Buenos Aires is a wonderfully diverse city. The European influence can be felt on every corner, which makes it far more charming than other South American metropolis, that are built in a more american style. Fancy and modern neighbourhoods are intertwined with colonial areas and some less developed barrios and there is plenty of sights to see and things to do for everyone. The food is magnificent and probably the best ice-creams in the world can be found in the city. If you are bored in Buenos Aires it's probably your own fault :)
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If you look at our travel map, you will see that we've been zigzagging across Argentina a lot! Well, we had finally come to our last "zag". What would have been an uneventful drive across the country was interrupted by the new year's eve. We didn't plan to be anywhere in particular and so we found ourselves in the middle of Argentina camping in a municipal campsite at the Rio Negro river. We had a simple yet delicious dinner, popped a champagne at midnight and for the first time in years enjoyed a more or less silent new year's. Argentinians are apparently not very much into the fireworks. A crown event of any Altiplano visit is the famous Laguna route - an off-road passage which runs through the remote southwestern part of Bolivia passing several high-altitude lagoons, volcanoes and deserts on the way. A mixture of sandy, gravel and rocky roads with practically no services for 500 kilometers requires some preparations and despite having only 2WD drive on our car, we decided to take our chances. We filled up with gasoline, bought provisions for some days and took off. After a hundred kilometers of well maintained gravel road, we drove off the piste and into the mountains. The rocks on the track were big and we could only advance slowly but already when we reached the first of the lagoons with hundreds of flamingos calmly stomping around in it and feasting in the nutritious waters we realised there is a special experience in front of us. Still southbound and once again in the freezing Altiplano, we continued through barren and dry landscape while regularly stopping on the way to observe and take pictures of the free-roaming llamas, alpacas and vicunas. But before we continue with the marvelous landscape of the Sajama National Park it is time for another edition of "everyday Bolivian experience". This time - fueling up the tank :) The government regulates the fuel costs and defines different prices for foreigners than for Bolivians. If a local can buy fuel for around 3,5 BOB/L (0,45€), the official price for the foreigners is about 8,7 BOB/L (1,1€). But as usual in South America and especially in Bolivia, almost everything is open for discussion. If you are cunning enough to ask for a service without the receipt, some gas-station employees will happily enter the local price into the computer while actually charging you a slightly higher price. We usually ended up at 5 or 5,5 BOB/L which meant that we payed far less than we should have and that the employee went home with some extra daily paychecks in his pocket. But it hasn't really worked out every time and it very much depended on the mood of the employee and our bargaining skills. Many times we would visit as much as five places before being able to fill-up for a lower price - but with our way of travelling every cent counts and we tried to haggle as much as possible :) Back to our travel itinerary... National Park Sajama is just at the northern Chilean border and encompasses the volcano Sajama and its close surroundings. The volcano, also the highest Bolivian peak at 6542m, is mostly surrounded by wilderness, filled with vicunas, rhea birds (a South American variety of emu) and plenty of thermal springs and geysers. We spent two days soaking up in the hot thermal water and trying to stay warm during the night when the temperature dropped under -10°C and our water bottles were freezing inside the car where we were sleeping (we didn't dare to use the rooftop tent). We filled two 5L plastic bottles with boiling geyser water and left them under our bed - we're not really sure if they actually helped in a way. After heating up the car-engine on the powerful Altiplano sun (we slept at 4500m again) so that our cooling system became liquid again, we continued with great anticipation towards our next destination. |
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February 2019
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