hats went by - bowlers, felt hats, cloth hats, straw hats with elaborate ribbons. The bowlers are my favourite. The women are very proud of their hats and have owned them their whole lives. They perch with dignity on top of their heads offering no protection from the sun. When it rains, they are covered with plastic bags but not taken off. A popular way of carrying anything from boxes of fruit to sacks of potatoes to children is in the slack of a large piece of colourful cloth which is tied at the front. The younger women and girls often do not follow this tradition and favour sweat pants instead of petticoats and baseball caps in place of the bowlers.

It is difficult to blend in at all here like we did in Argentina as there are vey few peple of European origin. Even if I got myself a bowler hat, I'd stand out. Talking of hats, we finally found one that fitted David. He is now proudly wearing a khaki green one which makes him look like he's with the highway police. He throws in a "could you step out of your vehicle please mam" and "can I see your licence and registration please mam" in a creepy Southern accent to complete the part. It's pretty funny.

North from Salta
Topic: Salta
We knew we had been in Salta long enough when we had been to each of the cafes on the plaza at least once and were on first name terms with some of the street vendors, urchins and shoe shine boys. We had become friends with 15 year old Marcelo who shines shoes on the Cafe Van Gogh corner of the plaza after school each day. It helps his family with the expenses of bringing up 8 children (he's the oldest). He asked us whether is was true that people in Europe only have one or two children. He thought this was very funny. When he learned we were English teachers he proudly showed off his only phrase: "Shoeshinewhereyoufrong?". We tried to teach him a few more key phrases but didn't get too far.

So, we left the sticky heat of Salta on a beautiful air conditioned bus bound for La Quiaca on the border with Bolivia. the trip took 8 hours and we stopped at Jujuy and every one llama town and a few choice locations in the middle of nowhere. It was really quite an interesting trip because of the scenery, massive multi-coloured rock formations dotted with man-sized cartoon cacti.



As we got closer to the Bolivian border, towns grew smaller and the people more interestingly dressed. Women in hats and layers of petticoats, entire families with dark, serious faces and felt hats sat in doorways watching the bus. Llamas, sheep, goats and chickens ran wild. The sun was strong but people were wearing jumpers and shawls. Our ears started to pop and we were really thirsty. Then it dawned on us that we were climbing. We looked at the map and realised that we were 3400m above sea level.

We felt the altitude when we got off the bus. All we did was put our backpacks in the back of a taxi and we were puffing and panting like old people. All we had the energy to do that night was take a slow walk in search of food and back again in time to catch a program about local buses on canal La Quiaca on our telly in the .

We had a flick through our guidebook looking for tips on the border crossing for the following day. We noticed a small section which said "Visitors from Ireland should check the government website before attempting to enter Bolivia as they might need visas which can only be obtained in major cities". La Quiaca is not what you would call a major city. We thought we would just chance it anyway, we'd come this far. We'd find out in the morning....

Rocks and Bodegas
Topic: Salta
A town called Cafayate a few hours south of Salta is famous for wine so we thought we'd pay it a visit. The easiest way of getting there would be to go on a tour. You know how I feel about tours, but there were no other real options so we had a chat with our friend Lucia at the tour agency and arranged it.

Bright and early the following day we were picked up at our hostel and squeezed into an already full van. There were 14 of us including Sixto our driver and Yanine our guide. 4 chain smoking Italians with 2 teenagers, 3 loud middle-aged women from Chubut, Sophie, a skinny French flight attendant living in California, and us.

Yanine was great. She was young, laid back and informative without being a relentless commentator. As we drove through the city limits and into Salta province, we learned that tobacco was one of the main crops - there are fields and fields of the stuff (peddlers of death!). 80% of it gets exported. It's pretty fertile around Salta which explains why the fruit and veg we have been eating lately is so good and so cheap.

Sixto drove us through a stunning area of scenery called Quebrada de las Conchas (Ravine of shells) so named as at one time it was under water and may shells and fossils have been found there. We made a number of stops along the road to have a closer look at the natural rock formations of different colours. !!Travel bore alert!! It was a bit like the scenery heading out of Marrakesh into the Atlas mountains and in some ways like Petra. It was the pink rock that made it so stunning. Parts have been given names such as "China Town", "The Castles", "The Frog", "The Windows", "The Devil's Throat" and "The Amphitheater". We saw plenty of cartoon cacti, llamas and goats too in this hot dusty place.

In Cafayate we visited 2 bodegas - Hermanos Domingo and Vasija Secreta. There are other famous ones there which we didn't go to but are sure we have tried in the UK or Ireland - Etchart and Michel Torino. The most famous wine of the region is a fruity white called Torrontes (pronounced locally Toshontays). We bought 2 cheap bottles and one expensive one (a 2000 Malbec). We also bought some goats cheese. No one else bought anything but made up for it at the roadside pottery stands on the way home. We can only ever buy consumables because we can't carry anything else!

After a lunch stop at a tiny place on the square called Las Dos Marias, we made our way back to Salta in the hot van with no AC. We made a few stops and fortunately the Chubut ladies were quiet all the way home. A good day out all in all. I'm still not sold on tours but I'm so glad we went.

9 signs that Catholicism is alive and well in Salta
Topic: Salta
1. There are always lots of people in the churches
2. Mass on Saturday and Sunday is packed out - spilling into the streets
3. there are shops ans stalls selling nothing but religious statues
4. Families are large. There are kids everywhere
5. Almost every young woman we pass is either pregnant or carrying a newborn. Ever seen that Travis video?
6. There are young nuns. And I thought is was a dying profession
7. the flower guy guilts people into buying his half-dead carnations by saying "buy them for the virgin". Needless to say, this line didn't work on me.
8. There are no North American Mormons trying to convert people like we've seen in other South American (and Spanish) cities.
9. My personal favourite - you can tune into Radio Maria on 102.7 FM.

Inca Shocker!
Topic: Salta
Poor, nice little Incas. Their civilisation was overthrown by the nasty Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s. That's what we always hear. I discovered that the Incas were't so nice after all.

We were among the first people to visit the brand new high altitude archaeological museum in Salta. At first we learned about the expedition to the high altitude sites (22,000 feet) in Argentina. Then we learned that these sites (and there are hundreds of them in the Andes) were temples - the higher the better to be near the gods. The next room shows cute little silver statues dressed in colourful garments and tiny little sandals. What's all that about then? Well, these items are buried along with the offerings to the gods. What offerings would they be? Children. This gave me the willies - read on. The Incas would choose a beautiful child from the village typically aged about 6 years old. These children would be dressed in their best clothes and given chicha (alcohol) to drink until they fell unconscious. Then they were buried alive with the items I have mentioned and left on the mountains for the gods. I was shocked. Mummified children had been found during the expedition and the museum had photos of them. They looked like sleeping children. According to the newspaper, the museum is planning to display the actual bodies once they have installed a cabinet which recreates the conditions of the mountain (40 percent humidity and -18 degrees C). Perhaps the Spanish did the region a favour...

Salta
We love Salta. It's the best urban area we have been to so far. It's VERY south American. Beautiful Spanish colonial buildings, plazas lined with cafes, hot weather, swaying palms, exotic-looking locals, great food that we have to have people explain to us, and very laid back. David said yesterday that all we needed was a public demomstration and we would be in a stereotypical south America town....cue demo... residents of an inner city barrio demanding more pedestrianised areas. It passed off very peacefully.

In Patagonia we spent so much money on eating out. Here we can eat our fill for a pound including half a litre of local brew! It is seriously cheap. We discovered a fabulous market full of food stands and tried humitas (corn pies), tamales (beef and corn pies), locro and modonga (stews). All very yummy. Even the things made from goat intestine (you just eat around the white bits). We made friends with the owner and he kept giving us stuff to try.

This morning we went to a museum on the square. From the balcony on the square overlooking Plaza 9 de Julio we got great views of a free concert. fabulous Andean inspired pop music from a band called something like Los Kachorros. The 14 year old girls were going wild. There was even a mosh pit.

It's all very mellow here. Even the street vendors are laid back. So far while sitting at cafes we have been offered half-dead flowers, mini guitars made from expired armadillos, straw hats, shoe shines, face cream and perfume.

David has described Salta as Bolivia-lite. I know what he means. It has the energy and excitement of somewhere like Bolivia but it's in safe, clean, laid back Argentina. We basically only came here originally came here to kill time until our yellow fever certificate is old enough for us to get into Bolivia. We almost didn't come at all which would have been such a shame. It really is such a great place. It should be high up on anyone's itinerary, not just an afterthought!

Quick stop in Buenos Aires
We spent the last but one hour in Patagonia trying to find somewhere to stay in Buenos Aires. After an hour of relentless phone calls, we finally made a reservation and spent the last hour relaxing in the sun down at the harbour in Ushuiaia. The BA hotel would cost more than we usually pay but it was all we could find. It was either that or Peter Rothfels' advice about the park bench.

I was a lot more relaxed this time during the flight on a bigger plane. From the window I watched sunset over the beagle channel, its tiny islands and the snowy caps. It's funny to think that it took us 6 weeks to get down to Tierra del Fuego from Buenos Aires but just 3 hours to fly back up!

When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we took a taxi to our hotel near Plaza San Martin. I felt a bit self-conscious walking into a posh hotel in the middle of the night with a backpack and walking boots. In Patagonia, no one would have batted an eyelid. The night receptionist was very nice but - horror of horrors - couldn't find any record of our reservation! He told us that the hotel was fully booked. I was so tired and had no energy for making any more phone calls and it must have shown on my face. Despite our less than elegant attire, the receptionist (Juan) took pity on us and found a free room. I nearly kissed him. The porter brought us up to our room on the top floor. Yes! The penthouse! I say room, it was actually a suite of rooms. I'm a girl who has learned to be content with a place that has four walls and a bed. If I had had to list some luxuries earlier I would have said a private bathroom with a sink with a plug. Imagine my excitement at finding a place that had a dressing room, a cabinet full of antiques, beautiful paintings on the walls, fluffy dressing gowns and a private balcony running the length of the hotel overlooking Plaza San Martin! I haven't stayed anywhere this posh since I left the Emirates.

We are in Buenos Aires just long enough to get some jabs, have a haircut and buy a bus ticket. We had an appointment at a private clinic specializing in travel medicine and have now been inoculated against Yellow Fever, Typhoid and Tetanus. We already had hepatitis, polio and cholera before we left. Both arms are very sore and apparently we are going to come down with Yellow Fever in 5-10 days (can't wait). The doctor was very thorough and we went through our itinerary while she looked up each and every place. She has told us exactly which areas have malaria and where we are likely to get Dengue Fever (oh joy!). She gave us a little pack of pills and potions for the rest of our trip including things like sun block, insect repellant, paracetamol and bite cream. She talked to us about preventative techniques and gave us a prescription for malaria pills and some antibiotics to take with us just in case we get fever. As soon as we left the surgery I wrote an English translation of all her advice and instructions before I forgot it!

We bought tickets on a night bus to Salta, a colonial city in the nort west. It seems like a mellow enough place to hang out for a while and to get Yellow Fever in. From there we will go into Bolivia overland. Actually, I am lucky we are actually leaving tonight...I accidentally left the bus tickets in the hotel room and had to go back and pay a chambermaid to rummage through the bins for them!

So, now we are all ready for our trip apart from buying some snacks for the 20 hour bus ride. Just killing time in the city. We went for lunch in Recoleta (not far from where we used to live), caught a movie and even saw an art exhibition at the Borges Cultural Center. I love Buenos Aires but I miss Patagonia. This has come as a surprise to me. I thought I was a city girl through and through. I miss the wide open spaces, clean air, the snow on the mountains, and the animals and birds.

All for now. More when I get to Salta.