We set off early from our hostel to the Pucara de Tilcara - a reconstructed fort of pre Hispanic people. There were loads of remains there and they think that the indigenous Tilcara people set it up, before being conquered by the Inca, so it then became an inca site. It was really interesting to see how they used to live, although someone had later cleared lots of the remains and built a big monuments to the two archaeologists who led the excavation and reconstruction of the site, which felt a bit counterproductive!

We then got a bus over to Humahuaca, to see the amazing mountains at the Serrania del Hornocal. It is a series of peaks with all different colours, which looks incredible. The photos don't do it justice.

The hornocal was at 4300m, so this was also our first experience with altitude sickness, and coca leaves. We shared a pickup truck up with some other tourists who insisted on the guide buying us coca leaves. You're meant to put them in your gum and leave them there to counter the effects of altitude. They tasted foul, really bitter, so within 10 minutes I threw mine away.

As for the altitude, I got a headache at the summit, but we weren't really up there long enough to be effected. Hopefully that will be the worst we'll feel it! It does really tire you out though trying to do things, we kept having to stop for breaks on our short climb back to the pickup!

After we had been dropped back off again in Humahuaca we got a bus to Purmamarca, where we were going to spend the night before heading to San Pedro de Atacama. We were a bit late in as there was a road accident just in front of the bus, so Rob had to help for a while. Our luck ran out though when we got there - the only bus company to San Pedro sold tickets in person only, which is why we hadn't bought them before, and had sold out... and the next bus was Saturday (it was Wednesday!).

We checked into our Airbnb and spent the next couple of hours using the wifi at a nearby hotel trying to find a way to get to San Pedro. Unfortunately because of the easter holidays, the earliest we could definitely get was Monday, we weren't even guaranteed the Saturday bus! We went to bed a bit dejected...