Hi everyone! Back to the Argentine : Part V Northwest Argentina was never in our original plan. However, thanks to picking up some time earlier on the trip and having heard rave reviews from other travellers, we decided to check it out for ourselves. First of all, we spent three days in Salta, a city brimming with attractive colonial architecture and café-lined plazas. The European style café culture was a welcome change from elsewhere, where beautiful plazas rarely had somewhere to sit and soak up the atmosphere. Consequently we spent many an hour on café terraces, enjoying the balmy climate and watching the world go by. Even so, we still managed to see quite a lot of the city and its attractions, such as the pink and cream coloured neoclassical cathedral, the "museo historico del norte" and the cable car to a viewpoint overlooking the city and surrounding mountains. We also managed to secure a good deal on a rental car, having quickly got up to speed with Argentine car hire laws and lingo - especially after eight agencies! We left Salta early on Saturday morning in our newly-acquired Volkswagen Gol (South America's answer to the Polo - see postcard picture) and set off for a magnificent gorge, known as the Quebrada del Toro. The reason for the early start was to coincide with the weekly departure of the "Tren a las Nubes", (train to the clouds - one of the highest railways in the world), whose track closely follows the road through the gorge. Along with several other cars and tour jeeps, we attempted to catch sight of the train as it crossed its many bridges, viaducts, level-crossings and other scenic points; for us this became affectionately known as the "Chase the Choo-Choo Train Challenge", others seemed to be taking it far more seriously! The gorge was...gorgeous (!), the route taking us through constantly changing dramatic scenery and multi-coloured rocks. Having beaten the train to the village of San Antonio de los Cobres (the road and track separating to pass through the mountains), we decided to stop for a bite to eat before continuing on to catch a glimpse of the train at its most photogenic spot, the Polvorilla Viaduct (224m long, 64m high). However, we didn't bank on meeting Argentina's most inquisitive waiter! He constantly reappeared at our table and, being fascinated by the world at large, he continuously quizzed us on all the places on the planet we had ever been. Well travelled as we are, this took a while and in talking about one of our favourite topics, we lost track of time. Consequently, by the time we arrived at the viaduct, the train had already passed over...oops! Abandoning the "Chase the Choo-Choo Train Challenge", we headed for Tilcara, several hours away via a bumpy gravel track then a steep windy road down to quebrada no. 2, the Quebrada de Humahuaca. The next day began with a visit to Tilcara's "pukara", a pre-Inca fortress which had fantastic views of the gorge. We then drove along the valley to Humahuaca in time for midday, when a kitsch life-size statue of San Francisco Solano emerges from the clock tower of the town hall to perform his daily blessing on the village. He was accompanied by an amplified recording of "Ave Maria", while in the square below, entrepreneurial townsfolk took advantage of the influx of tourists to push their wares: souvenirs, trinkets and...coca leaves! Then it was back into the car and one final chance to enjoy the stunning rock formations of this quebrada - some resembling organ pipes, others elephants' painted toenails. The road then changed as we ascended into the mountains, becoming increasingly narrow and windy, and were it not for the lack of traffic coming the other way, it could easily have competed with the title of "World's Most Dangerous Road". We spent the night in Cerillos, a "town" with only one hostel and where no restaurants opened on a Sunday evening - thank goodness for the Shell Garage, it may be part of an evil conglomerate, but at least it fed us! Shortly after dawn, we set off for Cachi, via quebrada no. 3, the Quebrada de Escoipe. In contrast to the scenery of the previous two days, the mountains towering over the route were covered with vibrant green vegetation, immensely beautiful in the early morning sunlight. As we neared the picturesque village of Cachi, we drove past fields carpeted with dazzling red paprika peppers drying in the sunshine, the permanently snow-capped peaks of the Nevado del Cachi looming in the distance. Day 4 on the road saw quebrada no. 4 - the Quebrada de las Flechas, yet more 'gorge'ous scenery, this time in the form of red sandstone cliffs. We arrived in Cafayate in the early afternoon, eager to sample some of the local delights. We had read that the Cafayate region's dry and sunny climate is perfect for growing grapes and is responsible for producing some of Argentina's best wines... so we tasted them! Conveniently, there were several vineyards within walking distance of our hostel, each offering free tours and tastings. Five bodegas and fourteen wines later, we were quite the experts! The next morning, we intended to go on a riverside walk. However, we failed to find either the walk or the river, and spent an interesting hour crossing back and forth over a dry riverbed. Out of time, we instead went off in search of quebrada no.5, the Quebrada de Cafayate. Given that the main road back to Salta ran straight through it, this proved to be not so difficult! The last leg was a short sprint up the motorway from Salta to Jujuy...or it would have been, were it not for numerous roadblocks set up by demonstrating "jobseekers"! We eventually made it to Jujuy, just in time to give the car back... and less than 12 hours later we were off again ... again!!! An eight hour coach trip took us back across the Andes one final time - tales from across the border in our next postcard. Hope you are all well, Love, Zena & Kirstie