Still in heaven...
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
22
159
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Salta, Argentina
Monday, October 2, 2006
In the morning I was shattered but made it to the company and was put in a jeep with two staff away from the rest of the people that were going. I assumed it was because the other bus was ful but I hoped it wasn't because I'm English (I am in Argentina and have been told by other travellers not to mention the Falkland Islands or even call them by that name!). Fortunately the guides were great, spoke reasonable engish and we had some of my MP3 music on with their travel speakers so i subjected them to some english bands, although they do get quite a lot here i realised later. They bought me a coffee too at the petrol station which was nice and we had a good chat, plus we picked up a local farmer who was getting a lift to one of his other farms. He spoke a bit of english but was hard to understand with his mouth full of coca leaves (not a pretty sight!). Saw a bus crashed at the side of the road which wasn't suprising when you see how fast they drive here!
Had a good group for the rafting with a couple and another guy from Argentina (who I wanted as my best friend as he works for a sweet company!), a couple from Norway and a couple from Israel (who also told me I looked like Kirsten Dunst, twice in 24 hours). It was a beautiful location and our guide was quite funny and German so I was trying to see how much i could rememer from my night classes! There were 3 other boats, 1 full of kids and two full of middle aged rugby players from Buenos Aires who were like a bunch of kids and kept singing songs which apparently were bad words according to the Argentinian guy. We then had the best BBQ I've ever tasted, with the most tender beef and different cuts. Some of us then decided to do the canopy tour....zip wires 150 meteres above the ground across canyons and rivers...amazing and beautiful...much better than the one in Rurrenabaque even if it cost more and again the guides were great and cracked jokes all the time. I deciced it was one of my best days so far, but obn the down side I got bitten to death by some blood sucking thing and am sore and itchy (and bleeding) all over my legs so will take a week or so for them to go, but at least my face has pretty much cleared up! So much for 50% DEET-they couldn't sell me anything stronger in the UK but nothing seems to work although maybe I'd have 50 instead of 15 if i'd not used anything!
Got chatting to some Irish girls in my hostel and turns out they are on my flight to New Zealand which is cool so I will hear about how they found Peru and Bolivia..they wanted advice and warnigs about the countries and were jealous I was off to BA to see Robbie! Heard lots of good things about his concerts so i am getting pretty excited!
Been hearing a lot about the biking down the death road that I did....lots of people saw broken arms and legs, Chris fell off the side and apparently a few people have fallen off the side and died in the last month or so....how true all this is or if it's just rumours I'm not sure but most people thought it was dangerous when they did it.
Got up early and went for my first run today......big mistake. My quads were ripped to pieces after 20 mins as they've not been stretched so have tightened up. plus i got lost and ended up out for 45 mins which was painful. Suprisingly enough my trousers are pretty tight from all the cakes and BBQs and I've had no luck finding trousers that fit me as Argentinian girls are sticks and I am considered a bit porky here! Hoping I'm not in too much pain tomorrow...
Aiming to get an overnight bus later to Mendoza but I am now in a country where you get buses like Cruz del Sur again so i am expecting warmth, blankets and super reclining seats as it's a cama (bed) bus. Been spending a fortune here compared to Bolivia but I guess it's still not bad compared to home.
Don't have the cable for my camera to upload other pics from Bolivia but did buy a CD of the rafting etc so enjoy
Debbie, I'm sorry I missed your birthday!
