Greetings from Salta!

We are well and truly behind in our blog entries now but we have made several attempts to update the site. We are in Bolivia and let´s just say we are a little technology deprived....commodore 64´s trigger any memories?!

But we are meant to be in Salta so I´ll wind the memories back....We caught a night bus from Jesús Maria and arrived in Salta at about 7.30am the next morning. Mark attempted to disembark about 4 hours earlier but i think that was middle of the night confusion. We were pretty much the only passengers on a big coach so when it stopped it was easy to think we had arrived!

We arrived at our bed and brunch (splurge!), Bloomers (http://www.bloomers-salta.com.ar/), way too early before check-in but the lovely housekeeper took pity on us and fed us breakfast! How can we go back to hostels after being served proper coffee and warm bread in a basket!! Mum, you will be pleased to know I am back on the coffee because the tea is pants here! Already looking forward to a Gregory Crescent brew!

We took some time to familiarise ourselves with the centre of town while we waited for our room to be ready. Its a beautiful city with lovely plaza´s, colonial buildings, well maintained gardens and SHOPS! We decided to make use of time and headed into an Archaeological Museum that contains information and relics from 3 Inca children that were found at the peak of Llullaillaco Volcano in 1999. They were discovered with over one hundred artifacts and, due to the altitude (6739mts) and climate, they are incredibly well preserved. It is thought they were offerings to the gods and so their deaths would have been quite the ceremony. Their ages are estimated at being 15, 7 and 6. The eldest girl was on display and you could still see her hair, skin etc....amazing. There was a lot of controversy surrounding their discovery and removal from the mountain. Many people believed they should have been left there but the argument against was once people knew where they were they wouldn´t be safe either. All i could think was how many people are really capable of climbing 6739mts just for a gawk!?

From here we continued to wander and were quite thrilled when we found a shopping centre with movies! ha. We grabbed lunch and went to see 7 Pounds with Will Smith. Very good movie btw! We had a quiet evening back at the B&B and Mark cooked dinner.

We booked some tours the next day into the Quebrada de Humahuaca (north) and Cachi (south). Our tour agent recommended some great places for us to visit and so we decided to stay one night in a northern village too. We were quite excited. Feeling organised we went off to sample local delicacies and tried humita´s (a local mashed corn dish) and more empanada´s....YUM! After lunch we took the cable car up to a mountain that overlooks the entire city and offers panoramic views. It was beautiful and the sun was setting. I was a little afraid of the height though! Given we weren´t able to celebrate St Patrick´s Day on the 17th we thought it only fitting to visit the Irish pub we found for a beer and a meal. The guinness was the same price as in London so we opted for local beer...sorry! The Shepherd´s Pie didn´t disappoint though.

I´ll write more about our 2 days further north in the Jujuy province in a separate blog....so fast forward to 2 days later and we are now back in Salta for our final night! Unfortunately we are now at City Backpackers Hostel...boo! We arrived back about 3 hours late because our bus was delayed due to a road closure. We had decided to go and see a local peña show that evening and wandered over to the bar district. A peña is a bar or social club where people eat, drink and gather to play and listen to folklore - singing and dancing. We went to one recommended by our tour agent. Other than another couple, about 80 years old, we were the first ones there but the restaurant quickly filled and the atmosphere was great. The male singers were fantastic and we were really enjoying it. The dancing was also very good. We left just before midnight because we had to be up at 6am for our next tour to Cachi.

We awoke bright & early, packed up and waited for our tour. It was due to pick us up at 7am and by 7.30am I was getting worried we had seen no sign of them. All the other guests were being picked up by their respective tour companies and the hostel manager just kept assuring us that our tour guide was on sth american time and not to panic. By 8am i was pretty sure they weren´t coming. Mark tried to phone but being a Sunday the office was closed. We fired off an email to the tour company as well as our previous accommodation to see if they had turned up there. When it hit 9.30am we went to have breakfast. Mark had a sore back and so wasn´t feeling well and we were wondering how we would fill the day when most things are closed and our night bus to the border wasn´t due to depart until 00.45 that night. Other tour operators couldn´t take us to Cachi because you need to leave before 8am to make it a worthwhile day trip. When we got back to the hostel an email had arrived from the previous accommodation confirming they had swung past there to pick us up. This was after stressing to the tour agent we were swapping and showing her the website, writing the new address on the voucher etc. The tour operator said they went to office after we weren´t there but we didn´t leave the hostel in case they arrived...a big mess basically!

We didn´t do much for the rest of the day as Mark wanted to rest his back. We were quite disappointed in missing the tour as apparently the village of Cachi is a ´must see´. We went to a Sunday market which wasn´t that great and had a nice dinner before leaving Salta. All in all its one disappointment amongst many other good times! We are reluctant to leave Argentina but very keen to meet up with Kate and Jane in Bolivia.....more to come!

xx