Friday 5th October

We arrived early morning and got a taxi to our hostel. All three of us were really impressed. The room was great, the hostel owners were over friendly and helpful, plus we had internet and free use of the kitchen. After we all showered and got clean we went straight to the tourist office (which was kinda part of the hostel) and booked our trip for the next day. Horse riding at the ranch... Yeeee Haaaaaaaaa!!! We had a free day so we decided to take a walk into the main square to see what was going on. The square itself was very pretty so we decided to sit down and have a spot of lunch. After lunch we headed to a museum we had read about in the lonely planet guide that housed three (pristine) Inca mummies. Apparently the parents (and community) had sacrificed three young Inca children to the Inca god and burried them at the top of a snowey mountain in Salta. It was only a few years ago that high altitude archeologists discovered the three children and 100 artifacts. It truely was amazing!!!! The mummies were preserved up in the cold mountain in pretty much perfect condition. Even the braided hair looked like it had just been braided. The contemporary art museum was closed so what did we do.... go bloody clothes shopping. Girls idea not mine! Nikki bought a vest (YAWN) and lisa tried a million things on and bought....... NOTHING! Time well spent I would say. lol We then went to the supermarket to get supplies for that evenings dinner. (Paella, chicken and fresh fruit salad). Guess what we did now...... BED!!!!

Saturday 6th October

Today we was picked up and taken to the ranch to have a taster at horse riding argentinian style!! (will explain in due course) When we arrived they had some brekkie ready for us, but we didnt have the heart to say we had already had brekkie at the hostel so we ate the dry bread and jam and smiled nicely :o) see!!!! As I was wearing 3/4 length trousers the ranch owner kindly lent me a pair of sexy trousers! We then got led to our horses... it gets interesting now! Lisa was given the biggest horse out of the 5 of us (there were 2 other girls), Nikki was given a bog standard one and I was given one which was decribed to me at the time as a strong charactered horse. Hmmmmm!!! We all set off one by one after a long talk (30secs) of how to control your beast. (reins in one hand and the other resting on your knee) After about 5 mins I was told that my horse did not like any of the others we were riding with that day. So as we stopped to each take it in turns to gallop one of the other horses bit my horses ass which in turn made my horse bukaroo! Never played the game as a kid so had no experience. Luckily I was wearing there trousers as I didnt really want s*** in mine!!! We all took it in turns to gallop our horses. We had to kick our horses with our heals and say VAMOOSE!!!! I was told to let my horse go as fast as he wants (safety cleary not an issue) so I did, and I nearly fell off. Well maybe not but I wasnt steady thats for sure. Lisa got the hang of it really well but she is use to riding beasts! lol (just kiding!!) We walked a while longer and had a go at galloping again. I apparently wasnt doing it right so the man told me to get off and let hime show me how to do it. Off he raced (whip in hand) kicking the s*** out of this horse. He tells me that my horse is strong minded (loves to go fast) and needs a strong hand. So on I got and had another go but to be fair still didnt have the guts to kick the fcuk out of the horse like gringo man did. Ive never ridden before and bit scared of horses. AFter the gallop we all made our way back to the ranch for great food and even better wine. p.s. by the time we got back my horse knew who was boss...... clearly the horse!!!! We all sat down to one of the best BBQs I have ever had. Great steak, sausages, salad, fresh bread and still more and more wine. As soon as you finished one bit of meat your plate would be full again. Today was a special day as it was his grandsons birthday so the whole family were at the dinner table and made us all very welcome. When we finished the meal the girls carried on chatting about men or magazines but I decided to help the mum of the kid whos birthday it was blow up balloons and decorate the garden. After lunch I asked the man about my horse and he told me (and I quote) "your horse.... son of a b****"!!!!! So I asked why he gave the horse to me (and I quote again) "you strong man"!!! plus the horse dont like women!!! Was a fantastic day (one we will all remeber for a long time), but we had to head home in good spirits and pretty drunk. Guess what we did now..... yep you guesses it bed again!!

Sunday 7th October

Today we went to the coach station and booked tickets for our journey to the Bolivian border for the next day of travels. That day we planned to climb a mountain that had 1070 steps to see the view of Salta. On the way there we walked through what looked like a live street concert. The girls complained that they couldnt be arsed to walk up the steps and were going to get the cable cart up instead. However I managed to persuade the lazy sods to walk it instead. Surprisingly it only took us 30 minutes to climb but the view was pretty good. We got the cable cart down and to be fair both me and Lisa both didnt enjoy the experience. Neither of us like old rickety things that are so high up. Especially when the door of the cart took ages to close, and the atendent had to give us a push over the edge as it wasnt moving of its own accord. However spirits were raised when we found a little lake that had peddleos :o) I (Tom) was a peddleo virgin so the girls decided to treat me to a ride. Oh boy what fun you can have on an old peddlo!! We even got WInnie the poo to wave at us whilst in the peddlo. Not many people can boast that! We then took a s*** heap of a taxi to the shopping mall and stuffed our faces with McDonalds. Was good I tell ya!!! We shops for about an hour, watched a bit of the Boca Vs River game in a tv shop then we went to the pharmacy to get Lisa some cream for some disease on her scalp!!! Nikkis boyfriend had written us (as he speaks spanish) a little note to show the pharmacy people. AFter they stoped laughing at us (which I would have done) they gave us some cream that proved to do the trick!!! We then went to the supermarket again (theres a pattern here) and made food, drunk lots of wine with our friend Andy who had come to meet us and stayed up till about 2am, which was pretty smart as we had to be up at 5am to get our coach.