Hi Everyone,
I have come here to hole up for a few days with Karina and Eduardo before I head for Rosario and Buenas Aires. The weather has been grey and overcast with occasional torrential rain - not what I expected in Argentina but apparently I have stayed in the north while the rainy season is in progress. Hey ho you can´t get it right all of the time. K and E took me by bus to the top of the Cerro which is a rain forest hill just outside the town. Precipitous drive with hair pin bends and the ground dropping away beside the road. Just the sort of drive I hate! However spectacular views to be seen if we weren´t in deep drizzle. At the top is an enormous statue of Jesus with hankerchiefs tied to the surrounding fence plus socks, pictures, bottles and anything else you can think of. We retreated from the rain to find empenadas (bit like danish pastries) and a warm drink. We ended up in a strange barn of a place with drunken men playing snooker! The empenadas were delicious!
No we didn´t walk home as planned as visibility stopped play.
The other evening we were all heading for bed at about 4 a.m. I was in the bathroom when suddenly the floor started moving beneath my feet and walls shook and in the end the whole building felt as if it was swaying. "What the fuck is going on?" was my response. Karina was so frightening she couldn´t move and Eduardo was trying to calm her down. It turned out we had experienced a minor earthquake - 6 on the Richter scale. It was just OK because it stopped but there was a point while it was happening that I thought how long can this building stand up to this treatment - bearing in mind that we live on the 8th floor. If it happens again I am certainly heading for the exit!
It´s a working city Tucuman and has few frills - the galleries I want to visit seem to always be shut when I turn up. Lots of shopping and browsing and generally hanging out together and visiting friends. We spend lovely evenings together chatting, eating and drinking on their balcony watching the city lights and listening to the mad guy who lives across the road to them. Definitely delusional and will rant and rage from his house or up and down the street. Sad but also sometimes weirdly funny.
I went to mass the other day with E and K. A very beautiful church that was packed with people even standing with children in the isles - a dog slipped in too. Before the service started I saw a bit of cuddling and kissing between couples. People come to mass in shorts and T shirts some in suits and some in jeans - there is no dress code. I cannot say what the motivation is for people to attend these services but there was a great feeling on community and there was also fantastic singing from a small group of people high up above the organ loft. Their singing lifted my spirits - they were inspirational. I had gone with a completely open mind - in fact I nearly didn´t go but curiosity got the better of me. I came away feeling moved in someway - mainly by the music. I feel I have no need to go to church but recognize the power of the senses.
I have done some drawings of Eduardo - it feels good to have charcoal in my hands again.
Happy in Tucuman doing not very much!
Big hugs and lots of love to you all
Sal xxxxxxxx
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Bolivia and passports 17th February 2011
Hi Everyone,
Because I had overstayed my welcome in Argentina I had to leave the country and re-enter in order to have another 3 months trouble free time here. Lots of friends had said that Bolivia was amazing with spectacular scenery. Salta is relatively close to the border so this seemed an obvious choice. The coach dropped me at the border town of Chiaca at 6.30 in the morning so I sleepily found a cafe that served my naraja sprimida and media lunas and gradually came too. No idea what I was doing but finally found my way to the border guards on the Argentinian side. Long queue waiting for customs to open at 8.00. As always you end up chatting in these queues and met 2 charming easy going guys from Chile who became my guardian angels. They helped interpret when I lost my way with the officials, helped me find the right coach company for the next leg of the journey and and checked when the bus left. I had the pleasure of giving the Argentinian government $300 for the pleasure of having mucked up on my visa. That´s about 60 pounds but at least it is done and I am now legal again. While we were waiting in the Entry to Bolivia office I was just reading the notices and was quite shocked to see one that basically said that children were not objects for sale. Trafficking across the border is common and later in a conversation with a lass in a tour company office we were talking about contraception and she said that people know about it but they just dont use it so they have 4 options. Keep the child, have it put up for adoption, sell it or chuck it on the rubbish heap for the dogs! I was shocked.
So I am now in Bolivia and have about half a day till my bus leaves. When I am finally on the coach I realize I am in for an interesting ride. It rattles and shakes like a real sharabang and hurtles along the dirt roads at high speed. As the night draws on it is also freezing cold. I fall into conversation with a lovely couple from Uruguay and we commiserate together. By now it is also raining. We arrive in Ayuni at 1.30 in the morning in the pouring rain to find a lot of the town is flooded. Luckily Eliana spotted a hostel so we just get out of the coach and ran for it. We don´t even undress but just fall into bed exhausted. This hostel did have hot showers but the electricity was very dodgy and apart from our bedroom the rest of the place seemed to be a permanent wind tunnel. This was our introduction to freezing cold Bolivia. Next morning Matias moves us to a slightly ungraded hostel at least with an ensuite bathroom.
Bolivia is very colourful. The women wear extraordinary bowler hats and and shawls of red, turquoise, pink, yellow. Skirts are voluminous with warm leggins underneath. However the people on first meeting are far less outgoing and generally seem timid and cautious about making contact. We realized quite quickly that having booked our 3 day excursion that we were going to need some warm clothes. So we bought local woolly hats, warm woolly leggins to go under our jeans, another alpaca jersey for me and a pair of gloves. I no longer cared if I looked like a Michelin man/woman.
Our excursion was in a 4 by 4 with 2 lasses from the Cech Republic, one delicious wild child from Australia, myself and the 2 Uruaguans. What Bolivia does so wonderfully is its natural beauty. The Salt plains were magical. Because there had been quite a lot of rain recently they were all under water. But you then had amazing reflections of snow capped mountains and volcanoes edging the area. People just played with crazy photographs of jumping groups, some having meals with picnic tables and so on .......... it reminded me of Lowry´s paintings. The lagoons we visited were all colours from green to red to turquoise. The red one also had flocks of flamingos feeding on it. We visited geisers that stank of bad eggs and drove through miles of desert. Rocks had landed at random from volcanic explosions making thousands of potential Japanese gardens. Most of the time we were driving off any known tracks, no signs just local knowledge. Our lunch time spot on one day allowed us to try a (very) hot water spring - amazing. The lagoon near by was yellow, green and pale red pastel colours. So strange but hauntingly beautiful. Bolivia also had wonderful areas of rocky outcrops that have been formed into extraordinary shapes by erosion. The only problem I had with this it that everyone wants to climb all over them and I just wanted to photograph rocks without bodies - hey ho the dilemma of successful tourism!
Two strange hostels - in one we froze to death - and the second one we only had 2 hours of light in the evening! I think I would describe Bolivia as much more primitive than Argentina. But I was still glad I went. Not least for meeting some lovely people - the wild child from Australia and Matias and Eliana from Uruguay. We also kept bumping into another excusion with 3 Brits in it who were great fun apart from poor things having ghastly altidude sickness. We were at just under 5,000 feet a lot of the time. Our carload seemed to escape any real effect except most of us had colds.
We all then went our seperate ways. Matias, Eliana and I had a farewell meal together. I feel we shall stay in touch. I don´t feel that about everyone I meet but these two were great. She´s a photographer and he´s an artist and they are very in love!!!
The coach was as bad returning to the border. The only improvement was that it didn´t rain. Someone told me today that 10 years ago most of the bus drivers in Bolivia drank as they drove and that there was a national strike when the government banned drink driving. There were moments on this road were I just shut my eyes as the drop was so precipitous but I am here to tell the tale.
I palled up with two Japanese lads who, like me going into Bolivia hadn´t a clue and spoke no Spanish at all. So my turn to be an angel and help them. Our bus back to Salta saw us changing at least 3 times. One was just on a stretch of road with buses lined up along the side and people sitting in groups all over the road, playing cards and having picnics. Go and Masa (2 Japanese) came back to my lovely hostel and were a huge success. Masa was so funny and had us all in stitches. One thing about travelling you do seem to meet the world without going everywhere.
Tomorrow I go to Tucuman, then on to Rosario where Mabel comes from (for those tango friends) and ending back in Buenos Aires to complete the circle around Argentina. If I can I shall go to Uruguay for a few days on a beach to completely veg out but who knows nothing is ever set in stone.
Loads of love as ever
Sal xxx
Because I had overstayed my welcome in Argentina I had to leave the country and re-enter in order to have another 3 months trouble free time here. Lots of friends had said that Bolivia was amazing with spectacular scenery. Salta is relatively close to the border so this seemed an obvious choice. The coach dropped me at the border town of Chiaca at 6.30 in the morning so I sleepily found a cafe that served my naraja sprimida and media lunas and gradually came too. No idea what I was doing but finally found my way to the border guards on the Argentinian side. Long queue waiting for customs to open at 8.00. As always you end up chatting in these queues and met 2 charming easy going guys from Chile who became my guardian angels. They helped interpret when I lost my way with the officials, helped me find the right coach company for the next leg of the journey and and checked when the bus left. I had the pleasure of giving the Argentinian government $300 for the pleasure of having mucked up on my visa. That´s about 60 pounds but at least it is done and I am now legal again. While we were waiting in the Entry to Bolivia office I was just reading the notices and was quite shocked to see one that basically said that children were not objects for sale. Trafficking across the border is common and later in a conversation with a lass in a tour company office we were talking about contraception and she said that people know about it but they just dont use it so they have 4 options. Keep the child, have it put up for adoption, sell it or chuck it on the rubbish heap for the dogs! I was shocked.
So I am now in Bolivia and have about half a day till my bus leaves. When I am finally on the coach I realize I am in for an interesting ride. It rattles and shakes like a real sharabang and hurtles along the dirt roads at high speed. As the night draws on it is also freezing cold. I fall into conversation with a lovely couple from Uruguay and we commiserate together. By now it is also raining. We arrive in Ayuni at 1.30 in the morning in the pouring rain to find a lot of the town is flooded. Luckily Eliana spotted a hostel so we just get out of the coach and ran for it. We don´t even undress but just fall into bed exhausted. This hostel did have hot showers but the electricity was very dodgy and apart from our bedroom the rest of the place seemed to be a permanent wind tunnel. This was our introduction to freezing cold Bolivia. Next morning Matias moves us to a slightly ungraded hostel at least with an ensuite bathroom.
Bolivia is very colourful. The women wear extraordinary bowler hats and and shawls of red, turquoise, pink, yellow. Skirts are voluminous with warm leggins underneath. However the people on first meeting are far less outgoing and generally seem timid and cautious about making contact. We realized quite quickly that having booked our 3 day excursion that we were going to need some warm clothes. So we bought local woolly hats, warm woolly leggins to go under our jeans, another alpaca jersey for me and a pair of gloves. I no longer cared if I looked like a Michelin man/woman.
Our excursion was in a 4 by 4 with 2 lasses from the Cech Republic, one delicious wild child from Australia, myself and the 2 Uruaguans. What Bolivia does so wonderfully is its natural beauty. The Salt plains were magical. Because there had been quite a lot of rain recently they were all under water. But you then had amazing reflections of snow capped mountains and volcanoes edging the area. People just played with crazy photographs of jumping groups, some having meals with picnic tables and so on .......... it reminded me of Lowry´s paintings. The lagoons we visited were all colours from green to red to turquoise. The red one also had flocks of flamingos feeding on it. We visited geisers that stank of bad eggs and drove through miles of desert. Rocks had landed at random from volcanic explosions making thousands of potential Japanese gardens. Most of the time we were driving off any known tracks, no signs just local knowledge. Our lunch time spot on one day allowed us to try a (very) hot water spring - amazing. The lagoon near by was yellow, green and pale red pastel colours. So strange but hauntingly beautiful. Bolivia also had wonderful areas of rocky outcrops that have been formed into extraordinary shapes by erosion. The only problem I had with this it that everyone wants to climb all over them and I just wanted to photograph rocks without bodies - hey ho the dilemma of successful tourism!
Two strange hostels - in one we froze to death - and the second one we only had 2 hours of light in the evening! I think I would describe Bolivia as much more primitive than Argentina. But I was still glad I went. Not least for meeting some lovely people - the wild child from Australia and Matias and Eliana from Uruguay. We also kept bumping into another excusion with 3 Brits in it who were great fun apart from poor things having ghastly altidude sickness. We were at just under 5,000 feet a lot of the time. Our carload seemed to escape any real effect except most of us had colds.
We all then went our seperate ways. Matias, Eliana and I had a farewell meal together. I feel we shall stay in touch. I don´t feel that about everyone I meet but these two were great. She´s a photographer and he´s an artist and they are very in love!!!
The coach was as bad returning to the border. The only improvement was that it didn´t rain. Someone told me today that 10 years ago most of the bus drivers in Bolivia drank as they drove and that there was a national strike when the government banned drink driving. There were moments on this road were I just shut my eyes as the drop was so precipitous but I am here to tell the tale.
I palled up with two Japanese lads who, like me going into Bolivia hadn´t a clue and spoke no Spanish at all. So my turn to be an angel and help them. Our bus back to Salta saw us changing at least 3 times. One was just on a stretch of road with buses lined up along the side and people sitting in groups all over the road, playing cards and having picnics. Go and Masa (2 Japanese) came back to my lovely hostel and were a huge success. Masa was so funny and had us all in stitches. One thing about travelling you do seem to meet the world without going everywhere.
Tomorrow I go to Tucuman, then on to Rosario where Mabel comes from (for those tango friends) and ending back in Buenos Aires to complete the circle around Argentina. If I can I shall go to Uruguay for a few days on a beach to completely veg out but who knows nothing is ever set in stone.
Loads of love as ever
Sal xxx
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Horses sometimes don´t stand up! 8th February 2011
Hi Everyone,
Just the latest incident in my life .....................
I went for a Cabalgata with some friends on Sunday. We were all kitted out with hats and delegated our respective horses. This was where we had galloped home my moonlight on the previous occasion. We set off in a sedentary fashion - most of the gang couldn´t ride. Milagro, our gaucho just kept a eye on us all. After a while the track widened out and I asked if I could go on ahead a bit faster. Fine. We were cantering along, if a bit reluctantly on behalf of my steed, when she suddenly stumbled and fell tipping me off over her right shoulder. I was so winded that I couldn´t breethe for what seemed like ages. It hurt - especially my right shoulder which had taken the brunt of the fall. I know have an arm which is black and blue. After a relatively short while I decided to remount and continue the ride with the others but at a walking pace! Milagro was very attentive and just kept me going till the end. I was OK - just sore. The gauchos on returning to the Estancia decided that I should go to hospital to be checked over, which I had also been thinking would be a good move. The medical kit came out and I was cleaned up and iodined. Gonzalo came to the hospital with me and kept on miraculously meeting friends who were doctors which seemed to speed up the process. He also said it was the first time that he´d had to put someone´s earrings in and out! Sweet guy of probably 25! Anyway the long and the short of it was that after being X-rayed they decided that I hadn´t broken anything which is a great relief. On returning to the hostel Pablo who is on the staff cut some Aloe Vera out of the garden and gently rubbed this on to speed up the healing process. This happened several times and the following day. The hospital had given me an injection to numb the pain and help me sleep - which it did. Luckily I had taken my arnica so I have been dosing myself with that on a regular basis too. I have also had 2 massages from a friend of the family so I have tried to attack the pain and bruising from lots of angles -and it is working. I hope that it´s going to like the 8 hour bus trip to Bolivia tonight! It is now 3 days since it happened and I am in good spirits if still a bit sore - yes I know it will take time to heal and I have to be patient hey ho!
Yes I am going to Bolivia to get my passport stamped before Sunday so shall be out of Argentina for a short while. Unless I love it and decide to stay longer. I´ll let you know.
For all of those of you who have sent me messages via Facebook I am sorry that I haven´t replied but I am having difficulty with my password so at the moment prior to Bolivia I have given up but will try again later. It has been lovely that so many of you have written and kept in touch. Email is still good.
Big hug and fondest love to you all
Sal xxxxxxxx
Just the latest incident in my life .....................
I went for a Cabalgata with some friends on Sunday. We were all kitted out with hats and delegated our respective horses. This was where we had galloped home my moonlight on the previous occasion. We set off in a sedentary fashion - most of the gang couldn´t ride. Milagro, our gaucho just kept a eye on us all. After a while the track widened out and I asked if I could go on ahead a bit faster. Fine. We were cantering along, if a bit reluctantly on behalf of my steed, when she suddenly stumbled and fell tipping me off over her right shoulder. I was so winded that I couldn´t breethe for what seemed like ages. It hurt - especially my right shoulder which had taken the brunt of the fall. I know have an arm which is black and blue. After a relatively short while I decided to remount and continue the ride with the others but at a walking pace! Milagro was very attentive and just kept me going till the end. I was OK - just sore. The gauchos on returning to the Estancia decided that I should go to hospital to be checked over, which I had also been thinking would be a good move. The medical kit came out and I was cleaned up and iodined. Gonzalo came to the hospital with me and kept on miraculously meeting friends who were doctors which seemed to speed up the process. He also said it was the first time that he´d had to put someone´s earrings in and out! Sweet guy of probably 25! Anyway the long and the short of it was that after being X-rayed they decided that I hadn´t broken anything which is a great relief. On returning to the hostel Pablo who is on the staff cut some Aloe Vera out of the garden and gently rubbed this on to speed up the healing process. This happened several times and the following day. The hospital had given me an injection to numb the pain and help me sleep - which it did. Luckily I had taken my arnica so I have been dosing myself with that on a regular basis too. I have also had 2 massages from a friend of the family so I have tried to attack the pain and bruising from lots of angles -and it is working. I hope that it´s going to like the 8 hour bus trip to Bolivia tonight! It is now 3 days since it happened and I am in good spirits if still a bit sore - yes I know it will take time to heal and I have to be patient hey ho!
Yes I am going to Bolivia to get my passport stamped before Sunday so shall be out of Argentina for a short while. Unless I love it and decide to stay longer. I´ll let you know.
For all of those of you who have sent me messages via Facebook I am sorry that I haven´t replied but I am having difficulty with my password so at the moment prior to Bolivia I have given up but will try again later. It has been lovely that so many of you have written and kept in touch. Email is still good.
Big hug and fondest love to you all
Sal xxxxxxxx
Friday, 4 February 2011
En Route to Iguazu 4th February 2011
Hi Everyone,
After leaving Salta I visited a town called Resistencia which seems the most unlikely place to find hundreds of scuptures. They have a biennial competition where sculptors have 2 weeks to complete a piece of work and then a selection of the best are posted around the town. Sowhere ever you walk you are bound to come across these works of art. The good, the bad and the ugly - they were all there. It did inspire me to think its an area I´d like to work more in - I thought of you, Kate. I also thought it was such a brilliant idea placing them around the streets and made it all very accesible to everyone. Maybe we could start a new fashion in England?
I had a hilarious evening in the park on the Sunday night joining the crowd watching various bands perform from a stage. I was squeezed into a tiny space with a VERY large enthusiastic señora who clapped and danced to everything, so all I could do was join in. Little children were on their dads shoulders swaying around in time to the music.....and a new phenomena, people were handing up their mobile phones onto the stage with either photos or loving messages to their heartthrobs; lost children were also taken to the front of the stage hoping that their parents would notice them. One child was twice called out over the load speakers - I hope that her parents hadn´t done a runner! There were also some stoney faced women who were not going to enjoy anything even if they tried. So all the world and his wife were out that night.
My hotel in Resistencia definitely got the thumbs down, grubby and my loo got blocked on the first day and nobody did anything about it for 2 days - shan´t be going there again!
Heading up towards Iguazu it definitely felt tropical and very humid. So I was constantly dripping with sweat every moment of the day. At Posadas the next stop I visited the Jesuit Mission - ruins from a time passed. The Jesuits were sent to Missiones to convert the Guarani one of the indigenous people in Argentina. The Guarani were living in the jungle and under constant threat from slave traders and the portuguese, so in some ways this option offered them security, education and the learning of numerous trades - the bitter pill was they had to convert to Christianity and many of their life styles had to change - many of their own rituals. However on the whole it was considered a Utopian dream that worked for a long while. Jealousy over the success of these Missions - there were about 30 of them in Argentina and Paraguay - meant that the priests were recalled to Spain and the Guarani were left open to attack from outsiders. The ruins are what is left of this chapter in history - very evocative of this time. I was left with an amazing sense of organization and purpose in these communities.
Iguazu was fabulous. A lovely hostel called Peter Pan with the rooms built around courtyard and in the middle was a good sized swimming pool. One night at 4 a.m. I was so hot I couldn´t sleep so the obvious solution was a quick dip - or not so quick. The usual ecclectic mix of youngsters - their m usual friendly selves.
The Iguazu Falls were phenominal. Nothing quite prepared me for the size, the volume and the noise of the water falling. Also how many falls there were. I was constantly soaked by spray and what was nice was that although there were a lot of people I never felt overwhelmed by crowds. There is one particular fall called the Devil´s Throat and I was the only one at that view point. To get to it you had to cross from island to island, and there were many, by metal walk ways with the water rushing underneath. I logically knew it was safe but there were moments where I just had to keep going. It was a bit like crossing a large delta. Lovely butterflies and myself and 2 German lads were lucky enough to see 3 Toucans and a crocodile and her baby. Flowers were also stunning but have no idea what they were.
I wasn´t going to but in the end I did, take the boat trip almost under the waterfalls. The Gauchos of the Rivers drive these large rubber speed boats packed with the likes of me and I am sure lay bets with each other as to how wet they can make us. It was huge fun and I was completely drenched. I have decided I would now like to have a go at rafting, so don´t hold your breath! I teamed up with a lovely Argentinian couple and we walked the paths together and did the boat trip too. He makes fabric for tango shoes and other sorts in Buenos Aires!
On the way back to Salta our bus was stopped for a standard police check. This time they wanted to see our passports. Unfortunately I have overstayed my 3 months visa and should have gone out of the country and re-entered to validate the next 3 months. I have to admit I just hadn´t bothered and thought I would go to Uruguay from BA when I got back there. Anyway no such luck. Very officious and unsmiling police said yes there was a problem. So I was taken off the bus and shown into their office and questioned about my reasons for being here, where had I been etc. etc. Eventually they decided that they would give me a temporary visa for 10 days on condition that I left the country before the end of that time. The guy who painfully slowly typed out my visa was a real honey and we almost had a bit of joke together - that was a relief. What I was almost more worried about though was that the time it was all taking. In the end it was about three quarters of an hour that I held up the bus. I was very proud of myself that I was not phased and panicked by it all. My friends on the bus were very pleased to see me back on board, in one piece and with my newly adjust passport. So it looks like I may be going to Bolivia from Salta. I shall keep you posted.
Big hug and much love to you all
Sal xxx
After leaving Salta I visited a town called Resistencia which seems the most unlikely place to find hundreds of scuptures. They have a biennial competition where sculptors have 2 weeks to complete a piece of work and then a selection of the best are posted around the town. Sowhere ever you walk you are bound to come across these works of art. The good, the bad and the ugly - they were all there. It did inspire me to think its an area I´d like to work more in - I thought of you, Kate. I also thought it was such a brilliant idea placing them around the streets and made it all very accesible to everyone. Maybe we could start a new fashion in England?
I had a hilarious evening in the park on the Sunday night joining the crowd watching various bands perform from a stage. I was squeezed into a tiny space with a VERY large enthusiastic señora who clapped and danced to everything, so all I could do was join in. Little children were on their dads shoulders swaying around in time to the music.....and a new phenomena, people were handing up their mobile phones onto the stage with either photos or loving messages to their heartthrobs; lost children were also taken to the front of the stage hoping that their parents would notice them. One child was twice called out over the load speakers - I hope that her parents hadn´t done a runner! There were also some stoney faced women who were not going to enjoy anything even if they tried. So all the world and his wife were out that night.
My hotel in Resistencia definitely got the thumbs down, grubby and my loo got blocked on the first day and nobody did anything about it for 2 days - shan´t be going there again!
Heading up towards Iguazu it definitely felt tropical and very humid. So I was constantly dripping with sweat every moment of the day. At Posadas the next stop I visited the Jesuit Mission - ruins from a time passed. The Jesuits were sent to Missiones to convert the Guarani one of the indigenous people in Argentina. The Guarani were living in the jungle and under constant threat from slave traders and the portuguese, so in some ways this option offered them security, education and the learning of numerous trades - the bitter pill was they had to convert to Christianity and many of their life styles had to change - many of their own rituals. However on the whole it was considered a Utopian dream that worked for a long while. Jealousy over the success of these Missions - there were about 30 of them in Argentina and Paraguay - meant that the priests were recalled to Spain and the Guarani were left open to attack from outsiders. The ruins are what is left of this chapter in history - very evocative of this time. I was left with an amazing sense of organization and purpose in these communities.
Iguazu was fabulous. A lovely hostel called Peter Pan with the rooms built around courtyard and in the middle was a good sized swimming pool. One night at 4 a.m. I was so hot I couldn´t sleep so the obvious solution was a quick dip - or not so quick. The usual ecclectic mix of youngsters - their m usual friendly selves.
The Iguazu Falls were phenominal. Nothing quite prepared me for the size, the volume and the noise of the water falling. Also how many falls there were. I was constantly soaked by spray and what was nice was that although there were a lot of people I never felt overwhelmed by crowds. There is one particular fall called the Devil´s Throat and I was the only one at that view point. To get to it you had to cross from island to island, and there were many, by metal walk ways with the water rushing underneath. I logically knew it was safe but there were moments where I just had to keep going. It was a bit like crossing a large delta. Lovely butterflies and myself and 2 German lads were lucky enough to see 3 Toucans and a crocodile and her baby. Flowers were also stunning but have no idea what they were.
I wasn´t going to but in the end I did, take the boat trip almost under the waterfalls. The Gauchos of the Rivers drive these large rubber speed boats packed with the likes of me and I am sure lay bets with each other as to how wet they can make us. It was huge fun and I was completely drenched. I have decided I would now like to have a go at rafting, so don´t hold your breath! I teamed up with a lovely Argentinian couple and we walked the paths together and did the boat trip too. He makes fabric for tango shoes and other sorts in Buenos Aires!
On the way back to Salta our bus was stopped for a standard police check. This time they wanted to see our passports. Unfortunately I have overstayed my 3 months visa and should have gone out of the country and re-entered to validate the next 3 months. I have to admit I just hadn´t bothered and thought I would go to Uruguay from BA when I got back there. Anyway no such luck. Very officious and unsmiling police said yes there was a problem. So I was taken off the bus and shown into their office and questioned about my reasons for being here, where had I been etc. etc. Eventually they decided that they would give me a temporary visa for 10 days on condition that I left the country before the end of that time. The guy who painfully slowly typed out my visa was a real honey and we almost had a bit of joke together - that was a relief. What I was almost more worried about though was that the time it was all taking. In the end it was about three quarters of an hour that I held up the bus. I was very proud of myself that I was not phased and panicked by it all. My friends on the bus were very pleased to see me back on board, in one piece and with my newly adjust passport. So it looks like I may be going to Bolivia from Salta. I shall keep you posted.
Big hug and much love to you all
Sal xxx
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