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We spent our last two days in Argentina in the city of Salta. We were in luck as the hostel that Dragoman tours normally stay at was fully booked, instead we got to stay in Hotel Elena, a small hotel not far from the city centre.
After dropping off some laundry and doing some other admin we set off to explore the city. Salta is very charismatic and the main square, Plaza 9 Julio, is surrounded by colonial buildings that now house museums and the cathedral. We spent the afternoon soaking up the atmosphere, enjoying the sunshine and eating ice-cream.
On our first evening in Salta we went to an Italian restaurant, Que Mamma, and enjoyed pizza and wine before hitting the town. We'd heard lots about the nightlife in Salta and it didn't disappoint, even though it was a Monday evening! Our first stop was a karaoke bar called 'Ibiza' and we spent a good couple of hours singing classics such as Summer Loving, Mambo Number 5 and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. After we'd finished our karaoke repertoire we headed to a local club and proceeded to dance the night away, practicing some Latino dance moves that we were shown by the locals and enjoying an impromptu foam party! The lights came on at 5am and we wearily made our way back to the hotel.
Needless to say the next day, a free day in Salta, was less than productive. After a late start and breakfast/lunch at a cafe in the main square a few of us decided to go and see the new Twilight film at the cinema, fortunately it was in English with subtitles. We then treated ourselves to Pedicures before heading back to the hotel to pack. That night we went out for a group dinner to a Parilla called Viaje Jacks and had some of the best steak that I've had in Argentina (and every steak has been amazing so that's saying something!). I shared a 'picana' (rump steak) cut with one of the other girls accompanied by 'revueltos papas provencal' (chips with scrambled eggs) washed down by a yummy bottle of Elementos Malbec. A very fitting meal for our last night in Argentina!
It was an early start the next morning for a long drive to San Pedro de Atacama, just inside the Chilean border. You're not allowed to go straight from Argentina to Bolivia so we needed to spend at least a night here.
The journey got off to a pretty good start and we made it to the Argentinian border in good time up a very steep and windy road with great views - i imagine it would be on a motorcyclists top 10 drives! After crossing the border we entered no mans land and the start of the altiplano where we would be ascending to over 4700m on the Paso de Jama before descending to the Chilean border. The scenery was breathtaking with volcanos, lakes and Andes mountain passes and we made frequent stops for photos. Everyone was starting to feel the effects of the altitude and we were noticeably breathless.
Then, disaster struck....after one photo stop Dave couldn't get Amber back into gear and the gear stick had gone slack. After jacking the cab it soon became clear that we had a problem, the junction between the gear stick and the gear box had snapped in two and there was no way of changing the gears.
Fortunately Dragoman guides also have mechanical training and were able to identify the problem but even then we were in the middle of nowhere and with no spare parts it was hard to see how it could be fixed. We were at 4,400m a good 70km from the Chilean border, it was 6pm and the sun was fading fast....we knew that once the sun went down it would get bitterly cold!!! There was lots of discussion over what could be done as a temporary fix and a plan was established. For the next 90mins we nervously sat in the truck waiting to see if it would work. Finally the cab was wound back up and we all crossed our fingers while we waited to see if we could get Amber going.
We were in luck and Dave managed to get her into gear and we were on the road again, albeit at a very slow pace as we couldn't change gear so had to travel the rest of the distance at less than 30km p/hr.
We finally made it to the Chilean border just before 10pm and there was a massive sigh of relief. We then spent over an hour getting through the border even though we were the only ones there. The immigration official closed his window as we approached, disappeared and we then had to wait for him to return. He finally did and then we had to go through customs who insisted we unload all our bags from the truck and take them to get x-rayed, even though they then sat chatting and completely ignored the bags as they went through the machine - you're not allowed to take any fresh foods into Chile from Argentina so we'd had to thrown any leftovers away before we reached the border. Finally we were through and in San Pedro.
The campsite was only a short drive away and we headed straight there to put up tents and go to bed - although this was slightly disrupted by the town celebrating their birthday and there was live music and voices until 4am so it wasn't the best of nights sleep!
The next day was a free day before we headed into the moon valley that evening for star gazing. Dave and Mic had to get Amber fixed so they headed off with the broken part to try and find someone who could do welding in the next town 100km away - they tried to get it fixe in San Pedro but the only person who could have helped was still drunk from the previous nights celebrations!
The remainder of us explored San Pedro. It was not at all what I'd expected and was quite a quaint town with small square mud buildings painted white, it reminded me of Greece in some ways. It was also a lot more touristy than anticipated but the upside to this was that there were some very cool cafes and restaurants. We spent the day wandering around the town, exploring the shops, watching the town marching band rehearsing for more celebrations that evening and relaxing in the sunshine.
By dinner time Mic and Dave still weren't back so we were starting to think we may end up being stuck in San Pedro for additional days, but we returned from dinner to see Amber reversing up the road, clearly their mission had been successful and we were setting off for Bolivia the next day as planned.
After dinner we joined a trip out to an observatory in the moon valley where we we given a tour of the skies....shown different galaxies, got a close up of Jupiter and also Cirrius (the brightest star in our solar system) as well as being shown various constellations. We also saw 2 shooting stars. The sky was completely clear and as it was a new moon the view of stars was amazing.
We headed back into town and watched a bit of the concert being given that evening (the highlight being a Spanish popster doing a Tom Jones medley!) before hitting the sack for a 6am wake up call.....next stop Bolivia!
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