Treadmill Traveling: A week around Salta that Bill Murray would appreciate

Cerro San Isidro View in Cafayate

 

We arrived in Salta, Argentina, Tuesday morning June 18, 2013. It seems like longer, somehow. Our 200th day of traveling abroad! By some great travel luck, we scored the below suite (complete with vaulted ceilings) for under $18. Part of this was helped by Argentinia's blue market rate for dollars -- more on this below.

After a great one night's stay in Salta, we hoped to leave that Wednesday night. In a best case scenario, we planned to make our way over the Chilean Pass (Paso de Jama) to San Pedro de Atacama by Thursday morning June 20, 2013. Unfortunately, today is Monday June 24, 2013 and we still have not made it to Chile. From Salta, there are no direct international flights. So to go north we must go via land either through Chile or Bolivia.

The only way to get to Chile in the north in the winter is via Paso de Jama. Paso de Jama at 14,436 feet is only 69 feet lower than the highest mountain in the continental U.S. - Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet. We actually summited Mt Whitney back in Aug at the end of the John Muir Trail.

And even though the pass is usually open during the winter, we have had the unfortunate luck that it is cerrado (closed) right now due to 2.5 meters of snow. Everyday the folks at the bus companies that traverse the route have told us that today is no good, but maybe Paso de Jama will be open tomorrow.

So every day for basically the last week, we have packed our bags left our accommodation and been ready to go "tomorrow". On Friday night, we decided that we couldn't wait for the pass, which led to the adventure of almost getting to Bolivia that Wilson recently blogged about.

Treadmill Hike - San Lorenzo

Packing is always a chore. But packing every day and remaining in the same area feels like a stinky Groundhogs Day. For example, without a stable base since we left Buenos Aires two weeks ago on June 10th, our limited clothing supply cannot be cleaned. We don't have enough time to get stuff washed and have it dry sufficiently in the cool climate, especially since we arrive at an accommodation in the evening and leave in the morning. At least Bill Murray's clothes appeared clean.

Treadmill travelling hasn't been all bad as I write this in our fourth hotel/hostel in Salta. We also had one hotel 4 hours south of Salta in a wine-town called Cafayate. Cafayate was sorely needed after the Bolivia misadventure. We made a bee-line straight to Cafayate after we arrived back from Bolivia. Cafayate had sunshine, wine, and fabulous hiking. It was an incredible place.

But now we are back to Salta. And we have exhausted the sites that we wanted to see in town and the places outside town that you can hike via local bus - San Lorenzo and La Caldera. We also only have a small amount of time before meeting our friend, Greg, in Cuzco, Peru. We have to hit the road.

Return to Bolivia requires $270 US Dollars cash and visa applications (including about 6 supporting docs) in hand. The $270 will be an expensive commodity for us to come by, especially since it has proved impossible for us to buy US dollars at the official 5.2/5.4 pesos to 1 dollar rate. Exchange companies will not sell dollars and only one Bank, Bank of Patagonia, can sell dollars. But that Bank will only sell dollars to its clients and I believe that the clients must prove that they are traveling abroad and they then have to pay a tax on the dollars.

Since that does not apply to us, we will have to buy dollars from the blue market. The blue market is the term used to describe a shadow currency market here in Argentina. In essence, it is the street rates that you can get for dollars, as opposed to the official rate that the government sets for all electronic transactions and which artificially deflates the peso against the dollar.

The rates we've seen since we have been here has fluctuated from the 6 pesos that we got from the customs official to 9.5 pesos to the dollar when we first arrived. The posted government rate has been about 5.2 pesos to the dollar the entire 6 weeks we have been in the Southern cone. There are some sweet arbitrage opportunities, obviously, but we had planned on being out of Arg by now and hence our hard currency is basically gone. Currently, on the blue market we have to buy dollars at an 8.3 rate. Our ATM rate with fees is giving us 5 pesos to the dollar. This means that in order to buy $270 dollars on the blue market, from the ATM, we would have to withdraw $2,241 pesos (almost $450!). Luckily we have some dollars left and we can get dollars from an innovative money movement service called Xoom at a 7.2 rate. So it is not as terrible as it could be but still an expensive hassle that we wish we could avoid.

After already visiting a Bolivian border once and now needing to acquire dollars and visas, we'd much rather stick with our original plan of going to Chile. But it looks like the snow on Paso de Jama is not melting anytime soon...hello Bolivia (again).

 

 

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