Salta is very refreshing after Mendoza. So much lush vegetation and hills around. Plus it´s also an area rich with the history of the Incan civilizations and battles of the Spanish and gauchos so there was lots to see and the scenery up here is just amazing, no wonder they were all fighting over it!

We did a great daytrip to Cachi - to the west of Salta city. The drive took us through the mountains range on the Cuesta del Obispo where we saw steep, steep mountains with tiny farms on the lower slopes closest to the river - all based around mountain springs to irrigate their crops and provide water for the land without having need for pumps or dragging the water out of the river. The hills and mountains are an amazing variety of red, yellow and green - all resulting from the high iron, copper, and untold other sediments that have been pushed up over so many million years. Sadly the clouds were heavily present when we reached the summit of Piedra del Molino 3347 metres above sea level so no real view of the whole valley below. No problems with the altitude though as we just cruised up in the bus drinking ´mate´ and listening to the history of the area from our guide Gaby.

On descending the other side of the ranges we dropped into the Parque Nacional Los Cardones which is a huge plain of candelabra cacti and other varieties reaching up to 15ft high. One stretch of road is 13km of straight road only changing in height - all we were missing was road runner ploughing on down the road! We also visited the ´Red Road´ which is a crazy shingle road with the most stunning scenery, rolling pink hills surround you and lots of different cacti are spotted everytwhere. The journey to Cachi was really the highlight of the trip as the town itself is pretty but just a small like Spanish style colonial town, and the scenery there and back was just like we´d imagined South America to look like and really breathtaking.

After seeing the colonial side of Cachi we took a day trip to Humahuaca the next day, it´s to the north of Salta into true native areas of Argentina with Incan and South American Indian influence. The area has been recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site and it was beautiful. Another big road trip - full day of around 550-600km driving roundtrip and we reached high altitudes as we were only a hundred kilometres from the Bolivian border. We tried sucking cocoa leaves to help with the altitude but so far neither of us have hard any problems with it, fingers crossed that continues! The tour was only four of us, Nic and I and two Australian girls, Mia and Jo. The trip took us up through the warm lower valleys of the south and into the Quebrada de Humahuaca - Valley of Humahuaca. Our first stop was at Sierra de Siete Colores/´Seven Colour Mountain´ named for all the colours of the rocks in the mountain that provides a backdrop to the town of Pumamarca. We stopped a short time to look around the main square and local markets - more things to buy!!! Next stop was a photo opportunity at the Painter's Pallet, another mountain with an amazing array of different colours.

We stopped in Tilcara where there was an ancient pucará - a fortress on the hill built by the natives of the region for it´s great location to see all around and therefore be able to see the enemy approaching. The used the best natural defense available to them, with the entire mountain leading up to the fortress covered in cactus - and I don't mind saying that it would be damn hard work climbing through the thorns as long as your fingers! Also they were picked because they found they were able to deter attackers by dressing the cactus in gauchos ponchos and hats - to make it look like there were far more of them than there were - and it actually worked as well as many were scared to fight the gauchos due to their fearsome reputation. All in all there are about 80 pucará - all within sight of at least one or two others throughout the valley to help warn the lower fortresses of the coming threats.

Humahuaca was a very important place for the Incan people and the Indians and it´s name means the highest of the holy places. Plus it was also a very strategic town as it´s so close to the Chilean and Bolivian borders and was an important place in the Independence wars with the Spanish. We had our first taste of llama for lunch and it was kind of like tough turkey but not too bad.

Salta also had a hidden gem of a museum, I cannot understand why it´s not more well known because it really was amazing. It houses the bodies of 3 Inca children who were found frozen at the summit of a local volcano, Llullaillaco, at a height of 6,700m. They were sacrificed by the Incas but because they were so high up thy were found in 1999 perfectly preserved, like natural mummies with all of their clothes, hair, skin etc perfect and all of the models of llamas and local people and everything they used as part of the sacrifice are also perfectly preserved. One of the mummies is on display and it´s unbelievable to see how perfectly preserved she is, she almost looks like she´s sleeping - but she has been frozen for 500 years. We couldn´t take any photos but there´s one here of the kid who is displayed and also a pretty good article on the museum(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/science/11mummu.html?_r=1&oref=slogin).

Other than that we had some great food in Salta (they even do spicy food up here) and had a lot of good drinks with our Aussie friends and enjoyed the markets! What we didn´t enjoy was the fiasco at the post office with 4 hours spent trying to post what we´d bought home! Ha ha serves us right! Can´t recommend this place enough - a must for coming to Argentina.