So we spent a lovely Valentine's Day on the bus all day from Puerto Iguazu to Salta. And by lovely I mean horrendous. The first bus was 6 hours to Posadas, and not so bad. The situation deteriorated on the 18 hour overnight bus from Posadas to Salta. The guy who sold us the bus ticket lied and said that the seats at the back of the bus recline all the way. They don't. It was a bumpy trip on a lot of dirt roads and we got barely any sleep. This would have all been fine had we both not been sick still. Without the details, suffice to say that we had a doctor visit when we arrived in Salta, which ended with him telling Rianna that she should get an injection in her bum. She declined.

After three days inside, Rianna started to recover. It's a shame those days were wasted because Salta is a lovely place. We went to the MAAM (Museum of High Altitude Archaeology), which was confronting but fascinating to learn how children were sacrificed to the gods in the mountains. The purpose was to bring health and prosperity to the people and to the area. Children from esteemed families who were considered good looking were chosen to become married and a ceremony was performed on top of high mountains, as this is the closest point to the gods. The children were given wine and then when they fell asleep, they were buried alive. Because of extreme cold, the bodies were well preserved for about 500 years before their discovery in 1999. The museum has three children but displays only one at a time. We saw a six year old boy. He was curled up and his face was mostly hidden by his hand, but it was still amazing to see that his hair, skin, nails and clothes were so well preserved. Photos weren't allowed but you can find them on the internet.

The next day we took the cable car up to Cerro San Bernado. The mountain overlooks the city and the view is lovely as Salta sits beneath really green mountains (different to the snow-capped variety that we have become used to). We walked back down the mountain and had a nice stroll through the other side of town, with its old and beautiful houses. We booked bus tickets to La Quiaca for the following morning (en Espanol!) - the Argentinian/Bolivian border!

The bus to La Quiaca was great, with more beautiful mountain scenery and plenty of cactus! We had read that the border crossing between Argentina and Bolivia was notorious for delays. We walked to the border from the bus stop and a couple of people from a tour group went through without any problems… And then their computers crashed. We played Uno for about an hour and a half before the computers started up again, and then welcome to Bolivia! Another 2 hour mini bus took us to Tupiza for 20 Bolivianos each (about $4), where we were starting our Salt Flats tour the following day.