20 October 2018: Walking on the moon - crossing the Puna

Hi guys, the music with this blog is "walking on the moon" from "the Police".

Because we had 'done' the two national parks in one day (making our host worry when we did not get back before dark) - the second day in San Augustin we decided to check out out the 'valle fertil' - the gorge in the local hills close to town. Where the name 'fertil' (fertile) comes from we have no idea as it's very dry and dusty with enormous cacti. Very impressive for someone from green NZ. There was a little stream in which we even took a bit of a bath in our togs as it was a very hot day thanks to the hot winds that blow in this part of Argentina and make a hot day even hotter. It was around 27 C and it's only springtime.. We gave a local farmer a ride and also picked up his friend at the next intersection when we finally got out of the valley after often wondering (me) if we would ever get out. Giving rides to locals is order of the day here as a lot of people simply don't have cars and go by foot or horseback if they have one. It's nice to have a bit of a chat but we still have to meet the first chatty farmer haha (same as in NZ unless there is beer involved). Back at the hotel we met a lovely couple from Holland and had a nice dinner (yes baby goat again) with them at the local hosteria.

After saying goodbye to the lovely hosts we took off for Chilecito driving through a stunning part of 'Ruta 40' called Quest de Miranda - red rocks in all sorts of shapes and forms, very beautiful. We made a stop at a bridge where I took a photo of a Argentinian family driving around in probably his work cooling truck and in turn they took our photo in front of a lovely gorge. 

We had booked a cabana (little bach or sometimes just a motel room) in San Florentina which turned out to be in the hills next to Chilecito. Very nice relaxed hippy style place, built and run by Franco who spent a year in NZ a few years ago travelling and working. He went back to his roots and started building cabanas when he returned and has created his own little piece of paradise there. 

Cabanas made out of river rocks from the Rio Amarillo (guess what that means?!) that runs past the property. Very unusual colour thanks to minerals that were also mined there in the last century. After a visit to town we decided to walk up the river the next day - and saw the little tower we built for Ruben was standing strong. All we could think of during the walk was Ruben as his funeral was taking place more or less at the same time in Holland. I walked the Heaphy Track with Ruben in December 2016 and am so grateful that we did make lots of good memories together.

On our way to Belen the next day - the starting point of our big desert drive - we visited one of the Inca ruins in this area Ruinas Chincal. Interesting place, likely the largest Inca place in this part of Argentina. The Incas went as far as Mendoza in Argentina. On the photo I am standing at the stairs that led to the highest hill of the village which was 
used for religious ceremonies. 

Photo of the local butcher shop in Belen - the dogs know where and when to go for their meal. Just like in Chile, there a lots of dogs around. In Chile mostly confined behind locked gates, here in the towns they roam around freely. Some have an owner but most don't. They are being fed and watered by everyone. Meat and food is left on the streets for them to eat and they walk into restaurants and sit next to your table to beg you to drop something.
In Belen we were stopped by the police. Upon hearing we were from New Zealand the female officer only wanted to know if we'd seen the famous movie (who's name we'd never heard of) with Lucy Lawless (her hero) which apparently was recorded in New Zealand. DId not have to show any paperwork.

The next day we started our big desert road trip; driving the Puna as they call it here. We had changed our initial idea of driving to Buenos Aires and seeing Montevideo after talking to our host in San Augustin. And we are glad that we did and changed our plans - what a experience we were about to have! In that very large desert there are only three tiny villages where you need to find a hosteria or a hospedaje and in the first village the hosteria was booked out by a group (of Japanese we joked). So we had to book bit further afield in the second village and luckily that worked out. For the second leg of our journey we hadn't been able to find anything on the internet so would have to 'wing' it and see if we could arrange this later and if not, change our plans.  During this road trip we suddenly saw a lady coming out of nowhere with a goat and a cat. We thought she wanted a ride, but it turned out she had a sore throat and wanted some pastilles. We were the first to pass in days, so logically...... We gave her some Fishermens friends. She may hate the Dutch now.

Before going we had to get a stack of pesos as all accommodation here is paid in cash - if you have followed any news lately about the latest financial crises here you will understand cash is important and not easy to get for Argentinians as there are measures as to how  much they can retrieve from their own bank accounts. That is the same for us, we can only get lower amounts of cash out of ATMs and pay sometimes about 5% of that amount in fees on top of paying to the NZ bank for using a foreign ATM. In that sense in our view NZ banks are as backward as the SA ones...

The drive to El Penon was beautiful, we oh-d and ah-d a lot not knowing how much more beautiful it would get. The most interesting part began when we began to spot volcanoes and black lava and of course we couldn't resist and had to walk on it to get rid of that nasty memory of last year with Hans his knee business :-).
I am posing a bit but wow is the desert a windy place - every time you open the car door you blow out of the car and the sand blows in, literally going everywhere.

60km after El Penon we were close to Antofogasta where a volcano has created a beautiful lake just outside the village. Greeted by lamas and flamingos in the late afternoon sun was a great welcome and end to our 6 hour drive.

In the hosteria the locals confirmed that yes we can continue our drive with our 2x2 to the next village but if we wanted to see the area around Antofagasta it would have to be with a 4x4.
The next day we toured with one of the local guides called Hilario (yes we thought it was funny too) and it turned out to be a great day. See the little clip here of him driving through a very narrow gorge, steep and lots of loose sand. We would have be stuck but also it would have been impossible to find your way off road through this landscape of craters.
A mini glacier in the desert - a really nice surprise. Because of the altitude (Antofagasta is at 3200m) of the terrain, streams are frozen every morning and there are patches of snow as it's still springtime. 

The landscapes are just out of this world - it definitely felt like walking on the moon :-).

Views like paintings - red rocks, dark rock, sand with white salt against blue skies, just beautiful.

Hilario's whole family are guides and farmers (except two sisters that work as police officers) but none of them speak any English. All the guides we have met so far in Argentina don't speak English, almost no-one does. Apparently it's very expensive to learn English as it isn't taught in school, only privately which means the majority never learns it.  So I am very happy with my basic Spanish as we do need it every day, starting with finding the accommodation we have booked in the small villages.

One of the many valleys around the craters that we visited, sharp edgy rocks in all forms and sizes.

In front of the salt flat that's part of the Laguna Grande (crater lake) you see a group of very pretty in pink flamingos. The flamingos had just returned from Chile, where the Atacama Desert is much hotter than this desert as it's a at a lower altitude. So they spend winter there and return to Argentina for the summer.

Desert landscapes where you expect Indians to be on top of these mountains looking for Lucky Luke and the Dalton brothers. Or even Rantanplan, the dog.

This is the grass that paints the hills yellow in the desert; a type of grass that is the food for vicuña (a cross between a gazelle and a lama). 
Close up the grass is quite big and takes funny shapes, the ends are also razor sharp so how this animals can chew on this stuff we have no idea. 
On the second night in Antofagasta we were in doubt what to do as running out of cash was going quicker than we anticipated but also finding our next stay in the next village was not easy. We didn't want to drive for 7 hours on difficult terrain to go camping below zero. Late in the evening we found a phone number on the internet and lucky us with a text message we managed to find a hospedaje in Tolar Grande for the next evening.

The second bit of our journey was definitely off the beaten track. Most tours go to El Penon and back and if tourists travel to Tolar Grande or the village before it (8 families) Antofalla, it is with a 4x4 and a guide.
Our Toyota performed well, but height was certainly needed to cross streams (sometimes frozen like here) and track over big rocks. Very small narrow winding bits of road, Hans was in his element!

The good thing was that we didn't expect to meet any other car and in 6 hours we didn't which helped me not think about it too much.

This clip is from the salt flat (called salar in Spanish) at Antofalla. We agree this is the most beautiful one we've seen because of the three volcanoes sitting in the salt flat and the beautiful red colours that mix with the white of the salt. Just stunning.

The scenery just kept changing and changing, every view an awesome one. The peaks of the Andes are very high ones - all over 6000m.

Colour makes me happy, so happy!

The vicuñas who eat this yellow grasses live in herds like deer; one male and a bunch of females and little ones. Often you only see them last minute because they blend in so well - the colour of their fur is the same as the grasses they eat. A fun fact is that we also witnessed is that all members of a herd poop in one place - very neat and tidy haha but we figure it has to do with them marking their territory.

This pic is where the final 2 hours of our journey started; crossing the very large Salar de Arizo to get to Tolar Grande. The naturally formed pyramid is a bit of a surprise - sculptured by nature - wind, water and sun. The salt flats are purely of volcanic origin, a product of evaporation of salty continental waters of volcanic origin. 

On the road through the salar we started to encounter the first large trucks which was the first traffic all day. The trucks were clearly hauling road construction materials but also temporary living containers. Something big must be happening in that salar area in the next few months/years.
After the hour crossing of the salar we landed in the trickiest bit of our journey - the road which must have been ok for 2x4 when our host from hotel Rustico drove it (or heard about it from visitors) - had been turned into a loose sand 'road'. The one thing that our 2x4 is not good at is loose sand. But yeah, after 6 hours of driving what do you do? 

Hans did great and just stepped on it which worked really well, once you have the momentum you can keep going but it did feel like driving Paris Dakar at times. All the while we also had to pass and give way to a large number of trucks that just kept coming our way. We could only stop on tiny bits of sand that were not that deep and soft to let them pass.
If we had gotten stuck the good thing would have been that there would have been a truck to pull us out!
We made it to Tolar Grande around 6pm after an awesome breathtaking day of driving. Made a few photos with the evening sun just before entering the village.

After asking three different locals of which one called our host with my phone when I asked her, we found our hospedaje. Confusing because all the hospedajes are called Hospedajes Familiar... Basic but nice with a couple of other guests that we chatted with. The local restaurant provided pollo or vaca (chicken or beef) and local wine which was a satisfying end to a great adventurous day. And you know what was the funny thing? We are with the two of us and in walks a large group of Japanese with their guide to have dinner. The group from El Penon we believe! As they travelled in a larger bus they must have driven the other more 'normal' road to Tolar Grande, but we did have a giggle. The staff as well as they were a weird bunch - all taking off within a minute after finishing their meals without any goodbyes. Next blog the last day of our desert trip.