Mines, Mendoza and Malbec

Just a regular days shopping....dynamite and coca leaves. Silver Mine
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We left Cusco, and headed South back towards Bolivia, stopping off in delightful Juliaca for the third, and thankfully final, time.

We crossed the border and made our way to Potosi. I had been looking forward to visiting the town as it is home to one of the Worlds biggest Silver Mines and I had visions of buying a few select pieces as presents. As it transpired, Potosi does not have any shops selling Silver. Not one. It exports all the Silver it mines.

Mines, Mendoza and Malbec

Propping up the bar....again! In the Silver Mine
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All the miners are self employed and pay a small fee, and a percentage of their "booty" to mine their own area within the 600 or so tunnels.

A group of us decided to take the 3 hour tour deep into the mine. Before we started we were kitted out in overalls, boots, gloves, safety helmet and head torch. We were then taken to a local market and invited to buy the miners a "present" consisting of a large bottle of fizzy drink and a bag of coca leaves, which the workers chew on all day to maintain their energy levels.

Gettin' frisky with the locals. Salt Flats
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To complete the "present" buying we all bought dynamite, I kid you not, check out the photo. I know, sexy outfit!

The mine tour did not start without incident. We made our way into one of the tunnels and, after walking for a couple of hundred metres, we were due to climb down a steep stretch about 30 metres deep. A lady in another group, who had already expressed her reservations, was just starting the decline when she lost her footing. The next few seconds were filled with her blood-curdling screams and loud thuds as she bounced her way to the bottom.

Salt Flats
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We spent the next 2 hours or so climbing deeper and deeper into the incredibly antiquated mine system. It felt like stepping back in time a couple of hundred years. At times we had to literally crawl on hands and knees to pass along the passages. Occasionally we would pass a hole in the floor and, if you shone your torch in, you could see miners working with their hands, up to 30 metres below. We would drop our "presents" into these holes being careful not to maim the workers with the fizzy drink.

Weinert Bodega, Mendoza
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Weirdly the miners worship the Devil and have an effigy of both him and Pachamama deep in the tunnels. It was while we were hearing about this devil worship when a huge explosion went off inside the mine. The ground shook violently and small rocks and dust started to drop from the ceiling. I really thought my time had come, but our Guide just smiled and explained that the same thing happened every day at that time, and it was simply the miners blasting new tunnels. Oh, that's okay then!!!!

Sampling the goods, Mendoza
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Potosi itself does not have a great deal to say for itself. It is not particularly pretty and, since the Silver is no longer of sufficient quality and quantity to encourage new investment, it feels like a place that is dying a slow death.

The "Hostel" we stayed in did not help. It was particularly grubby and had a 6pm curfew, so no wild parties there then.

We left and headed towards Uyuni in southern Bolivia.

One thing I will mention here is "Almuerza" which is the set lunch offered by every cafe in South (and most of Central) America. It consists of, usually, chicken foot soup (with real chickens feet....lovely) and then a main course of rice (always) and either meat or chicken (neither of which actually contain ANY meat or chicken). You also often get a warm drink of water with sugar in it. This is what we eat for lunch EVERY DAY. I mention it because firstly, despite sounding gross, it is actually very tasty, although I cannot bring myself to suck the meat out of the chickens feet, and secondly this 2/3 course feast usually costs about 30p.

Uyuni is a really weird place. You are literally driving across a desert and a wall appears in front of you. The only evidence that there is a town contained within is the tonnes and tonnes of trash scattered over the desert floor. I am afraid this remains an all too common theme in all the Countries we have visited.

In Uyuni Chad, Tony and I booked a tour to visit the Salt Flats. The Flats are actually a 12000km sq dried up lake (nearly the size of Northern Ireland) and, as everything is white, as far as the eye can see, they make for great photo opportunities. We visited a town made entirely out of salt, ate lunch in a salt hotel and spent time on an Island oasis in the middle of the Flats taking photos of 1000 year old cacti. All in all a great day.

It was Wills', driver/owner, Birthday while we were in Uyuni. Tony and I were returning to the Hotel after dinner and were greeted by Will and a bunch of others climbing on to our truck for "a few drinks". What turned out to be one of the best nights so far quickly developed. We drank everything we could lay our hands on, and danced and sang along to all the cheesy party songs you could imagine. The party only broke up when our Hotel owner phoned the Police and threatened to have us all arrested.

We left Uyuni and crossed the border into Argentina.

We stayed a few days in Salta, camping on a huge site on the edge of town. The place had the biggest swimming pool I have ever seen. The owners were filling it up for the whole 3 days we were there.

Salta was not much to write home about but we did have a great steak there. I had heard so much about Argentinian steak and how "it is so tender you can cut it with a spoon". Now I do not think I can agree with that, unless it is some kind of Ninja Death Spoon, but my word they are awesome. The steaks are so big you could put a dress on them, call them Susan and take them dancing.

We had one great night in Salta, which is a bit of a blur, but involved live music, which seemed to be everywhere, a great blues band, and me deciding I was the Worlds greatest Tango dancer. Oh no! not again.

We then headed off to a place called Salta Rafting where we camped for 2 nights. The drive was amazing, the scenery incredible.

A group of us did some white water rafting which was great fun and actually passed without incident. Afterwards, as were getting ready to go to bed, one of the guys called me over to show me something. The biggest bloody tarantula was ambling through our campsite. Now I don't do spiders and this thing looked like you could have thrown a saddle on it and rode it round the paddock. I slept on the truck.

We left Salta Rafting and headed to Mendoza. The drive took us 2 days and we camped by the side of the road.

Mendoza is a fantastic city. Most of it was demolished in an earthquake about 120 years ago so, when they rebuilt it, they did so by making the boulevards extra wide so that any repetition would mean the buildings would fall into the street and not into each other. They also built the citys' squares extra large so they could be used as meeting points. The result is a city perfectly set up for al fresco dining and cafe culture. That coupled with the fact that every street is lined with huge trees, meaning you get plenty of cover from the sun, make it a beautiful city. Oh yeah, and it has a few decent vineyards on its doorstep.

I did a days tour around 2 Bodegas and an Olive Oil factory. I managed to avoid buying any olive oil but a couple of bottles of fine Mendoza Valley Malbec found there way into my shopping bag. It was a great experience to see the wine making process and visit vineyards producing wine that we buy at home. I am now a total Malbec convert, although things could change when we hit Chile.

The language is totally different here. Many words have a different inflection and some are just plain brand new to us. This led myself, and a couple of the guys into a rather delicate situation. We were having quite a few drinks on a street full of cafes and decided to try and find the bar area. Hailing a taxi we negotiated a reasonable price for the driver to take us to, what he promised was, "just what we wanted". He finally stopped and we piled out and into the "bar" he had pointed at. On entering we realised there must have been a "lost in translation" moment. The dozen or so "ladies" sitting in the corner were, lets say, scantily dressed, and did not look like they were much good at pulling, well not pints anyway. We made our apologies and left, quickly, to walk the 5 or so miles home. It reminded me of the dyslexic Pimp who bought himself a Warehouse!!!

What is weird about Mendoza, and indeed I am starting to realise Argentina in general, is just how late people eat dinner. I know that people in Europe tend to eat later than we do, but these guys are still turning up for dinner at 1am. Most restaurants do not even open until 8.30-9pm.

Another difference with Argentina is the infernal car honking has reduced dramatically, which is a huge relief.

Anyway our time in Mendoza was over far too quickly and as the truck prepared to head into Chile and long, long drives so, as the group headed South I had a bit of a brainwave and..............

Until next time, folks. (Isn't it exciting? It is like when Batman and Robin (the 70's show with, I am thinking Adam West) when then episode would end with our heroes being lowered into a vat of acid by the dastardly Riddler. How could they possibly escape? You will just have to tune in next time to see.)

Be Good

Paul X