Cullen behind the wheel again after almost 4 months of no driving- watch out! We followed the advice of many other travelers and decided to rent a car in Salta in order to go off the grid and visit isolated splendors in a 200 kilometer radius from the city. Getting out of the city (population around one million) was the hard part- there are no traffic rules- or if there are any, they are not followed. The only one we could decipher was ¨He who hesitates, waits.¨ In other words, every intersection is a mystery of who has the right away. Add that to the nearly invisible traffic lights (small and hidden off to the side), the chaotic maze of one-way streets, the motorcyclists weaving through blind spots, and the pedestrians who show no fear of moving machines... it was a team effort and a new extreme sport for us to make it out of town. But once we did... ahhh! What a glorious country this is! We drove a loop over the course of 3 days passing from lush green hills to arid cacti-filled desert. We passed through only very small towns with cobble-stone streets and a whole new expression of MUY TRANQUILO. The landscape was too beautiful and bizarre to capture in photos, but we feel as if we have been through Utah and Arizona with a third-world twist. After only one flat tire (3 dollars to have fixed) and one near non-start to the rickety little rental car, we successfully navigated the narrow, winding, dusty, bumpty roads that led us to a peaceful winery town called Cafayate. We walked to 2 wineries around the block from our hostel and sampled varieties we have never heard of. We bought the nicest bottle of Malbec that the small bodega offered (5 dollars is enough to get good quality here)... We hit the road again the next morning (paved this time) and passed through more colored canyon scenery and a house boating lake before returning to Salta. Tomorrow, we take our little car north through more isolated villages where we will be leaving it at the border, and hopping buses to begin the journey through Bolivia.
4 comments:
Wow the drive looks very interesting! So fun to see the different scenery. Glaciers, penquins, desert etc. amazing! So Bolivia is next. Where are your friends from Canada? Will you meet up with them their? Can't wait to see what good things are ahead. LOVE Mom in Fallon
Hi guys! Miranda and Jim here. So glad to hear you are still traveling. We are too. Right now we're in Pucon, Chile. We climbed an active volcano the other day. Yikes!
Please keep in touch.
Miranda and Jim
Looks like you took a Wild Nevada trip the Southern way! The pictures sure do look familiar. The only thing we had to worry about though were the jack rabbits.
That car looks better than yours Cullen. Maybe its the paint job.
Glad to hear you are on the road and seeing the outlying areas. It looks beautiful. Can't wait till the next commentary on your adventure. You two are amazing.
Love Kari-Mom
1We finished our road trip in the rental car and are now in the process of trying to cross the Bolivia border which is more complicated than we thought but we are figuring it out.
We will try to make a blog update in the next town (Tupiza, Bolivia).
Great job Miranda and Jim for climbing a volcano, what an adventure!
Cheryl/Mom,
Our Canadian friends could not join us because they had only a short time before they had to fly out of Lima, Peru, so we did not get to meet up with them.
Mom and Dad,
The rental car functioned the same as our little black car back home. We took some adventurous side roads that just about shook the car to pieces but we made it and just gave it to the guy who is going to drive it back to Salta. North Argentina reminded us of Nevada in so many ways the only thing that would snap us back into realizing we were in Aregentina was the villiages we passed. We blog more ditails later.
Love ya, All
Cullen and Melis
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