0176 Uspallarta Argentina to Santiago Chile

17th Dec

The morning was bright and sunny for our last pack up in Argentina, and after getting everything organized we set off west towards the Chilean border, and our destination, Santiago.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, and a seventh wow.  Yup, that is the first 7 wow day I have had on this trip, and it deserves every one of them.  We had been told by other Overlanders that this mountain pass was good, but no one had told us it was going to be THIS good. 

0175 UPDATED Mendoza back to Uspallarta

16^th Dec

During the night, at 2.15 am to be precise, I was awoken by the loudest noise  on the roof above me – Hail and heavy, heavy rain !!  Now I know what it must feel like to live in a house with a corrugated iron roof !  This was rain like we have not seen during the rest of the trip, and my first thoughts were to check what was going on outside with our chairs and stuff.  Fortunately the back of the car awning was under a very robust and water tight thatched roof, so most things weren’t getting too wet, but I did have to quickly lower one corner of the awning so water would not pool in it and collapse it.  Once I had done all I could, it was back to bed, keep an eye on the roof for leaks, and keep my fingers crossed !

0174 - Uspallarta to Mendoza

15^th Dec

Only a short distance to cover today, so we were not in a hurry to leave.  After a few light showers during the night, it was a clear blue sky this morning, with the sun filtering through the many poplar trees in the camp site.  A very pleasant place to start the day !

The shower facilities looked basic, but the shower itself was excellent with lots of piping hot water.  Only problem was there was no shower rose in my shower to the water hit me pretty hard !  But it worked !

We then drove slowly into town, went to the supermarket and veggie stall to try to get just a few basics for the next few days, but they weren’t very good so we left it.  Even tried to have a coffee in a wifi café – But no wifi, so gave up on that too and headed out of town !!

 

 

 

 

0173 Nr Calingasta to Uspallata

14^th Dec 

Uspallarta - Where Brad Pitt filmed 7 Years in Tibet, apparently !!  But first we had to get here.  We woke up with the wind already starting to flap the pop top and fly sheet around, but it was pleasant enough in the sun – Except for some tiny flies they have out here in these plains – Tiny little ones that don’t seem to bit, but they get everywhere and are very annoying.  You either stand in the wind and get blown away, but no flies, or you stand in a sheltered area and get the flies !!  They were so annoying that we ended up eating breakfast inside the van !
 

0172 Talampaya NP to Nr Calingasta

13^th Dec

Remember the cry from Toad of Toad Hall in Wind in the Willows, when he tries to explain the joy of driving in his car on the open road ?  “Oh Joy, Oh Bliss – Oh……..Poop Poop” !   Today was to be one of those days !  A veritable Mr. Toad day.    We were already on a long detour due to roadworks, and today we were searching for a road that we had been told was fantastic – But did not even exist on our map !!  We were going in search of the invisible road, because it was supposed to be fantastic – If we could just find it !!  What an Adventure !   Poop poop. 

0171 Salicas to Talampaya NP

12^th Dec 

Our overnight site was interesting – It seems to be part of an educational system for local children, set up by the owners off their own initiative because they are dissatisfied with what is available within the system.  We will not pretend to even understand the half of it because he was so enthusiastic that he spoke in very rapid Spanish that meant we understood very few of the details, although we certainly understood the gist of it along with his enthusiasm !!  But surrounded by geese and dogs and other farmyard animals, and with the LOUDEST cicadas (or cigarras as I think they are called here), we eventually slept !

0170 Cafayate to Salicas

10^th Dec

We had had an excellent 2 days in Cafayate, a great little town.  If we were not rushing to Santiago could have easily spent a couple more days here.  We packed up and got ready to leave, but I then got hung up on the internet.  For some reason, every time I log on to various email or internet programmes I get emails from both Google and Microsoft telling me there has been a suspicion log on to my account in XYZ city in Peru / Ecuador / Chile / Argentina etc and my account has been frozen and I need to go in and confirm the activity is mine.  This has become an absolute PITA because usually I cannot log on because my account is frozen, and it becomes a game of passwords and access codes !  You would think that by now, after 8 months, these supposedly smart people / computer systems would have put 2 and 2 together and realised that I am actually travelling through all these countries !  Of course there is no email address you can contact these stupid people on directly – I have tried leaving messages all to no avail.  I would SO love to meet someone from Google and / or Miscrosoft so I could bend their ear a little – It is SO annoying when you are travelling to keep having your accounts suspended for absolutely no reason.