The Fertile Valley in a Desert

We left Cafayate, having a vague plan of heading south towards Mendoza. We had a list of places we might want to stop at to break up the journey, but none sounded that appealing. Instead, we decided to try and make it all the way down to San Juan, just 2 hours north of Mendoza. Importantly, it's a decent base to make a trip to Ischigualasto Provincial Park, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The 'Submarine' - one of the famous rock formations in Ischigualasto

After our 5 hour bus journey from Cafayate to Tucumán, we bought our tickets for the next leg - 11 hours overnight to San Juan. Despite buying the tickets from a company called AndesMar with plenty of time to spare, we still nearly missed it. We stood at the terminal, staring at a lone FlechaBus, thinking that our bus had been delayed. Luckily, I went to find out if anybody knew where our bus was and was told that it was the one that had been sitting there all that time. We should probably have realised that the FlechaBus at the same time, going to the same place and at the same price was ours!

The 'Sphinx' in Ischigualasto

We'd heard about Argentinian buses serving wine with dinner, but hadn't experienced it until now, so had begun to think it was a bit of a myth. We can now confirm that this actually happens! We were served a meal as good if not better than in most restaurants here, with proper metal cutlery and drinks options including red and white wine. The journey was quite comfortable, with large seats that reclined almost horizontally.  But however comfortable a night bus is, we still find that they leave us needing to catch up on sleep the next day. We hadn't booked anywhere to stay and, after looking at a couple of abominable hostels, found a hotel to check in to. Annoyingly, they wouldn't match a price on our favoured hotel-booking website, so we used their wifi while in reception to make a reservation before checking in. This didn't seem the most sensible business decision, as they would now be paying 10%+ commission to the website.

A field of balls in Ischigualasto

San Juan didn't hold much of interest for us, so we soon set off to San Agustín de Valle Fértil. We'd hoped to hire a car, as we knew that it was impossible to get to Ischigualasto park with public transport. Unfortunately, we'd been in San Juan at a weekend and most businesses in Argentina don't open on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday. Luckily, the incredibly helpful owners of the place we were staying in San Agustín helped us to organise a reasonably priced taxi to take us there.

The lake in San Agustín

The park was worth the effort. The main sights are quite spread out, so the standard thing to do is to drive around in a convoy following a guide, then stop at several points to appreciate the landscape from closer up. The park is home to the oldest dinosaur fossils that we have yet discovered, from the Triassic Period around 250 million years ago. The desert-like landscape is sculpted by rain and wind, creating incredible shapes in the layered rocks. Palaeontologists don't need to dig here - they just wait for a rain shower and see what's been uncovered by the erosion.

Layers of rock, just waiting to be eroded to reveal the next dinosaur

After Ischigualasto, we were driven back to San Juan by our hosts, from where we took a bus down to Mendoza. We should be meeting our friends Ralph and Shehnaaz there to explore the famous wine growing region together.

Surviving the Bus After Trekking the Cordillera de los Frailes

We spent a long time (for us) in Sucre - a whole week, which was dedicated to brushing up our Spanish skills. We each had a private teacher (which is affordable in Bolivia), and feel that we made a lot of progress. We certainly feel more confident conversing with people now.

Sucre - our home for the last week or so

The real highlight of our visit to Sucre, though, was a 4-day trek in the nearby Cordillera de los Frailes. We organised it through a local agency, and spent three full days walking before returning by local bus on the final morning. We were joined by a friendly English couple, Steve and Harriet, and the fantastic local guide, Zulma, to make 5.

The Cordillera de los Frailes

Each day of the trek showed us something different: the first day took us to 2000 year old cave paintings; the second day to a huge, ancient volcanic crater with a village in the middle; and the third to 65 million year old dinosaur footprints. The best thing about it, though, was to spend all of that time walking amid stunning landscapes. Each new turn in the road, collapsing bridge over a river or vertiginous path alongside a waterfall brought new hues in the mountains shaped by millennia of different layers of rock.

Coloured rock lining the way

The final day took us back to Sucre in only two and a half terrifying hours. Having walked around the cordillera, we now needed to cross back over the mountains. The rickety local bus struggled along the barely wide enough unmade roads, with a cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other side. Occasionally there were trees bordering it, which may have broken the fall if the bus driver made a mistake. Luckily, he didn't, and we have survived to tell the tale before flying to Santa Cruz tomorrow.

Hiking in the cordillera

Silver Mines, Sucre, Dinosaur Footprints (And Don't Go To The Top Restaurant On Tripadvisor!)

Having spent one night in the very mediocre town of Uyuni following our salt flats tour, we proceeded north the next day to Potosí. This is a mining town that at 4070m is the second highest city in the world (the highest, El Alto, is also in Bolivia).

Iglesia de San Lorenzo de Carangas - one of the many churches in Potosí

We had heard a lot about Bolivian buses and boarded with some trepidation, but this bus ride at least wasn't too bad at all - we certainly had a lot worse in Asia. All the locals get on buses laden with blankets, clearly in the know about how cold it's going to be, we thought. I duly wore thermals and several jumpers, but actually, the bus got really hot and we sweltered in t-shirts for the whole journey. The scenery was incredible and we tried to enjoy this rather than thinking too hard about the huge drop down a cliff on one side!

View of Cerro Oro, the mine in Potosí

Bolivia is a refreshing change from Chile and Argentina in that it is far less westernised. Coming into Potosí, we passed busy outdoor markets, open trucks full of oranges, street stalls selling dubious looking snacks, etc. Everything is far less ordered than Chile and Argentina, with interesting, slightly puzzling things going on everywhere you look. The country also has a high proportion of indigenous people and the ladies of the altiplano region have a very characteristic style of dress: long skirts, usually with tights or legwarmers and sandals; apron; a boater style of hat, with two long black plaits of hair; numerous shawls; and a colourful sling across their back, often carrying a baby but apparently used for anything and everything. You really see a whole different culture here: it feels like travelling properly again, rather than being on an extended holiday.

The square and cathedral in Potosí

We spent three days in Potosí, which is a pleasant place to stroll around, with a plethora of colonial architecture and churches with intricate carvings. It is a world heritage site and an important town historically due to its silver mining heritage. During colonial times, the hill behind the town (Cerro Rico, or 'rich hill') was Spain's main source of silver and in Spanish there is still a saying 'vale un potosí' (to be worth a potosí, i.e. a lot!). We visited the Casa de la Moneda, Potosí's first mint, where silver coins were minted first for the Spanish crown and then for independent Bolivia until the 1950s. Native people and African slaves worked in the mines and in the mint, in atrocious conditions. We were told that the amount of silver extracted in Potosí in colonial times would have been enough to build a bridge of pure silver between there and Spain - but that you could also have built the same bridge with the bones of the people who died.

In the Casa de la Moneda, Potosí

In Potosí we visited a French restaurant that was highly recommended on Tripadvisor - an error, it turned out, as both of us and our Swiss friends came down with food poisoning. This necessitated an extension of our stay in Potosí,  but we are gradually getting better and have now moved on to Sucre, Bolivia's consitutional capital and another world heritage site.

Eiffel tower lookalike, in Parque Simón Bolívar, Sucre

Sucre is a beautiful city, with characteristic white buildings from the colonial era and numerous churches and museums. We've visited the Casa de la Libertad, where Bolivia's declaration of independence was signed in 1825, and walked around the pleasant park (with odd Eiffel tower replica). We've also been to see some 68 million year old dinosaur footprints, and the associated theme park with life size dinosaur models. Pretty cool - there's a steep limestone wall with the tracks of three types of dinosaur clearly visible. They'd originally have been flat but due to plate movements now look like they are walking vertically up the wall.

Dinosaur footprints

Sucre is proving  a great place to chill out and continue recovering from illness.There's a lot of expats living here so we've found several excellent cafés and even an English pub, where we watched Chile win the final of the Copa America last night. We have now signed up for a week's Spanish classes and then a 4 day trek, so will be here and around for a while longer. Our Swiss friends are pressing on to La Paz this evening though, so we're on our own again...

Dinosaurs and The Welsh

Since entering Patagonia, we've been spending our time in towns all founded by Welsh immigrants in the mid-1800s. We've visited Puerto Madryn, Trelew and Gaiman and there are many other towns whose names betray their Welsh heritage. One of the other things Patagonia is famous for is its fossils, particularly dinosaurs. Maybe the Welsh knew they would one day be living in this land when they put a dragon on their flag.

The largest femur ever?

Trelew is the largest town in the valley of the River Chubut, and is home to an excellent palaeontological museum. The large collection of fossils is well laid out in reverse chronological order, starting with extinct mammals, before moving backwards to Patagonian marsupials, dinosaurs, huge ammonites and, finally, 900 million year old bacteria. The real highlight, however, is the bones from the recently discovered largest dinosaur ever found. Palaeontologists there are still working on the bones from the 40m long, 75+ ton titanosaur - the bones are so huge that I could barely reach the top of the femur.

Fossils across the desert-like plain near Gaiman

From Trelew, we made our way to Gaiman, a much smaller town. Close by is another palaeontological park, with a walk through the arid, desert-like landscape that was full of fossils still in situ. We really enjoyed seeing 25 million year old dolphins and more recent fossils of marine animals as we walked upwards through the layers. When we got towards the top of a cliff, a lone condor was circling very closely above us. Suddenly, in the not too far distance, a column of 11 more condors took to the air and also started circling us and swooping quite low above our heads. We promptly decided to descend again, further from their nest.

A condor swooping down to get us

Gaiman was founded by the Welsh at a location suggested by the native Tehuelche people, and is the only town here with an indigenous name. The Welsh, surprisingly for colonists and perhaps uniquely across the world, had a friendly and cooperative relationship with the locals. The town is now famous for its Welsh teahouses, and we enjoyed a sumptious collection of scones and cakes. There were so many that we took half of them away with us for a second lunch the next day.

Jo trying her best to eat all of the cakes

 For now though, we're returning from the deep past and on to more contemporary wildlife.