MANCORA, beaches, bright blue sky and a whole lot of sunshine

June 17, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott

Yesterday Juliet and I went to the bus station at 11.30am ready to buy our tickets and get on the 1pm bus to Mancora. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out that this bus was cancelled and the next one to our destination was at 3.45. Let’s just say it was a long and very boring wait at the bus station until we finally got to board the bus and basically switch from one quite uncomfortable seat to another, except this one would be our seat for the next 18 hours (it actually turned out to be 19 as of course our bus was delayed). At 11am this morning we FINALLY arrived in Mancora. After driving through practically nothing, just desert land and a lot of fog, it was such a nice relief to arrive in a cute little beach town with bright blue sky and a shining sun.
This is what it looked like practically our whole journey…

And this is what we saw when we arrived at our hostel…

Safe to say it felt like we’d entered into paradise. Our hostel room wasn’t actually ready for us for another couple of hours so we wondered into the town to explore and grab some early lunch. Mancora is an open, clean, quite pretty town full of crazy tuck tuck drivers, surfer tourists and local market sellers. One side of the road is filled with the market sellers stalls where they sell everything hand made and everything has ‘Mancora’ written beneath it, even bracelets!
The other side of the road is filled with banks, drug stores and hundreds of cute, locally owned restaurants, one of which Juliet and I decided on for lunch. Firstly because it was two courses and a drink for 10pesos (£2), secondly because all the decorations, including table decorations and lamp shades, were made out of shells, and thirdly… Because the food actually seemed quite nice. (We definitely have our priorities set in backpacker mode)

We then spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and dumping all of our warm clothes and jackets (that we definitely will not be needed) in our hostel room and then sunbathing by the massive pool that the hostel has to offer. This evening, after a solid afternoon in the sun of course, Juliet and I headed back into town and browse the markets once again and find something for dinner that we really fancied. We came across a cute little Italian restaurant, lowly lit with red flowery table clothes and we’re sold. The food was delicious, we both had vegetarian pasta and it was so huge we couldn’t finish it!!

It’s now 8pm and Juliet and I are both in bed in our room, nether of us slept at all well on the bus last night and it’s safe to say we are both looking forward to a very early night followed by a hard core sunbathing session tomorrow. We are in a party hostel however and the music is blaring, serves us right for being such grannies… Hehe (sorry grandparents! Love you all lots).

Following the Sun!

June 15, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott ~ 1 Comment

After recommendation (and the fact that Juliet and I are seriously missing the sunshine) today we are off to Mancora, a beach town on the west coast of Peru.
Lonely planet says…

Peru’s worst-kept secret, Máncora is the place to see and be seen along the Peruvian coast – in the summer months foreigners flock here to rub sunburned shoulders with the frothy cream of the Peruvian jet set. It’s not hard to see why – Peru’s best sandy beach stretches for several kilometers in the sunniest region of the country, while dozens of plush resorts and their budget-conscious brethren offer up rooms within meters of the lapping waves. On shore, a plethora of restaurants provides fresh seafood straight off the boat as fuel for the long, lazy days. The consistently good surf draws a sun-bleached, board-toting bunch and raucous nightlife keeps visitors busy after the sun dips into the sea in a ball of fiery flames. However, even though it has seen recent explosive growth, Máncora has somehow managed to cling to its fishing community roots.

So it’s easy to see why Juliet and I want to go there!
With a 1pm bus arriving in tomorrow morning, let’s hope our 18 hour bus journey is worth it. I expect to see beautiful beaches and bright blue sky!

A Peruvian day

June 15, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott

Today when we woke up we decided to spend the day as true Peruvians. We took our laundry down to the local laundrette and set about exploring the city… Without appearing like tourists of course. We first passed huge inca ruins, situated right in the middle of Miraflores (the area in Lima that we are staying it) with a huge fence around it, enclosing amazing sand steps up to huge inca buildings and also lots of lamas.
Our plan of the day was to head for the best Ceviche restaurant in town and on our way we had to walk through the ‘Park of love’ (yes that is actually it’s name) a heart shaped park, full of emotional and soppy quotes and the most bizarre statue ever.

The town itself was heaving and so was the park due to the bright sunny sky, beautiful weather and obscene amount of para gliders coming in and out of the beautiful cliffs below us.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called “La Mar”, famous for it’s Ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish (or seafood in our case) that is covered in onions and lime juice and then left to basically cook in the juices… and we had the most delicious meal. It almost went terribly wrong when I put a whole chile in my mouth thinking it was pepper, but it was soon fine after that.

We also had the opportunity to then try a Suspiro a la Limeña (literally translated as the sigh of Lima) a delicious caramel type desert that Juliet and I both secretly wish we hadn’t shared… But had all to ourselves.

Our last port of call after lunch was another lovely stroll through the town until we arrived at the street of markets, ready to shop!

However in true Juliet and Steph fashion we actually got very bored of market shopping quite quickly and so we swiftly moved on and headed to the supermarket to buy dinner and then back to Miraflores, to the hostel to watch England’s first game in the World Cup, against Italy. Of course England lost but we did feel patriotic for a bit at least, while watching it.
It really was a very Peruvian day, with ceviche, Peruvian wine and local dessert, we did feel like we had accomplished something and came back to the hostel exhausted!

Travel day to Peru… The last country on our gapyear travels

June 14, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott ~ 1 Comment

After finding out, on day two of the Salar de Uyuni tour that the whole of Uyuni had road block and we wouldn’t be able to get there or finish our tour, we discovered the next morning that the riots and road block had moved up in Bolivia and Uyuni was now accessible – obviously when we arrived it was absolutely full of military and police. This morning when we arrived ay Uyuni airport, although there were less, the airport was the same with military and police force throughout. It was a funny check in as well, as the airport used to be solely for military use and then also because it is Bolivia it is not very high tech. There was a man checking people in, another one writing out the luggage tags by hand and another one who brought out some scales (meant for personal use) that we could put our suitcases on to weigh them. We then had to pay tax as it wasn’t included in the ticket price, before getting on a 25minute long flight to La Paz. Here this airport was filled even higher to the brim by patrolling police force in camo clothing who marched backwards and forwards through the center of the airport. One even came over while I was on FaceTime to my mum, to see what I was doing and ended up saying hi himself!
As we had hours and hours to kill in the airport, we looked back through our salt flats photos, remembering when our tour guide said that he has lots of ideas for salt flats photos, he said he’s been doing this for four years and although he’s not a professional photographer, he is an expert!
He also said chicas (girls) every other word in every single sentence of his – something I found hilarious.

vamos chicas, que tal chicas, chicas chicas estamos llegando chicas

Our flight to Lima was a little more western than the previous one, as this time we actually got drinks, a sandwich… AND there was duty free. (Oh we do travel in style!) On arriving in Peru’s capital city we were greeted by flashing lights on billboards, huge posters with pictures of red phone boxes telling everyone to go to London, football scores left, right and center, AND a man holding up a sign with my name on it (at least we assumed it was me), ready to take us to the hostel.

There’s been a mix up with our bookings and so Juliet and I have ended up with our own room and we’re just about to do some indoor exercises to help prepare us for the inca trail… (If even by the teeniest fraction).

Salar de Uyuni – 3 Dias / 2 noches tour (Bolivian Salt Flats)

June 13, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott ~ 5 Comments

After three days and two nights in the Bolivian national park, home to the famous Salar de Uyuni (The Salt Flats), then a night in Uyuni, the town itself, and a vey very short flight from Uyuni to La Paz (it was all of 25 minutes), we are now in the airport waiting for our flight to Lima and I FINALLY have wifi and so I can blog all about my adventures over the last few days.

day 1
At 7.45am we were packed up, layered up, checked out and ready and waiting for our transfer bus to pick us up. This would be the bus that takes us over the Chilean Boarder and drops us at the Bolivan boarder where we enjoyed the classic South American tour breakfast of ham and cheese rolls and moved all of our belongings into two jeeps which would be our tour trucks for the next few days. After clearing the boarders and enjoying some food we set off on our adventure. The roads through the national parks aren’t roads, they’re more like dirt tracks that have been created because the jeeps take the same sort of route, but basically they are extremely bumpy, with rocks and stones, mud and ice and everything else in between as obstacles, making the journey a little bit less smooth and a little more fun
Our first stop was Laguna Blanca (White Lake):

Then Laguna Verde (green lake):

Next we drove through the Desierto de Dali, which is the desert that Salvadore Dali, a famous Spanish artist, visited and painted when he travelled to Bolivia from Andalusia.

Then it was time to swim in the 36 degree thermal pool, right in the middle of the freezing cold desert surrounded by ice paths. It was so nice to be so boiling hot after shivering all morning!

The Geysers were our next stop and while walking around it felt like we were on another planet due to the bizarre surfaces and bubbling sulphur.

The end of day 1 was quite bizarre as we arrived at our lodge for the night around 3.30pm all starving and had a very late lunch. Followed by some cards and chatting over the lunch table before hot tea and biscuits were brought out – such a nice feeling, drinking warm tea when you’re freezing cold! As we’d heard about the minus 25 degree nights at this lodge as we were high up in the mountains, 4900m above sea level, Juliet, our two friends and I, set out at making a warm den like bed for us all to sleep in.

We then had dinner, literally straight after lunch, and went to bed.
It was actually only about minus 12 (as if minus 12 degrees deserves an only before it) and so because of our amazing bed invention we had a warmish but restless (due to basically suffocation with so many layers and blankets) night.

day 2
Our first stop today was the Laguna Colorada (Coloured Lake) and here we saw the last moments of the sunrise before all the different colours within the lake appeared.

Next was the Arbol de Pierdra (stone tree) which incredibly does actually look really like a tree! There were also lots of other huge rock formations here.

We then saw the Montanas Coloradas (coloured mountains):

Then the Laguna de Hielo (ice lake), where we could actually (if you were brave enough) walk all the way out to the middle of the lake as the ice was so thick and strong. We even saw a crazy Spanish man take off all his clothes and belly slide across it!

We briefly stopped at the Laguna Honoa so that we could take some pictures of the South American mountain camels (so bizarre, they are basically deer), called Vicuñas.

Our next stop was the Lagunas de Flamingos, where we saw an unbelievable amount of flamingos behind some very random and strangely placed signs.

We then visited an active volcano, Volcan Litcancabar before starting our journey to our second lodge. On our way, we drove across the national railway of Bolivia (that’s no longer in use) and Chile, connecting the two. It was also the only way to get between the two countries.

Our lodge for our second night was actually made out of Salt and with the powdered salt floors and being only 3000m above sea level it was warmer than the night before, but still cold obviously! However I think we all had a much better night’s sleep.

day 3
Our first stop of today was the Isla Incahuasi (cactus island), a strange island that just gradually grew in the middle of the salt flats and is filled with cacti! (Also home to a second South American mountain camel – the lama!)

We then FINALLY went right into the middle of the Salt Flats, the real Salar de Uyuni where we spent the rest of the day taking clever photos, eating lunch and enjoying the fact that we were surrounded by nothing but salt! The salt here is actually mined, sold and used and as one of the guys on our tour wandered off into the distance to wee, the two tour guides ran after him shouting no contamination! No contamination!

On the way into Uyuni Town we stopped at another salt hotel, the only one actually in the salt flats, and also at a Cementario de Locomotivos train graveyard, which has been made into a playground! Typical Bolivia neglecting health and safety..

When we arrived in Uyuni, our whole tour group were staying in the same hostel and most of us in the same room! So we all went to a nearby bar to watch the first game of the World Cup, with Brazil playing! The wifi in our hostel wasn’t working which was annoying after being away for three days but we were all so smelly and hungry that all we wanted to do was shower and eat. We went out to a restaurant featured in lonely planet and had a delicious meal, all was good in the smallest and strangest town. That night we were woken up by one of the guys in our room who hadn’t even got to sleep as there was a rat in our room… A RAT – not okay. We could all hear it rustling and those close by could see it! It suddenly ran and jumped into the bin and so we got the hostel owner who came in with a broom and crushed it… Welcome to Bolivia!

The real Atacama Desert

June 10, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott

Today was our chance to see the real Atacama Desert and it started at 4am with a tour of the natural Geysers and hot springs. It was absolutely FREEZING, about minus nine or ten degrees and so it’s safe to say I probably had every single warm item of clothing I own here, on me. We are lucky though, Juliet and I were warned about the cold and so we have coats and jumpers and were prepared, some people on the tour weren’t nearly as wrapped up and literally turned blue. Our tour started off in one of the biggest geyser fields in the world, we had a chance to explore them all and even walk through some, using the steam to warm ourselves up.
After touring round the huge geyser field for an hour or so and watching the water bubble and spurt fountains and looking at the mud baths, we headed over to the natural hot springs for breakfast. Here people had the opportunity to swim in the huge natural hot bath (although apparently it was more warm than hot) while the rest of us explored the other hot springs and geysers that the area had to offer. We then visited the wet land, a huge river with islands and home to a huge number of different wildlife, before going to the village near by. The village literally had nothing in it apart from a beautiful church and some thatched houses and we wondered how they could possibly stay warm at night before spotting the solar panels and heaters. It might be a third world country but it’s in the modern world and obviously they have electrical power.
We arrived back at the hostel at lunch time, just in time for us to head to the local market and buy an abnormal amount of vegetables in order to make a stir fry. The grand total was 4000 pesos and as there are four of us, it was 1000 each (£1.10) wooopie!

Tour number two of the day was at 3pm in the afternoon and it was to the Moon Valley in the desert. We had a bet going as to why it was called moon valley – I guessed because it trapped moonlight – but actually our friend was right and it’s simply because the surface of it looks like the moon!
We spent a fair amount of time exploring it by foot, walking down and huge long straight road taking in the incredible surroundings – it felt like we were on another planet! Then our guide showed us a cave and before we entered she asked if anyone was claustrophobic – Juliet is – but she assured her that it’s fine and you can stand up the whole way. It was quite a long and very dark cave and about five / ten minutes in, we had to crouch down and crawl through the tight passageways with low hanging ceilings. Juliet wanted to turn back but there was a huge traffic jam building behind us and eventually she knew she’d get out – and she did! Mission accomplished. We then explored more of the moon valley (it really is so so huge) before headed over to the overlooking canyon, above but facing into the valley, in order to watch the sunset. I love places like this because when watching the sunset you don’t watch the sun but what it does to everyone else, changing the colours of the sky and the rocks to every single colour of the rainbow.

It’s been such a great day getting to really know and learn about the Atacama Desert and this is exactly the same as for San Pedro de Atacama. It really is such a different but exciting town and it’s been such a pleasure getting to know the people, eating the delicious food and staying in such a fun hostel with great friends and I am going to miss it so much. San Pedro has definitely been my favourite place in South America so far and I have truly enjoyed exploring it’s beautiful Atacama Desert.

Tomorrow at 7.30am I am off on a three day tour to the Bolivian Salt Flats. The temperature will get as low as minus twenty five but hopefully it’ll be worth it! If I don’t blog tomorrow it’s due to lack of wifi and I will tell you all about my adventures when I’m back in a civilised country!

Star Gazing San Pedro de Atacama

June 9, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott ~ 3 Comments

Today was another very relaxing day, filled with warm lentil soup and South American empanadas (basically Spanish pasty’s), errand shopping with friends, where Juliet and I found some of the most hilarious souvenirs including gnome hats and rude wooden toys and some hilarious stories.

Firstly, our vegetarian empanadas (as stated on the menu under the vegetarian section: filled with cheese and season vegetables) had more ham in than anything else. Definitely NOT vegetarian! We were tempted to tell the waiter but we thought the message might be lost in translation…

The next hilarious story is actually a story that we heard off another girl, and although the actual story shouldn’t be funny, it really is because it’s so stupid. An American girl (clearly very stupid) went cycling on her own into the desert the other evening. As the sun was beginning to set, she left her bike and walked down some random streets to get a good photo of the sunset. Obviously once the sun set it went pitch black, what did she expect she’s in the desert! But she couldn’t find her way back to her bike or just back in general. She didn’t have that warm clothes on and she was stuck in the middle of the desert… So she started filming goodbye videos on her phone as she thought she wasn’t going to survive the night. The story is funny because she did and when the sun rose she found her way back, but seriously what an idiot! Who cycles into the desert alone at night, then leaves their bike and wanders off. The bike is still yet to be found…
Story number 3. Chile is actually a favourite to win the World Cup, yes guaranteed we are in chile so of course the Chileans are saying that, but that’s statistics are in their favour.
So no European team has ever won on South American soil because of the humidity and climate. That rules out a whole load of teams. No favourite has ever won a World Cup – that rules out Brazil. Leaving Argentina and Chile. Argentina currently don’t have a decent coach and it’s a known fact that Messi (their only good player) never plays well when it’s for his country – leaving Chile to win! So everyone get betting.

Finally our evening.
Tonight we went on a star gazing tour as the Atacama desert is the clearest place in the whole world to see stars. Although you can’t see England’s pride, the North Star, this is actually replaced by the southern cross – unbelievably clear and bright – which we can’t see in England. We drove into the desert and arrived at a fenced off area with two huge telescopes, one manual and one electronic. The electronic one was amazing, the man typed in what constellation he wanted to look at and it moved itself. We saw nebulas (remains of exploded stars left in the sky), triple star constellations that spin around themselves, the brightest star in the world after the sun and even.. Wait for it.. Mars and Saturn! Mars was glowing bright red when we looked at it through the telescope and basically looked like any other star without the telescope. However on zooming in you could see it was special, with it’s orange and red glowing tinge. Then there was Saturn, this was literally the most unreal thing I’ve ever seen. We were so close you could literally see it’s rings, so clearly, and individually, wrapping themselves around the planet. Then, on closer look you could also see it’s moons – Titun, it’s biggest was glowing bright above it, with the others close by (it actually has 49, we could see about 10).
The last event on our tour was having an extremely close up look at the moon. We were able to see it’s craters and the different shadows within it. We also got the opportunity to take photos of the moon through the telescope… You would not believe the images.

We finished off the amazing evening with a delicious meat platter to share, with steak, chicken, mushrooms, onions and millions of chips we are going to bed with full stomachs. I also enjoyed my first World Cup coke!

Up at 4am tomorrow for our next tour, so seeing as that’s in four hours, it’s definitely time to sleep now.

Errand day in the desert

June 8, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott

Today it’s safe to say that although we got a lot done – a lot of errands – we basically did nothing.
I actually (as usual) woke up super early but fell back asleep soon after and at about 9ish Juliet and I were both up. 9 might not seem that late, as far as lie in goes, but when we went to bed at 10pm the night before, an 11 hour sleep was well deserved.
After having the biggest and most ridiculous stress this morning about what we should do in terms of getting to Peru – I basically wound myself up a huge amount, we finally have a plan and our flights are in the process of being booked. We are now going to Lima, the capital of Peru and are going to spend some time there. We have extra time on our hands as we’re now not visiting some of the Bolivian towns we’d planned on, but we’re both actually really looking forward to Lima now, and have read up all about the shopping and amazing Peruvian restaurants that it has to offer.
Our errands for today included: 1) having a lovely omelette brunch for £3 (not really an errand but very necessary. 2) Buying some gloves, we figured as we’re going to be putting our bodies through minus twenty five degree cold, the least we could do is give our fingers a chance. We went to a local market and bought some double layered, super warm alpaca gloves for £2.50. (Even though we were given free ones before, they are fingerless and very thin and we just didn’t believe they could do the job). 3) Exchanging some money into Bolvian bolivianos. We need 200 (about £17) as a entry fee for the salt flats and it is recommended to bring 50 more (about £4) incase we want to buy souvenirs/water/snacks etc. (the fact that we only need £4 shows how cheap Bolivia is!). 4) Our last errand was to get some toilet roll – we’ve been warned that this is a must as there is absolutely none in any of the hostels we will be staying in while on our salt flats tour. Lucky for us (so stingy) but our hostel has piles of toilet rolls in their bathrooms so we didn’t need to actually leave to hostel to complete this errand.
We also booked our Atacama deserts tours for the next few days.
Tomorrow we are planning on exploring ourselves, either by foot or by bike (which seems like a popular option) and then in the evening we have a star gazing tour. The at scams desert is the best place in the world to see stars and so we figured that this is a must.
On Monday at 4.30am we are going off to see the Geysers in the desert and the natural hot springs. We’ll come back for a couple of hours in the middle of the day and then in the afternoon we, along with three other girls we’ve made friends with, actually have a private tour of the Moon Valley. (It cost 1000pesos each – £1 – to make the tour private)
Then on Tuesday we are off to the Salt Flats!
We heard that the climate here actually drains your energy and as we both had naps this afternoon and were in bed by 8pm this evening.. I’m beginning to agree!

I’m missing everyone at home lots but am looking forward to the next few days!
Shout out to my amazing parents at the Darby races today… Especially my beautiful mummy who came out with winnings!! (Unfortunately daddy didn’t do so well.. Hehe)

An ordinary bus journey… Well as far as ordinary goes in South America

June 7, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott

This morning we woke up at an excruciatingly early time of 5am, ready to pack, shower and get prepared for our 7am bus. As you can imagine having got up two hours earlier, we definitely weren’t late for the bus and it also gave me time to FaceTime Charlie before we headed off to the station, which was so nice. As far as bus journeys go, from what we’ve experienced so far anyways, our bus journey was pretty normal. We were served breakfast when we boarded and then Juliet and I practically slept through till lunch when we were actually served a hot meal of chicken schnitzel (well kindof) and mash. We then had over 400miles of twisting and turning roads to drive through, up and over the mountains which did make me feel a bit car sick but the view was spectacular – definitely worth it.

The boarder crossing was easy enough and definitely worry free, it took a while but it always does and we were soon back on the bus. The only crazy thing about our journey was the extreme gail force winds blowing across the mountain. It practically blew us over when we got off the bus at the boarder and the bus was definitely swaying a lot and being pushed around the road while we were driving. We were top deck as well and it was so wobbly… But we tried not to think about that. After passing some small salt flats and a massive lake, we finally arrived in San Pedro, ten hours later.

It was the strangest feeling when we arrived as we were basically in the middle of no where, no houses around, no people, just very run down huts in the middle of the desert – where the hell are we.

We got a taxi to our hostel and soon enough were in the town, again a very bizarre place. The only way I can think to describe it is almost like Jesus town, as in somewhere where Jesus would live. A place where the roads, the walls, the buildings, everything all blends into one and is made out of the same material. The taxi driver dropped us outside a door in the wall that I didn’t even see at first as it is all the same weird road concrete material but on entering through the door we knew we’d arrived at Hostal Rural. This hostel is one we actually booked in England before we even came travelling, it’s crazy to think how long ago that was but we are so glad we booked it as it is seriously cool! It had a underground chill out pit, amazing murals on the walls, very friendly English speaking staff AND our roommate actually lives in Harpenden – so crazy to find someone from your hometown right in the middle of the desert of South America.

After exploring the town and finding out some interesting and quite scary information on Bolivia at the moment, Juliet and I have decided we might need to re think our route up to Peru. Apparently there are riots, civil problems and huge road blockages in Bolvia, and when we went to confirm our Bolivian Salt Flats tour, the lady asked us where we were planning on going after we arrived in Bolivia. We told her: Potosi and Sucre, she shook her head and said we definitely wouldn’t get into Potosi as the miners are on strike and rioting and we probably wouldn’t get into Sucre and there are 5 hour or more delays on busses to La Paz. We’ve decided to extend our Salt Flats tour so that it comes back to Chile and then we’re going to make a new plan, probably involving flying from Chile to Peru.
This evening we went out to dinner with or roommate and her friend (who also happens to be a girl we met on the bus today, such a small world). We discovered a small restaurant on the corner with the prettiest interior and a menu that we liked the look of. The meals were no more that £8 and they were absolutely delicious! I could easily pay a lot of money for food like this back home. I had a Thai chicken noodle soup which could give the food we had in Thailand serious competition and Juliet had a roast beef salad that was basically a cold roast on lettuce – huge and so yummy. We also had a delicious bottle of local Sauvignon Blanc, all in all it was an absolutely great meal – and we finished it off with desert in another local restaurant with live Chilean music and a huge fire pit.

Tomorrow is going to be our errand day, getting everything ready for our Salt Flats tour and booking our the Atacama Desert Tours that we have planned for the next few days including star gazing, natural hot springs and geysers and the moon valley. Hopefully we’ll also have a well deserved lie-in in the morning too…

Salta Por Siempre

June 6, 2014June 19, 2016 ~ stephanieparrott ~ 2 Comments

After being exhausted from our 21 hour bus journey, we had the most amazing sleep in our hostel: “Salta Por Siempre” which literally translates as Salta for always. We woke up this morning, an hour after our alarms were set (we clearly needed the sleep) with half an hour before our tour. Obviously this wasn’t ideal so we shot out of bed, quickly got ready, basically inhaled instead of ate our breakfast and waited for our 10am pick up… Which ofcourse came at 10.30 (it is South America after all). On our way up to the mountain ranch our driver got a phone call saying that the other car had broken down, so we picked up the other four guests and had 7 of us squeezed into a 5 seat car for half of the journey until eventually we could break into a more safer, two cars. On arriving at the ranch, after travelling through the winding hilly roads that weren’t really roads, we were met by happy smiling Argentinians, dressed exactly how you’d imagine South American ranch people to look, big boots, cowboy hats, the lot. We filled in some safety forms with instructions on how to ride a horse, and then a questionnaire on how good the institutions had been, and then got fitted with our riding hats.

After explaining to them that I actually am quite afraid of horses (the horse riding was Juliet’s choice – a deal we made before we came was that if she came scuba diving with me… I’d go horse riding with her – a deal I was beginning to regret after seeing the huge horses we were going to ride) I made them promise that they’d chose me a nice friendly horse. They didn’t really seem to think about their choice but picked one of the horses from the back, a brown and white one and got me to climb up (using it’s mane to pull myself up.. How horrible!) and wait for the others. I did soon discover why I was chosen that horse though…

As we started our journey, Juliet was an absolute natural clicking her teeth, giving the horse a little kick and they were off. I tried to copy this but my horse wasn’t interested at all and actually wandered over to a tree and stood behind it – great start. Once every single person in our tour had gone, my horse finally got a move on but obviously didn’t want to follow the same path as everyone else and I nearly ended up in a ditch. It wasn’t the best beginning ever but my horse and I soon got to know each other and he realised I was probably the worst horse rider ever so he could shuffle along at snail pace and I wouldn’t mind, and I realised that this was probably the slowest horse in the history of horse… I could crawl faster – so we were both happy. At one point everyone had the option of cantering off, so my horse did actually go along for it, for all of about ten seconds before realising (I was beginning to really like the way my horse thinks) that actually it’s a waste of energy and not worth it cause they’d all have to wait for us, so we stopped cantering and went back to shuffling, allowing me to take in our absolutely beautiful surrounding (and also to take hundreds of photos.)

There was only one point on the whole tour where I wasn’t at the back and that is when Juliet waited for me so that we could have a horsey photo shoot and a chat. We even got a photo of the momentous moment…

However I then took it upon myself to tell our guide that Juliet has actually had a lot of experience riding horses and owning them (this was after he told me that he could tell the horse riding wasn’t my choice.. And that it was fine my horse could tell when he had an inexperience bad rider… Thanks) and that actually Juliet is a very good horse rider. He immediately got off his horse and told Juliet to get off hers. Then simply said, you have my horse, I want to see what you can do. So Juliet climbed onto his horse, a much wilder and faster horse and immediately she was at home and with a teeth click and a kick she was galloping away so fast across the Argentinian hills. And once again I was holding up the rear… Last once more.

Our tour guide, whose name I actually can’t actually remember but something along the lines of Guillian (Juliet thinks William), was so friendly and took care to make sure everyone and their horses were okay.

He was also an extremely interesting man, and as he spent a lot of the tour riding next to me at the back, trying to make my horse move even a fraction faster (I was secretly pleased it wouldn’t) we had a lot of time to chat. He started working on the ranch to look after the cows but had an immediate connection with the horses and so became their trainer. Soon the owner realised that he would be the best tour guide as basically the horses only responded to him, so asked him to guide. Guillian (if that’s his name) said he couldn’t possibly guide as he couldn’t speak English and so the owner paid for English lessons for him and now he is the too ranch tour guide in Salta. Another funny thing is that his English teacher was in love with the backstreet boys, and so he learnt the majority of his English from translating their songs as homework! He told me that next year he’s going to Germany to train Polo horses and when I asked him if he played, he responded saying of course not – polo is for girls. In Argentina (and maybe all of South America) they play a sport called “Pato” which is Spanish for duck. This game is effectively rugby on horse back and he described it as very manly! Basically, from what I learnt today, there is a rugby ball with handles on the floor in the middle of the pitch. On the whistler all the players gallop on horse back to it and have to basically get so low off their horse (but obviously still on) and reach down and grab it by a handle, they then gallop holding it out. Another player will come along and grab the other handle and then they wrestle for it, still both moving forward. The stronger player will obviously win the ball but it will result in the weaker player falling off his horse. There are twenty or so horses galloping around the pitch so you can imagine that falling off a horse isn’t nice, and when I asked if you get trampled on, I was in horror that he thought it a stupid question – obviously yes – that’s why it’s a manly sport!
Thankfully we didn’t try Pato once we were back at the ranch, however we were met by a delicious BBQ of meat and chorizo sausage (more meat than you can ever imagine – the dogs were fed well that evening) and a huge salad, corn on the cob, potatoes and swede. Juliet and I are actually still full from it now and it’s 10pm! Although I don’t want to admit it to Juliet, I actually did enjoy plodding along on my slow horse (even though I am a truly dreadful horse rider) and just like the guide book says, the hills of Salta really are beautiful.

PARROTT BRANDS

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