urbaneer: San Pedro de Atacama – Salta – Iguazu

Chile/Argentina: 19 September - 30 September

We stayed in San Pedro for 5 days and did absolutely nothing. The one activity we had planned – star gazing – we were denied due to cloud cover. After almost a month at altitude and a relative busy past few weeks, simply chilling, enjoying warmth and decent food in the small quaint town of San Pedro suited us just fine.

After enough rest we left San Pedro on a bus to Salta in Argentina. The journey was supposedly 10 hrs, but due to delays and yet another super slow border crossing it ended up being more like 14hrs. The ride itself over the Andean plateau was most stunning. There is just something very enigmatic about plain and barren landscapes as far as the eye can see.

The following day we were already booked onto a day-tour to the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a once Inca dominated valley with mountains of different colours due to different mineral deposits at different times. The most famous and spectacular formation is the 7 coloured mountain in Purmamarca. The area also has many giant cacti, some of them can be up to 500 years old. Sadly many of them are infected by a disease and are slowly dying.

We spent only one day in Salta before flying onwards to Iguazu in a late afternoon flight. The 1.5hr flight however turned into an overnight ordeal. We couldn't land in Iguazu due to thunderstorms and were diverted to Buenos Aires instead. After the initial chaos where nobody quite knew what was happening, we all collected our bags and were transported to a hotel in town. By that point it was nearly 11pm. Only 4hrs later we were all getting transported back to the airport at 3.30am to catch the 5.40am plane to Iguazu. When we reached the airport and during checking in we learned that the plane was delayed until 7am. We finally reached Iguazu at ¬9am. Remnants of the thunderstorm remained, but it had stopped raining and after a short breakfast at the hotel we were on our way to the falls. They were nice and pretty. One could get very close thanks to the walkways that are constructed. The must-see part, the devil’s nose, however was closed due to rain induced high water levels. Nevertheless the falls are impressive – apparently they are taller and twice as wide as Niagara. We didn't go to see the falls from the Brazilian side as a) we were still tired from the detour to get us to Iguazu and b) a huge thunderstorm pelted rain down once again. Instead we enjoyed some of Argentina’s specialties – ice cream and steak.

To get from Iguazu to Buenos Aires we had decided to try one of the overnight ‘luxury’ coach journeys with fully reclining seats like the ones at airplane business class. It wasn't quite as snazzy, but as far as coach journeys go still the best way to go long distance. It took 18 hrs to do the journey and it was by far a lot more comfortable, spacious and with an entertainment system than the almost as long journey from San Pedro to Salta.

San Pedro: