Salta, the beautiful North

Arctic winds and subtropic humidity called for something more in the middle, like Argentina's North. So the last stop before Buenos Aires would be this pearl of a city.

Salta is a really beautiful town with colonial architecture. I especially enjoyed the central square around the cathedral with some really great cafés and St. Francisco, a beauty of a church that unfolds it's whole picturesque potential at sunset and after dark. An added benefit is that Salta is a lot cheaper than every place in Patagonia and though there are tourists, it felt a lot more relaxed and closer to everyday life.

I spent a nice time just sipping café con leche and eating huge steaks. A tour of the area led me to the Great Salt Fields, Salinas Grandes, that I found really beautiful.

The Train in the Clouds leaves close to Salta as well. This project was approved in 1916 and due to great execution opened "only" 32 years later in 1948. The goal of the line was to foster trade and use the ports in Northern Chile. Since the 1970ies the train line has become more of a tourist attraction. There is a valley with interesting steel bridges, that looks like the set for a Western movie, boasting hundreds of large cacti.

After this, we drove along the highest road in Argentina at around 4100 metres. So not only did I cover several climatic zones in two weeks, but also over 4000 metres difference in altitude. Although it is not the Aconcagua (the highest point in Argentina at 6999 m), it felt like an achievement.

The last stop was Purmamarca in the Jujuy-province, famed for it's seven coloured hill that I personally found rather underwhelming, compared to e.g. the coloured canyon in Egypt. What I liked more was the church there, which was built in 1648 - not that special by European standards, but one of the oldest on the new continent. A little touristy market around the church added to the atmosphere, as it was probably more colourful than the famed hill. See for yourself.

Saline, the water is used to harvest the salt

Nice reflection at Salta

The main square and cathedral in Salta

St. Francisco at dusk

Nighttime cathedral

Nighttime St. Francisco church

On the way to the Salinas

My other friend - cuter than a butterfly?

This is a lama - compare the hair to a guanaco

Fresh Salt

Colourful scarves at Purmamarca

And the less colorful seven-coloured hill

Road trip-material

Foz do Iguaçu (Brazilian Edition)

36 hours had passed since I was standing at a Glacier with a glass of Jameson, happy that the snow storm had subsided and now I was stepping out of a plane taken after a quick overnight stay in Buenos Aires to be hit by humid and really hot climate. It was around 38 C (which is 100 F - that one is easy to remember, but I still have to learn) and the airport was surrounded by tropical rainforest - this country is really diverse.

I didn't have long to get used to this change, because just a few minutes after arriving at the hotel, I was picked up again to get another easy stamp in the passport on an afternoon tour to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls (I'll stick with this spelling). Though I can now say I have been to Brazil, that does not mean that I want to see a lot more of it - preferably in the summer of 2014 with World Cup-tickets (Fingers crossed).

There is not really much to say to describe the Falls: stunning, amazing, huge? After taking a touristy double decker bus through the National Park, you step off and walk a bit through the forest until you first see huge waterfalls. You start taking pictures thinking that this is already really big, but behind every corner, another stunning vista opens up and reveals even greater masses of water flooding down.

In addition to this, you also get some nice wildlife, like coatis (more on these tomorrow) and an army of beautiful butterflies in every colour or the rainbow.

But have a look yourself...

My favorite

The first view...and I thought this was already stunning

HDRs from Patagonia

Finally had the time to work on some HDR-pictures from Patagonia today. These go with my latest posts. Tomorrow I will start writing the posts for the North - if work and house hunting leaves me some time.

The Lighthouse at the end of the world

Dead Beaver Trees 1

Dead Beaver Trees 2

Ushuaia

Las Islas Malvinas /Falkland Islands

St. Christopher 

Lago Fagnano 1

Lago Fagnano 2

The Bridge

Perito Moreno 1

Perito Moreno 2

Perito Moreno - my favourite shot of the glacier

Perito Moreno - and a close second

Torres del Paine 1

Torres del Paine 2

Torres del Paine 3

Waterfall (a small one)

Torres del Paine 4

Torres del Paine 5

Vilnius, Lithuania

Part 1 of our journey to the Baltics. I will probably write up to five blog posts today to cover the last two weeks, which actually have been very exciting. Riin and I used the weekend of the May Bank Holiday (and also her birthday), to visit Estonia - but as I had never been to Riga and Vilnius and am still after my goal to visit every EU-capital, we combined it with a day in Vilnius and Riga each.

Vilnius is probably the least famous of the three Baltic capitals and not as buzzing with tourists as Riga and Tallinn. But especially as the three are easily combined (I highly recommend booking a bus with Lux Express between the cities - free WiFi, comfortable and clean) - I can say it is worth a visit as well. There are so many churches in Vilnius from different ages and in different styles and the old town is definitely worth a stroll - even though it might not be as exciting as the other two.

I also liked the prices as a beer is usually under 2 Euro and you can get cheap and good food as well - so I would probably recommend going there before the likely introduction of the Euro in 2014 (same couts for Riga), as this has ruined the prices in Tallinn a little bit.

See a few pictures to get a better overview of the city.

One of the gorgeous churches in Vilnius

Great building in the old town

View from the castle tower 1

View from the castle tower 2

Don't I know this from the Italian 10 Cent piece?

Old town impression 

Church Inside

Lithuanian Balloons