Well i´m no longer upon Chilean soil, but before i tell you about that lets begin where i left off last.
Our first night in San Pedro was a cold one, and i mean cold. The climate changes in the desert i wasn´t prepared for really, and having to get up at 4am to drive up a mountain 4300 mtrs above, its even colder. Before the sun had appeared it was around -6, we went to look at some geysers, walked around the area a bit watched the sun rise and then hopped in a large hot spring pool for a bit of a dip.(the mountain is called El Tatio I think) We then drove around looking at a few other mountains and returned to camp for lunch and a bit of a rest.
3pm we were picked up again and driven to a place called death valley, some amazing rock and hill formations but mainly massive sand hills, which we got to climb up and then run down, sand everywhere. We then moved on to valley of the moon which doesn´t really look like the moon, except the entire ground surface is covered in a thin layer of salt, very interesting, we got to watch the sun set there.
So i was quite a long day but very interesting though, as there were a large population of aussies and a few kiwi´s at the camp that night we introduced the poms to anzac day and a game of two-up, i made a bit of money but lost most of it, that´s why i´m not a gambler.
Up early the next moring for a long drive, we had to wait at the chilean border for 45 mins before we could get out stamps and leave, it was then a good hour or so before we reached the argentinean border, not so much of a wait, just a long process when there´s 28 people in your group to have passport checked and stamped. But the views on the long drive made up for the time spent waiting, after climbing the mountains we travelled across whats called the alto plano(lit. high plains) and then back down the other side, the mountains being part of the andes group, the change between climates and landscape from one side to the other was quite amazing. The dry sandy desert gave way to a much greener and slightly humid environment, even a patch of rain.
So we´re now in the slightly chaotic city of Salta, Argentina. The architecture is similarly spanish colonial as in Santiago, Chile, but the people look different and things are a bit cheaper here.
Arriving at our campsite, which has the largest swimming pool in the southern hemisphere, we pitched our tents in the dark and went out to a local restaurant for a supposedly famous argie steak.(my meal left a bit to be desired, though the traditional mixed grill, which has Everything, looked alright)
Tonight we´re having a spit roast and are supposed to be dressing up in garbage bags!!! Tommorrow i´ll either by paragliding or white-water rafting, too many options.
It was a good thing considering how well the garbage bag party went the previous night, a rather late one. I made a marilyn monroe style dress out of pink bags, and was voted the best female costume!
