The car was delivered to the hostel the evening before - a clapped out VW Gol (not Golf, look it up if you are bored). Allegedly the car hire company owner's wife's car. I can believe it. Anyway, on going to the car park in the morning we found a very flat tyre. Great start.

After a few phone calls and a probably illegal drive to the office we were fixed up with a newer, fault free, VW Gol. We then got laughed at in a petrol station as us three guys (a Croatian guy called Valentino joined us for the day) were being driven around by a girl (Eva). Such a forward thinking country ha ha.

The drive to Purmamaca took around three hours, the first couple on a very winding mountain road - living in Switzerland Eva took this leg. Quite a change of scenery, lush green forest.

Purmamaca is a tiny little town which seems to exist only for tourists. Pretty though. The attraction is the hill of seven colours - a hill with (roughly) seven very differently coloured types of rock. In actual fact the whole area features hugely contrasting rock colours right next to each other. Something to do with the way the Andes were formed.

Anyway, we had a nice trek around the place, a tasty lunch and an even tastier ice cream.

Next we headed up to Tilcara, a small town further up the valley which has a partially reconstructed Inca (or pre-Inca!?) village. Very educational of course.

The timing to get back to the car hire office was a little tight, particularly when the heavens dramatically opened an hour outside Salta. Night motorway driving on the wrong side of the road in a heavy downpour is not top of my favourite things, but we made it.

The day ended with beer, wine and empanadas at the hostel. Far too wet to go out.