Day 39: 8/8/12
So it was an American girl sharing the room. She got kicked out of her room cos there was a group coming- front think she was too happy about it. Only saw her for a few mins cos when I came back from dinner she was going out for dinner and drinks. She was only going to bed at 6am and I was up at 6:30.
Had a day trip to quebrada de humahuaca today. Another long bus journey! After the guide told is what we would be doing for the day he told us to have a nap! This place is another gorge. It's north of salta this time. When we entered the gorge you could see big mountains, kind of lumpy ones, which the guide said were formed by avalanches. There were cactus aswell which he said can live for 400 years!
Like yesterday you could see lots of colours on the hills from different minerals.
First stop was Pumaraca. We stopped at the hill of seven colours to take photos. It was lovely- pure bright red with browns and greeny colours. Then we went to the village. It was small but nice with all the colourful markets around it. The buildings are all really old so it looks like something out of a history book.
Next stop was Tilcara. -we didn't go into the town, we went to a site outside it which was from prehispanic times. The incas definitely were involved in it but I think it might have been there before the incas. There were little stone houses and storage buildings. There was a pyramid built at the top in honour of the archaeologist- you'd imagine to honour the archaeologist they wouldn't alter the site!! It was warm there so bought a drink when I got back down. It cost 5pesos. I had 6. The shopkeeper was just saying no no and doing a lot of talkin. I figured out she had no change- do she gave me five sweets instead! Very strange!
Next stop was Uquia. It has a church with famous paintings in it apparently but when we got there the church was closed for renovations so we couldn't see it!
I was sitting beside a Dutch guy on the bus who spoke English thank god! He had just graduated and was touring South America before starting work. There was a Canadian couple sitting across from us who also spoke English. There was another Dutch girl on the tour too so she joined us walking around the places and when we got to Humahuaca village we ate together.
We had a chance to walk around the village then- more pretty buildings! There's also a huge monument there that was erected to remember those who fought for independence. A lot of the fighting was done in the gorge apparently.
Then we left to go back to Salta. We stopped at one place to take pictures of rocks in weird colourful formations. Then we stopped in San Salvador de jujuy- the capital of the region. There was a big traffic jam because there was some protest on. When we got to the square we had 20mins to walk around. The church was impressive and there was a big fancy European type building on the other side- that was about it!
After, they put on The Hangover on the bus. We watched it all before we got back to Salta- pretty long journey! Apparently in the whole day we did 520km!
Afterwards one of the drivers was talking out the DVD which was over our seat and he let the remote fall down on top of the Dutch guy (Bart) 's head! He got a right whack!! It was very funny.
Today was better than the last two trips- firstly there were people that spoke English, secondly there were particular things to see at each stop and thirdly the group got to stay together when we got to Humahuaca, which is better than just being left to our own devices completely!
I'm wrecked now though- was gone at 7 and wasn't back til 9:30pm. Don't have plans really for the day tomorrow- will try to watch Katie Taylor somewhere hopefully! Then getting the night bus to Cordoba. I probably won't have wifi on the bus so don't expect a blog tomorrow!