Every night before entering a new country, both here in Southamerica and elsewhere, I have always been wondering what the new country could bring of culture, geography and challenges.
Waking up early as my daughter had to catch a bus to Calama, leaving for Lima before flying back to Denmark, and the goodbyes was as always – a bit sad but also just remembering that we will see each other soon again.
The road to the Paso Jama border crossing was 160km up hill – reaching a new altitude and temperature highs and lows at 4.835 masl and -7 degrees C. The border was at appr 4.320 masl and here the weather turned warmer. Border control went really easy – 45 minutes and a lot of stamps and I entered Argentina.
Travelling these high altitudes also presents more Moon-like landscapes and new beautiful valleys with multicolored rock formations – it’s trully jaw-dropping.
I booked a simple hostel in Tilcara as the town should be a bit touristy and with most of what I needed for first day in Argentina – money, fuel and food. Money is really a “joke” – you can of course just withdraw from an ATM (if you can find one that will accept foreign credit cards) at the official exchange rate, or you can exchange “blue dollars” to appr double the rate, i.e. getting more local currency for the dollar, or use Western Union bank transfer to you self – transfer an amount to yourself in the local currency and go to a cash-point (typically a kiosk or small shop) and get the currency – at double the official exchange rate again. And because of inflation rate and apparently only 1.000 pesos bills, you end up with a stack of worn bills to put somewhere….
I have planned and booked accomodation three days ahead as I need to get south – so the next days mostly transport and less sightseeing. Most of my POI’s are in the middle and southern part of Argentina. This means that Mendoza will be the target for the weekend – and hopefully thereafter I’ve also booked a service for the bike.
