So Ive finally left Argentina, and have arrived in Bolivia. And now at last its starting to look like the South America I imagined. My head is spinning because the town Im staying in at the moment, is like over 3000 metres above sea level. The scenery here is amazing, and its strange how the people look so differerent to the Argentines. I think there smaller because the country is soo high up that if they were any taller, there heads would be out of the planet. Thats my 6 year old explanation. Im going to do some horse riding tomorrow, where I understood my guide is about 12 years old. I´ll let him know theres work going in the stables in Ballymun. After that we are doing the 3 night quintessential tour of the salt flats here. Its like 3 nights, travelling in a jeep. Me and Aussie Dave will be doing the tour with 3 other people. We asked the guy in the agency what nationality the other 3 were. Im not racisit, I just dont particually want to spend all that time with a bunch of martians. Turns out its an irish lad, a brit, and a spanish girl. 1 girl, 4 boys in a jeep for 4 days. I smell a scandal.
Before I arrived in Bolivia, I had an emotial goodbye with Clavia and Jose in Corrientes. The whole family said goodbye, and I scored 3 keyrings from 3 different people as a going away present. All I need now are some keys. I met back up with Aussie Dave in Salta, the last major city north of Argentina. Spent four days there. The hostel we stayed in was pretty cool and relaxed. Youcould have breakfast at anytime. Dave took that to mean you can have unlimited breakfast at anytime. First person we talked to there was a Dutch guy in our room called Bernard. He told me within 3 sentences, ¨Yeh Shalta, its a guud pushy town¨. I was repeating this phrase to Dave the whole time I was in Salta. No messing around with Bernard, straight to the point.
There were 3 irish girls staying in the hostel.I spotted them a mile off before they arrived. They were all nurses. We went out with them for dinner the first night. Like most Irish ppl there pickiness showed as they asked me to order them only a bottle of white wine because they didnt drink red wine or beer. They were a bit, Oisih. I think I said to them at one point, ¨Nurses gone wild yeh?¨ They didnt laugh. I dont know what I was referencing. Anyway the last night in Salta, we had this big bbq and free wine thing, which brought the whole hostel together in a mixture of love, laughter, and pass us the carrots. We went out to some bar afterwards, where the hostel owner challenged us to like down our drinks pretty quick. Anyway I dont remember much after this. I woke up in the shower at 6 am with the hostel owner and Dave taking pictures of me. Im including the picture, not as a badge of honour, but as a warning. I really dont know what thought process led me to think the shower was a better place to sleep in than my bed.
Off to drink more cocoa leave tea, which is supposed to help with altitude sickness. Im also slouching as I walk. Shaves of a foot in height. Helps a bit.
breakfast any time, awesome, bolivia, so cheap, too bad they don’t have atms or supermarkets