So a lot has happened since the last blog! We're now in Bolivia (as of about 3 hours ago) and the train ride to Uyuni goes for about 8 hours so thought it was time to get the next blog sorted!

Salta was really beautiful and quite amazing. The people were absolutely fantastic and we were lucky to get by with our limited Spanish yet again! After the last blog we managed to sort out one more night of accommodation at the same hostel, then we had to move to a new one. Our first full day in Salta we walked through the town and went up to the cable car to check out the view. Kirbs then peer-pressured me to walk back down the hill and we ended up at some craft markets (definitely the best kind of peer pressure). I got some strawberries there in what I can only assume was cordial, and was convinced (but proven wrong) that I was going to get very sick… lol. It's been quite hard to eat fruit here as you never really know what it's been washed in, how it's been treated, so up until then it had been solely bananas as fruit!

Salta had some really beautiful architecture - the main square was a strange mix of modern and old and looked really European. That day we also wandered around to try to find a new cheap hostel and we came upon Yatasto. A great place but none of the staff spoke English so we managed to Spanglish it out, and some how even got a 10 peso discount on the rate! The room was really nice, especially just having the two of us in there with our own bathroom after sharing with others for over a week (lol, only another 10 to go sharing!). That day we also found a cute little tour place and booked in some tours for our time in Salta.

The next day we were set to visit Salinas Grandes (the Argentinian version of the Salt flats in Bolivia). On the way there we saw some really beautiful scenerary. Originally the plan was to take the Train to the Clouds but it only runs once a week which didn't really work for us. This tour took half the same route, then circled back along a different route. There's so much oxidization of the minerals in the soils that the earth is all different colours - green (copper), red (iron) and yellow (sulfur). Some of the tiny towns that we drove through were a bit of an eye opener too with the smallest one housing only 7 families! The most beautiful place that we saw (excluding Salinas Grandes) was 7 coloured hills. You just have to see the photos to even attempt to do it justice! At the highest point of the tour we hit 4100 above sea level (I was VERY light headed after running up the hill to the marker!!) and from there we dropped 2000m in 35km!

We hit the supermarkets that night to try and get some food that we felt like for dinner and to try to cut back on costs a little. We always seem to spend so long in there though… lol. We found the 'breakfast bars' (term used VERY lightly) at the supermarket for a massive .39 pesos. That's about 13 cents back home… Lol. We headed back to the tour place to sort out a tour to Uyuni in Bolivia and discovered there'd been a misunderstanding in price, with the company using US and us using pesos… Lol

Friday we had booked another tour to take us to Cafayate, stopping at two wineries, the second biggest dam in Argentina and a whole heaps of natural rock formations. The coolest of these would have to be Garganta del Diablo (the Devil's Throat) and the Amphitheatre. Again, the pics can only begin to do it justice, but essentially they've been eroded over time and del Diablo is a massive cavern that you can climb into. The local musicians playing in the ampitheatre were fantastic as well!

Our tour guide for the day Hasan was absolutely brilliant and really looked after us, even teaching us a whole bunch of Spanish and correcting us when we needed it! Kirbs played DJ for the day, and educated the South Americans on country music… Lol.There were only 4 of us on the tour and the other two people didn't speak any English, so our lunch together involved lots of gestures, the phrase books dictionary (which has no-where near enough words!) and Hasan coming over to translate when things got to complicated! Yesterday saw Kirbs bungee-jumping as well - I was in no way keen thanks to my fear of heights! Lol

Today we had a VERY early start of 4:10am as we had to get the bus at 5am (which turned out to be leaving at 5:30!) so we're both pretty stuffed. We also met the only person who works at the hostel who speaks perfect English!!! Lol. I slept most of the way on the bus as I had some calls last night from a private number (and midnight, one and two am) so was well stuffed even though I screened the calls… When I find out who that was… Lol

Unfortunately the itinerary that we got from the tour place is totally in Spanish so we had no idea what was supposed to happen when we got off the bus. Luckily as soon as Kirbs got off someone called her name so we were set! Now, time to use your imagination… there's the two of us, with 65 and 70 litre packs, as well as day packs and some food shopping in separate bags. Also with us are 3 women who were 50-60 with a small suitcase on wheels and a jacket and hand bag each. Considering the amount that they were carrying they were the SLOWEST walkers we've ever come across. At one point Kirbs and I had all our stuff and were wheeling their bags in the hopes of making them faster (unsuccessfully). Bear in mind they had the offer of getting a taxi there and they refused it… The border crossing was interesting as we had to go through a medical place set up to try and prevent the spread of N1H1… Once we finally made it across the border and into Bolivia we jumped in a cab to meet the rest of the tour, there are 18-23 of us, and it looks like a bit of a motley crew. Kirbs and I stocked up on beanies, gloves and scarves so we should be set for what is apparently the coldest part of our trip. Today it was beautiful and warm (I was getting around in a singlet, skirt and leggings) so hopefully we get more good weather as we travel up.

As we leave Argentina it will be interesting to see what happens with the food. No more empanadas and I think I'm going to have to say I'm vegetarian as I can be a bit fussy with the meats that I eat (lol - who knew I was fussy with food??? Lol) and it's going to be too hard to order what I'll actually eat. Lots of mixta ensalada for me (lettuce, tomato and onion… I'll just leave out the onion! Lol)

They've just stopped the pan pipes music on the train in favour of some more local music which is a nice change! Tonight we're staying in a hotel, then the next few nights were out doors (I think!). The tour of Uyuni kicks off tomorrow with 3 day of adventures ahead! Chile and Argentina down, Bolivia and Peru to go in South America. So far we're about 4 days ahead of where we planned to be, so we're adding in another town and going to chill down a bit.

Hope you're all well, miss and love you all! More adventures in 4 days!

XoxoX