Searching for my last shaker of salt......salt......salt

Borax is the commercial name for boron salt which is mined near the salt flats. Borates were formed from thermal water rich in boron that was split in salty lakes. Those lakes existed 14 million years ago in Puma. Due to the reserves of these deposits the region is the third most important in the world , after Turkey and the US.

The great salt flats are made up of a perfectly horizontal thick salt layer which covers 1500km2 of terrain. The salt workers extract the salt which basically contains sodium chloride, mixed with small quantities of sulphate and calcium chloride. The task consists in obtaining ground salt to be commercialized in all the country and also to make rectangular salt "blocks" to sell and barter with the domestic cattle farmers. Salt is extracted through three different methods. Digging pools, raking the surface  or cutting salt blocks or bricks.  The pools are dug up to the level of underground water and the brine is left to crystallize due to over saturation. Thus highly pure sodium chloride is obtained. To obtain blocks the crust is cut off with sharp axes, since it is as hard as granite.

Tap on this link below to see video of  the ride back 

http://youtu.be/6MRSXylpQnY.    

The great salt flats

We left Tilcara and head for what we thought was going to be a leisurely drive to the salt flats.  We drove though a canyon and up, up up, up the side of the Andes. There were so many switch backs . The vistas were breathtaking. Every turn a new terrain to look at. This was even more spectacular than the Valle Grande. When we reached the peak ( seriously like driving to the top of the Alps) we started heading down and off in the distance we could see a white lake. It took us another 45 minutes to reach it but WHOW it was beautiful.

Look closely you can see a car on the road

Everybody was trying to do an optical illusion picture.......except AL and I. We've looked better.

They cut these pools to harvest the salt

Tilcara

We spent the night in Tilcara. Another very old village with mostly dirt roads. Here, as with everywhere we have gone there are tons of loose dogs. They are very docile and just lay around anywhere they can find a spot. Because they sleep all day you can hear them all over the town from 2 - 4 in the morning fighting. There is also the problem of excrement.......watch your step. We stayed in a nice hotel cottage was on the mountain side and a bit of a challenge for our car to get up. Here is a picture from our hotel patio

I also did a painting in the center of town ........it's not done but it's close so I'll post it because it's probably the last chance I'll get to paint.

So it needs a sky and the flowers and door lantern need more definition. The door needs to get straightened and the pots on the left need to not look like their bleeding.............they all can't be winners but I have enjoyed trying to paint various sciences along the way. They will make nice memories for me.

Tropic of Capricorn

We road through the Tropic of Capricorn today.  We are now heading back south so this is our second time passing through it. In the US Coast Guard there is a ritual that when you cross a Tropic or the Equator.  AL and I agreed we will not be doing any rituals. I may make myself a google certificate.

The Tropic of Capricorn is the dividing line between the Southern Temperate Zone to the
 south and the tropics to the north. The northern hemisphere equivalent of the Tropic of 
Capricorn is the Tropic of Cancer.

 In South America, along the tropic, the east side of the Andes receives warm and humid air
 from the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, areas in Brazil adjacent to the Tropic are extremely 
important agricultural regions, producing large quantities of crops such as coffee, and the 
natural rainforest vegetation has been entirely cleared. In and west of the Andes, however, the Humboldt Current makes conditions extremely arid, creating one of the driest deserts in the 
world, so that no glaciers exist between Volcán Sajama at 18˚30'S and Cerro Tres Cruces at 
27˚S.^[4] Vegetation here is almost non-existent, though on the eastern slopes of the Andes 
rainfall is adequate for rainfed agriculture.

Tres Crupes

Thursday. We drove up to Tres Crupes which is right at the Bolivia border. I will post pictures of this but it can in no way capture the beauty of these mountains. The layers of colors in on the mountain tops took your breath away.

This has been a beautiful region to visit. We have seen many, many backpackers here. I understand why.

Jujuy

Getting a car was easy and we out of Salta to the northern  area called Jujuly. In Spanish, you pronounce your "j"s as "h"  ( I know this from my Braintree night school) so the area is pronounced. WhoWho zee like a Dr. Suess  book. The ride took about four hours to get to one of the highest towns ,Humahuaca.  It is high in the Andes and definitely has a more Peruvian influence. The citizens definitely have a more indigenous  look to them and most of their products have an Inca influence. The town is very tiny made of all small adobe material........some finished, some not so........some they just gave up on. We followed a primitive sign, Azul Hostel, down a dirt road, to another dirt road to what seemed and felt like a river bed until we finally reached where we were going to spend the night.  The manager could not speak any English but went on and on. Trying to tell us where we could eat, what were the sights of the area, what excursions we could take. We just kept saying "si" "si" and he just kept talking and talking. 

Our hostel courtyard

Oreos for dinner

OK.....full disclosure. BOTH of us thought he said we could have dinner at  8 o'clock at the hostel and he was serving llama stew.

 We left the hostel drove the dirt roads back into town and did some sight seeing and enjoyed some wine. We finally returned to the hostel and there was no one there. We got to our room but there was no inviting smell of llama stew. The dinning area was empty.

" I can't believe this, why would he tell us dinner was at 8". " did he?"  " I distinctly heard him say 'oucho horas',  " I did too"  "I distinctly heard him say llama"  " I did too, could he have been telling us he feeds his pet llama in the morning at 8 ? Maybe"

Anyway, we made the right decision not to head back into town on questionable roads to find somewhere to have dinner. I have posted a picture of Wednesday nights meal.

Leaving Salta

They have a beautiful old colonial square in Salta The skies are a beautiful clear blue color.

On Wednesday we will rent a car and head north so see some of the smaller towns and scenery.

Salta

The bus ride ended up being 20 hours long. Needless to say I did not meet my vivofit
goal but we are happy we made it to this quaint city. We'll rent a car tomorrow and
venture out to some smaller towns.

Salta was founded on April 16, 1582 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma, 
who intended the settlement to be an outpost between Lima, Peru and Buenos Aires.

During the war of independence, the city became a commercial and military strategic 
point between Perú and the Argentine cities. Between 1816 and 1821, the city was led 
by local military leader General Martín Miguel de Güemes, who under the command of 
General José de San Martín, defended the city and surrounding area from Spanish forces
 coming from further north.

Salta emerged from the War of Independence politically in disarray and financially 
bankrupt, a condition that lingered throughout much of the 19th century. However, in 
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the arrival of Italian, Spanish and Arab immigrants, 
particularly Syrians and Lebanese, revived trade and agriculture all over the area while 
further enhancing the city's multicultural flavor.

                                           

 

Last day in Mendoza

Lazy day today I did this painting. It's the view from our window in the hotel/apartment. I include a photo of the view too.

Sunday in Mendoza and everything is closed up. The town is amazingly quiet. We went to the aquarium to kill some time before we catch our 8:00 bus to Salta. The Aquarium was more like visiting a Petco. Cute for small children but not so great for adults. The museum of modern art was also a disappointment.

We caught our 8:00 bus for the 13 hour ride to Salta. It's a double decker bus. The bottom deck has seats that fully recline so you can sleep. Small world......the girls from New Zealand were on our bus and had seats down stairs with us. They are going to Tucanman the town before Salta. It was a nice ride.....they served Norton Malbec which helped but we will fly back to Buenos Aires when we are done with this area.

CORRECTION

Aleania studied in Chile for several years so I asked her why the border crossing was so intense.......and what's the deal with iguanas? She said it's not iguanas it's electronics. Try saying both with a Spanish accent and you can see how I could have messed that up. There are huge taxes on electronics and a big black market for them.........as Gildner Radner  would say "never mind"

Iguana Electronics

Norton Winery

The internet has been unreliable .....so here are some up dates.

Were now back at the apartment/hotel in Mendoza where we met Annie.

Annie is from Calgary and because of a number of life events has come to Mendoza for three months. She is 57 and staying at our same hotel/apartment and has been good company for us.
We met her this morning (Saturday) and are off to do the vineyards south of Mendoza. Rowena and another girl ,Aleania, joined us for the train ride to the Uco area of Mendoza. Once off the train we hailed down a taxi and all five of us squeezed into this clown car of a cab for about a 20 minute ride to the Norton Winery. The tour was one of the best tours I have ever had. Our guide spoke English and knew the history of the region, the politics, the science of wine making and loved wine. The wine of Argentina use to be really poor and unregulated. People were becoming blind and dying from it because they'd add ethyl alcohol to it. It also was the only thing to drink until the sixties. It even flowed in the fountains it was so abundant. Then coke a cola and beer were introduced to Argentina. The government also started regulating the product. Now it's top export is Malbec wine. The guide took us out to the vineyard and showed us how the different leaves are the different varieties, how they protect against frost and hail and how the height of the vine makes a difference in the quality and quantity of the grapes. The area is famous for hail storms so they seed the clouds by plane and mortar shots..........and of course there was the tastings. During the tour we had about six different types of wines. Our guide explained what to look for in the tastings and what made a good wine.  It was all good. The tour was just the five of us and three girls, in their thirties from New Zealand who were taking a year to travel the world. They were very interesting and great fun.

I don't get it

We headed back to Mendoza on the 9:30 bus ( or 21:30) We got the border of Argentina and it took 4 hours to process us through. It would have been easier to go from Egypt into Israel. I don't know what the big deal is. Bus after bus, waiting hour after hour to get processed. Then we all have get off the bus and line up like sheeple to get our passport stamped by two different guards. Meanwhile they are taking all of our luggage off the bus and scanning it. It was daybreak when we finally were granted permission to enter Argentina. They had us all line up like refugees and checked our pocketbooks and backpacks with a flashlight. I asked the bus driver "what are they looking for?" He said "iguanas"  Really, do I look like someone who would put an iguana in my pocketbook?
I long for Canada, where you just wave your passport at them as you cross the border. What are Chile and Argentina afraid of? They are not at war.

The ride up the Andes was breathtaking. The mountains as a silhouette against the sky and the sky with brilliant stars on this very clear night.
And the mountains were beautiful at dawn. Very little green mostly hues of burnt umber, raw umber and  burnt sienna. A very long bus ride.

Vina de Mar

Today is our last day in Valparaiso. We took the Metro over to the next town, Vina de Mar. The metro was quick and clean and took about 20 minutes. They have street entertainers riding the train cars, playing instruments and singing for change. The down town area has a lot of shopping and is definitely richer than Valparaiso. We walked through a very pretty arboretum and then down to the beach. I put my feet in the Pacific Ocean. .........Kate my vivofit is reading 24,000.

The view from our room. Hotel Fauna

•    

We took a walking/limping tour through the streets of Valparaiso. It is known  for  its  graffiti, some of it is spectacular, some is just tagging. The variety of color in the buildings is great, vivid blues, pinks , oranges and they all work. We took two of the seven working funiculars up to different vistas of the city. One out look over the harbor is especially popular on New Year's Eve. Valparaiso has the third best fireworks display in the world, Sidney, Australia , number one..........New York, number two..........Valparaiso, number three. This has been one of my favorite stops. I did three paintings today.......two pretty bad, one worth posting.  Thank you Ryan for recommending this stop. It is special.

quite street in Valparasio

Math is for young people

Ok, today is Tuesday. I know this because my pill box has told me so. I had one person ask me "so what's the temperature there"  I can't say because I have become math deficient in the past few days. Convert dollars to Argentinian pesos...$1 x 8.5.      Now switch brains and change dollars into Chilean pesos....$1 x16.  Take a cab in Chile and it will cost 18.500 pesos........how much is that ? Who knows it's all Monopoly money at this point. When we got Valparaiso, we had no Chilean money for a taxi. AL gave a fistful of Argentina pesos to the money changers and got a fist full of Chilean peso back.........what was the exchange? Who knows.

Today, when we purchased our return bus tickets to Mendoza, it took AL and I  fifteen minutes to figure out what time 21:30 was ( important because that's when the bus leaves). " it's 11:30 right" "I don't think so.....isn't midnight at 24 hundred?"  "Then maybe it's ten thirty" "let's write it out of paper.....1 o'clock = 13. Two o'clock = 14............................21:30.........there it is 9:30."      

 So to Cheryl who want to know how hot it is .......it is 26.667 Celsius. You will have to do the math.

Valpariso Chile

Monday we took the city on/off bus tour of Santiago. It is a vast city with some extraordinary modern  buildings. I guess many foreign countries have invested here  for tax benefits. And they have build new and impressive buildings. We took a finicular up to the highest peak where of course there was a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the city.  Our new hotel is a suite with two rooms. At last I can have a night where I don't have to where ear phones!

Thousands of you have asked" how are you finding these hotels? How do you know if there any good?"    Well, the app TripAdvisor has been unbelievable at getting us great rooms, great locations and great prices. We have also used it to find good restaurants in whatever area we are at. We our literally booking our hotel rooms a day in advance and have had no problems........ok I didn't like our first night in Mendoza but other that that they have all been good.

We'll take the bus to Valpariso on Tuesday. It is about a two hour bus ride.

What's the climate? Kinda like Arizona.

I have gotten hundreds of questions on how hot is it in Argentina/ Chile.  We can compare it to the latitudes in the US. Remember it's summer now in the Southern Hemisphere. So think of our summers. Mendoza is 33* south of the equator. It is what you expect Arizona to be in the summer.

               

Santiago Chile

Off to Satiago Chile

We left Mendoza and took the bus through the Andes to Santiago. The trip started off on flat land and we passed some beautiful vineyards as we headed out. They we started to climb and climb the mountain range. At the top of the Andes we met the border of Chile. There were long lines of cars and buses waiting to cross the border. It was a little confusing and it took about  two and a half hours to get throughout the process. We all had to get off the bus for this. One line for your passport, then another for your certificate of travel, then another for your declaration statement, then another to have your luggage scanned. Then finally. Back to the bus.

There were many buses.

" get off, that bus, its not our bus" " yes it is" " no it is not" " are you sure?" "Yes our Bus had red seats. This looks nothing like our bus" "really " "yes really"........................... " oh, there it is"

The ride from the Chile border was very very steep. Many switchbacks as we came down from the top of the Andes. We finally made it into Santiago about 8 o'clock. The terminal was packed with people and buses lined up waiting to unload. We had a few challages........no money, didn't know the name or address of our hotel but it all worked out.  I got money from an ATM. $160 got me one million pesos ..........I'm a millionaire.

Rowena's place

Asado night

We had a wonderful night at Rowena's. She lives on the 9th floor of one of the only high rise apartment buildings in Mendoza. She has only been in Mendoza for three months and moved from  Idaho with her husband Steve. He  is a mining engineer and mines for gold and silver in Argentina. They have moved over 24 times with his work but this is the first out of state move for them.

Plaza Independencia

Nice quiet day. We took a cab to the bus terminal to get our ticket for Salta on Sunday and then went to Plaza Independencia where AL went her way and I went mine. I spent the morning sketching and painting. AL did her thing and we met at 1 for lunch. Were off tonight to our new best friend's , Rowena Sinclair Long.....look her up on Facebook, she looks just like Kristen Wigg. She was very generous to have invited us. We took a nap to prepare. I will report out tomorrow. I may be coming back with a "green carder"

Of all the gin joints.

After we settled into our apartment, we headed down the street for dinner at a place called Anna's Bistro. We were early because no where can you get dinner before eight o'clock. I heard an American accent at a couple of tables over. It was a woman sitting alone. So I said "hi" and then we spent the next three hours taking to here. We got some great information about the area her. She is from Calgary and is staying in Argentina for the next three months. She wanted to get away from the cold too. Here is the weird thing.........she knows the American woman too! And she is going to the Asado tomorrow night too. What are the odds that we would be at the same restaurant knowing the same American woman?  ...........by the way an Asado is a cookout.

Piper and Crazy eyes head back to Mendoza

We  needed to have the car back to Mendoza today but first we  drove to Duquesne Los  Reyunos. It was about a half  hour drive through the back roads. We tried to get gas for the car in San Rapheal but everywhere  was out of gas. NO HAY.  Finally in a small village we found a gas station. Again we found our selves traveling on a gravel road traveling up a mountain side. We reached a small parking lot that overlooked this breath taking lake. I was disappointed we got such a late start because there were kayak rentals and zip lining at this spot. We had to be back in Mendoza by 4:30 so there was no time to be able to do either. The road back is one long, long, long straight ride. Very easy to fall asleep at the wheel. When we got back to the city, we had the same problem trying to get gas. NO HAY every where. We had return the car with half a tank. The Hertz man said it is a big problem throughout the country.  We're staying at an apartment hotel which is a little further out of town but nice and very spacious. I got an email from our American woman friend inviting us to her house for an Asado. ........don't know what it is but I said"yes".  Hope it's not a satanic ritual.

Dique Los reyunos

I tried to post a video of the road we are on but it won't post. You may be able to find it on YouTube if you look up            smkerrigan             Or.      Valle grande

Valle Grande