Hey Guys

Well this is the entry for Salta, north west Argentina. Having a much better time now. We stayed in Salta for 3 nights, the weather was all perfect. The first thing that happened when we got to the bus station was we got pounced on by representatives from 5 different hostels who all wanted us to stay at their place. We didn't have anything booked, so we went with the first guy, the BBQ tht he said he was having sealed the deal. It was a nice enough place, alot of Israelis there, there seem to be alot travelling in Argentina. And the BBQ was fantastic. If you could have fit it in, the guy would have put peice after piece of juicy steak on your plate all night.

First day we climbed the hill to get our bearings, and predictably were followed the whole way by a dog. Dogs have followed us in most towns, see the entry for Cafayate to see how faithful they can be. I think they must have been fed at times by tourists (which we obviously are, just from the colour of our skin) so dogs follow tourists hoping to get fed. We never give them food though.

Next day, after having realised theres not much at all to do in Salta, we had a look at the churches. The same dog was following us. When he followed us into the Cathedral, we left straight away. He didn't come out. It was Sunday and Mass was on. The other job for the day was to book a tour or something for the next day. We decided on a 2 day tour to the north along the track of Train to the Clouds (not running at the moment), which was 520 pesos altogether for the both. Had to get the money out of an ATM, but the latest craze in Argentina is for you to be only able to get 300 pesos out at a time. This is about 100 australian dollars. So you can imagine we spend most of our time at the Atm and most of our money on bank fees.

So our bus picked us up the next morning and took us on the tour. We went along the tracks for a bit, saw bridges and some switchbacks that theyuse to climb faster. Also saw (and ate) llamas, a big salt pan, ruins of an ancient fortified village, some dusty little towns where kids try to sell you rocks. Stayed the night in Purmhauaca (or something), with some good Dutch friends we made on our tour- Niels and Laura. This town is a world heritage site because it has the 'seven coloured hill' and we were lucky enough to climb to the lookout early enough in the morning for the sun to come up and shine briefly on the hill. The rest of the day was overcast. Second day of the tour was not s spectacular, but we saw a few colourful landscapes, a restored ancient village and the trpic of capricorn. Really exciting having lived on top of it for 3 years.

That night we got back to Salta and the back packs we had asked the guy to lock in his luggage room were still in the hallway where we left them- Argentines can be pretty casual at times. The hostel was full so we had to move, now we were closer to the bus station- at the Salamanca hostel. It was right on the main street, so it was back to ear plugs for sleeping. The guy tried to rip us off- another big craze here, but we had been given the price at the other hostel, and we made him stick to it. We had the room to ourself for 50 pesos- about 17 dollars.

Next day was cold, we bought our bus tickets to Cafayate, and with a couple hours to kill, we led another dog up the hill. We would have gone to the museum, but it was 3 times the price for foreigners as it is for Argentines. Perhaps we should do that at home.