Hi people

well here I am in North West Argentina- Salta to be precise. This town/city is very near Chile/Bolivia boarder so it´s quite indigenious and feels off the beaten track. It´s also pretty cool - lots of plazas and cute coloniel buildings (painted in pinks and yellows) and great restaurants and it´s very own micro-brewery producing Salta Cerveza (team H2O you know what to expect next!!), plus a great climate - we´ve lost the unbearable sweaty sweaty, hot hot air and as we´re in the mountains we´re enjoying wearing our fleeces again.

We got here on Friday after a painful overnight bus journey - let´s just say the pain was more to do with the driver´s insistence on playing Roxette videos for a good part of the trip rather than the trip itself...

Jon and I were hoping to do some trekking here but found out pretty quickly when we got here that it´s the wrong time of year for that kind of stuff (weather issues) so instead we booked onto a 2-day tour going into the mountain ranges north of the city. And I must say is was quite good. We visited far too many churches and dusty villages but that aside the scenery and mountain ranges were amazing to see including seven colours hill and the artists pallete - to be honest I was astounded at how beautiful this simple and stark landscape was and suggest you just check out the photos which I´ve put up. We also reached very high altitude - 4,170 metres above sea level and so I got my first small taste of altitude sickness - light head and sick feeling and not wanting to eat or drink... obviously sick then!!

Anyway back in Salta now so eating and drinking again but must say it is hard to be a veggie out here - actually when I say in restaurants I´m a vegetarian I might as well be saying I´m a mass murderer or herion addict as the reaction I get would be the same. So I´m getting a bit fed-up with pizza and I´m craving green veg but at least the wine is good. Oh and talking of wine we´re on our way to Mendoza tomorrow

Happy happy days

xxx