ADVENTURE! So, spent Monday (after a chilled out day in town on Sunday) on a LONG 14 hour tour of the north east of Argentina, purely traditional and indigenous. We drove up through the forsted and jungled Andes mountain into the most northern province of Argie, Jujuy. The mountains were breath taking...they were massive, covered in greenery, and had clouds floating around them. Got pictues! The scenery around the city of San Salvador de Jujuy was very nice too, very tropical.This places grows tabacco and sugar, it´s that sort of climate. It´s very green, very traditional, very tropical.

The scenery then changed as we went further north on towards the border zone with Bolivia. Became very red, lots of mountains, cactus. We went through a little village called Purmamarca, which has incan origins. Nowadays its a very traditional south america village, one level terraces of white washed houses up dusty streets. In the centre of town, there was a local market of local products, such as instruments and textiles etc...

We then descended way further up, to 4500km above sea level. And at the top (the Andes mountain chain), we saw llama!!! In the wild! Amazing. The site was incredible, it had a deposit of rocks in a cone shape which is a tribute or othering to the Incan gods. The people up here still follow elements of this religion.

So we went on through the rugged, vast desserted mountains, occassionally coming across a local, traditionally dressed in a pncho herding sheep or something. Then we arrived at one of the most spectacular things I ever saw! The salt flats. I can´t describe, it is what it is. Flat land, dessert, hot sun, blue skies, but the land is salt (from where it was an ocean millions of years ago) and there fore is all white. It´s incredible, so bright, so vast...in the distance you can see the heat totally distorting the distant mountains. Amazing.

We then moved further into the mountains, into an area La Puna...very uncomfortable! The mountains gave way to flat desserts (as we were so high), with cactus and low lying shrubs. And the road disappeared, we spent three hours on a dirt track! Spectacular views on the way, more llamas, incan ruins, the occasional house (the people here are very indiginous and traditional).

We then arrived at a small, more or less deserted town called San Antonio, very close to the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The people here were very traditional, I was told they speak in their native language (Quechua, an old incan language) to each other. It was very desolate, very quiet. The locals we sat in the streets, a few kids were playing. It was like nothing I´ve seen before, and certainly nothing like the Argentina I know, seemed to resemble something you´d expect from Bolivia or some stranded village in another south american (or even african) country.

We then, it now being about 6pm (we left at 7am!) started to descned through more rugged scenery, passing villages and deserted train tracks. Learning more about the local, indiginous culture, coco leaf chewing, arts and crafts, wind pipe music etc... Really interesting...

And finally we arrived at 9pm in the city of Salta, to the bar for dinner and drink, and to bed!!