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Here I am again.
It feels like a very long time since I wrote my last travel report but I
will
try to remember :-).
First there was this flight from El Calafate via Barcelona to Buenos Aires on December 21. Next to
me was sitting a very nice Argentinian couple. In front of me there were two stinking tourists. Puh! The two Argentinians
next to me and one in front of me took it with quite some sence of humour but at the same time expressed quite clearly what
they thought about it. During the flight while the air condition was on it was not that bad but while staying in Bariloche,
when it was off it was really bad. I thought that was very ashaming actually an wondered how it can happen that one stinks
to this extend. There was no help from the flight attendants either because the plain was totally booked out. Well, eventually
everyone survived ;-).
Dring the following two weeks which I spent in Buenos Aires I got to know the City a lot better.
So far I did not like it very much but now that I visited the various parts I discovered that they are quite different. I
also visited the very famous Cemetery in Recoleta where Eva Peron is burried.. It was quite impressive really, with these
huge, massive wooden coffins. In Argentina the people are not burried under the earth but just in coffins air proof stone.
I
also visited the national Airport of Buenos Aires and next to it the Rio
de la Plata. They were both very impressive. The
airport because the planes really started just above one's head (I had to put my hands on my ears of course) and the Rio de
La Plata because it is so huge that one cannot see the other side of the shore.
I also went to Tigre which is about a 50
minutes train ride away from
Buenos Aires, a week-end and holiday resort for the well off Buenos Aires residents. The
special thing in Tigre are the channels which one can visit are the channels in a little taxi boat. The beautiful houses are
built right at the water and have all a separate access from the channels. This was really comfortable and peaceful, especially
to escape from the noise of Buenos Aires.
Actually, I also went to the Teatro Colon where I went to see the ballet of
the "Nussknacker" (don't know the word in English). The ticket cost one peso but one could only stand. The theater is very
big, beautiful and very impressive.
One evening I also visited two Tango shows. For the second one at 11 pm I had a tickeck
and for the first one I went there early. Like this it is always a good chance to still get in if someone does not turn up.
It was quite nice to see the two of them because they were quite different. For myself I am still not a big fan of Tango.
It is a nice dance and show to look at but I am far more impressed and captured by Flamenco still.
New Year's eve was
very overcasted by the tragedy which had happened in a Disco during a concert. It seems that here was fire and around 100
people died. So the whole city was in grief and I have heard that all the clubs and discos were closed over new'year's eve
and new year and apparantly even for longer. It was touching to meet this young man at the reception of the Salta hostel who
told me that he usually always went to the concerts of that group in BA and this time could not go because he had to work.
An
other story also gave me goose pickles. Two german guys I had met a few years ago in Costa Rica sent me an e-mail card that
they are travelling in Argentina instead of India. They did not know that I was in Argentina at that point of time. After
a frequent e-mail exchange we managed to thave dinner in BA and they told me, that they were actually going to go to india
and had been waiting in Paris for several days to get on a plane. Since they had a stand by ticket and everything was always
overbooked they decided after a few days of freezing at the airport to go to Argentina instead. The shaking thing was, that
if they had gotten this ticket to india they would have been right at the time and the place when this terrible tragedy in
Asia
happened. Sometimes destiny really has it's own ways to guide the people.
For the 4th January I finally got
a ticket up north to Salta. The journey was 23 hours. At the moment it is not so easy to get tickets because whole Argentina
is on holiday and so the buses and planes are quite booked and need to be reserved some days in advance. It can actually happen
that one gets stuck for quite a few days somewhere just because there is no transportation available to the place one wants
to go.
After arriving in Salta I booked an all day tour for the day after the next, an 15 hour all day tour for the day
after that and a 12 hour bus journey to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile for the day after that.
Eventually nothing happened
the way it was planned.
It already started in the morning when the woman who usually makes the breakfast didn't appear
and I had to go on the tour without breakfast.
At the beginning of the tour thigs went quite well. But suddenly a huge
oxygen bottle fell of the shelve above the seats. It first jumped on the seat next to me, then on my knee and then on my food.
Firstly I was totally shocked and then started to cry because it really hurt like hell and I was very worried that it was
broken. Even more so because I had booked this long tour for the next day and the bus trip for the day after that. The reaction
of the driver and tourguide was actually really nice. They went straight to the "hospital" with me where I got and x-ray.
There was probably one doctor and the devices must have been from the last century. All very basic. But
never the less
it was very nice that they took care of me as well as they could. They actually pushed me in a wheel chair because it was
not sure yet whether the foot was broken or not. Thank god it wasn't! After the time in the hospital we went straight to the
police station go give a report. That was actually quite entertaining because the whole station was very basic and they only
had a very, very old typewriter, but a tv in the entrence and a tv in the questioning room :-). All my traveling colleagues
took pictures of themselves standing in the door of the prison cell and so did I eventually.
I must say that they were
all very helpful and attentive with me and helped me a lot in this difficult situation because I was still totally shocked,
could walk and the foot did not really hurt but it was still swollen quite a bit and I had a cut between the big toe and the
next one and the whole situation shook me up quite badly for a while. We then continued our trip but after coming back to
Salta I had to go to the public hospital again (at 11 pm at night). I really hope that I will never again have to go to the
hospital. Definitely not to the public one. I do understand now, why people usually try to have an insurance, even argentinian
people, to go to a private hospital. I could have also gone to a private one, the agancy would have had to pay anyway but
in a way I was too curious to see a public one once and one (thank god) does not often get the chance to see it.
I
find it actually always very interesting to see foreign police stations
and hospitals but I must say, when one is involved
and the patient or client it is not as funny......
I was not sure whether I could go on the trip the next day but I wanted
to try. Eventually I slept so baldly the following night (only about 3 hours) that in the morning I asked them to move my
trip to the coming Wednesday (they always have this especific excursion on Wednesdays an Saturdays). Thank god they could
do that. I then also had to cancel the bus journey to San Pedro de Atacama (got 51 pesos from 60 back which was nice) and
also cancel the reservation for the hostel there which was without a problem. So this then meant that I had 4 days to stay
in Salta and relax and not do much and take care of my foot. It is actually getting better everyday and I am still carrying
the x-ray picture with me in the little daypack :-).
So tomorrow I will go on this tour which will go from 07 am to 9 pm.
It is supposed to be a very nice one and to lead through very beautiful scenery.
At the moment I don't know yet where I
will go next.
The days here in Salta very not always very easy, I had quite difficult ups and downs emotionally which made
it very difficult and I was not really able to relax as I would have liked to. Still I must say that again I met a few very
nice people to spend my time with and who helped me to deal with the situation.
I'll see how it'll go on. At he moment
everything is like hanging a bit in
the air and the stars don't really want to explain themselves either.
Maybe I sould
now finally tell you something about the environment and Salta itself :-).
Here in Salta it is mostly very hot, like around
35 degrees C but very dry.
There is not a lot of rain. Even though I must say that we had a
thunderstorm the day before
yesterday which washed the air very clear and
reduced the temperature a little so that yesterday it was sunny but
comfortable
and today it is a little overcast and the temperature very nice.
The surroundings here in Salta are quite green and there
are a lot of
mountains. It changes though when one goes higher up in the mountains to a hight of over 3500 meters where
it is advisable to drink a lot and walk very slowly to help the body deal with this immense change.
The environment in
the moundains is absolutely awsome. They have rocks and stones in so many different colors like yellow, gree, read in different
shades...
It is also quite ineresting to visit the cemetaries here in the mountains.
Since they do not have any flowers
up there they put paperflowers on the graves. I have also been told that people are griefing when someone dies but that eventually
it is a joyful event when the body is "burried" because they belive that after this life there will start a new life closer
to the sun.
Actually, if I have not mentioned it I need to mention it now! The wine here in Argentina is very very delicious
and not expensive at all (I was told that not even for the Argentinians it is expensive). So can, most of the times, enjoy
my little glass of wine in the evening.
I would like to thank all the ones who have written to me and at the same time
express my apologies to the ones I have not written back yet. I really did not feel well the past few days and also in Buenos
Aires not everything was always very easy. So please accept my appologies and thank you for your
understanding!.
So
now I would like to say good bye for the moment. I hope that you have had
a very good start into the new near and that
it will bring you a lot of joy!
With love
Jacqueline
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