Salinas de Argentina, Argentina

24th September – 25th September 2017

Once we had finished packing up, we left the campsite in Cafayate just after 7.15 and drove towards the Quilmes ruins. We arrived at the ruins within about an hour and had half an hour to look around on our own.

The Quilmes tribe were an Indian tribe who defended themselves against the Inkas. When the Spanish arrived in South America, they tried to take over the Quilmes tribe; the tribe managed to defend themselves for 130 years before they eventually lost in 1667. As a punishment, the Spanish marched the remaining members of the tribe to Buenos Aires which was over 1000km away – many of them died on the way.

We had time to walk around the ruins and part way up to a viewpoint before we had to be back at the truck for breakfast.

For breakfast, Lars had got out the cereals and had boiled the water for hot drinks. It’s not the healthiest of breakfasts but I had chocolate balls with milk; I would have had granola which is slightly healthier but we didn’t have any yogurt and I don’t like granola and milk.

Once we had eaten and packed up, it was time for us to set off on our long drive day to the Argentinean salt flats where we were spending the night.

Most of the day was spent driving because we had over 500km to go. We had one toilet break a couple of hours in and then stopped around 1 o’clock for our lunch break. The lunch break was at a service station at the side of the road – it wasn’t a very good stop but it was enough for what we needed. It was my groups turn to prepare lunch; we were making tuna salad sandwiches. The sandwiches were good and we had nacho crisps left over from the night we made the fajitas, so we had them too.

After everyone had eaten, we washed up and packed up and then we carried on towards where we were camping. For some of the next part of the journey, I had a nap; it was very hot on the truck so that made me extra sleepy.

Just before we reached the salt flats we had a final toilet stop because we were bush camping and had no access to any facilities.

We reached the salt flats at around 5.45 and had to set up camp. I almost had my tent up when a big gust of wind came along and collapsed the whole thing, breaking an A frame in the process. Although this looked funny from and distance, me and Sabrina almost launched the whole thing across the salt flats. We didn’t though, we persevered and managed to get it all sorted; it was nice of her to help me because I definitely couldn’t have done it on my own.

Once camp was set up, we really had nothing to do; it was just the ten of us with some tents and Yana in the middle of some salt flats in Argentina. Jack’s group were cooking dinner and decided to start earlier than normal to try and provide some sort of entertainment: they cooked and we watched. While they were cooking, instead of watching for the whole time, I locked myself on the truck and gave her a little clean. I didn’t go all out but I swept the floors, only for people to walk on it with salty shoes ten minutes later – not ideal.

Just before dinner was ready, the sun was setting over the salt flats. This was a pretty view for us just before we ate. For dinner, we had a peanut chicken with rice. The chicken was so tasty and I really enjoyed it but I would he preferred it with some sauce because the rice was a little dry but it was okay. We ate on the truck as always because it is easier with the table and there aren’t many of us.

After dinner, we cleaned up and packed up most of the stuff, besides what we would need for breakfast, before getting back onto Yana to play some cards. We played a couple of rounds but it was very humid on the truck, so for a while we sat in the dark (so the bugs wouldn’t come in) with the windows open, just having a chat. I got into a very nice conversation with Char about her teaching life – I’m not sure everyone else enjoyed listening to this though.

Just before we went to bed, we had to have a bush wee in the dark. This wasn’t so fun when you can’t see where your aiming but I just about managed. I brushed my teeth over a bush and got in my tent.

At first, the wind was quite bad and the outer part of the tent was flapping against the inside part which was annoying. Luckily the wind died down quite soon after getting into bed and I could get to sleep.

After an okay night’s sleep, I was awake super early and I’m not sure why – it was probably something to do with the fact I was lay on rock hard salt. I got up and had my morning bush wee as soon as I heard the truck door open – I needed toilet paper from the truck. It was much harder to bush wee near our campsite in the light because all the bushes were tiny so people could see. I found a tree but it was a bit of a walk from my tent. As my group weren’t on breakfast duty, and I was awake so early, I decided to get ahead and pack up my bag and tent – packing up alone is much easier than setting up alone.

Once I had finished packing up, breakfast was just about ready. The breakfast on offer was scrambled eggs with tomatoes. I had a little bit, and as lovely as it was, I realised I was really sick of eating eggs, so I had a bowl of cereal to compliment it. Because I had already packed up all of my things, I helped with breakfast clean up and kitchen pack up.

Once everything was packed up, I got onto the truck to write my shopping lists, ready for the cook group shopping trips that were coming up later in the day. Everyone was packed up and ready for leave for 9 o’clock, ready to head for the estancia.

The Argentinean salt flats really weren’t anything special and it was just somewhere to sleep for the night because the distance from Cafayate to the estancia was too much for one day. Despite it being just a stop for dinner, sleep and breakfast, the views were pretty during sunset and I’m sure there were worse places we could have stopped. I am very excited to see what the next few days have in store for us at the estancia!

To travel is to live, Katie x