Hola Amigos,

Guinny here again with our trip to Salta :)

We left Mendoza on a semi cama bus (which means no extras and Gemma got a dripping seat) for a 20hour overnight trip to Salta. Driving out of Mendoza we passed through the poor outskirts of the city which really hammered home the gap between rich and poor here. There were a lot of falling down brick shacks which looked very cold. I was struck by the old naggy horses pulling carts along the road. It wasnt long before we were back in vino country were there were small farmlets with goats and chickens and lots of (much healthier looking) ponies. The landscape is incredibly dry and flat at first glance it looks like one vast desert but every now and then you´d spot herds of cattle and houses - they must be good farmers here, imagine a canterbury farmer trying to raise sock on dust!

I managed to sleep most of the night until we were loudly awoken being made to change buses. Who knows where we were! We arrived into Salta at 7:30, early enough for there to be no beds ready in the hostel. It was nice to finally be in the Andes, and Salta is in a pretty spectacular area. Our hostel was pretty run down but we got the first night half price with breakfast and dinner so it was ok. We were sharing a room with a brazillian guy who has been travelling south america for 1 month a year for the last 20 odd years. One recommendation was the high altitude museum in the city centre. The museum is dedicated to the discoveries on Llullallaco volcano which includes the mummies of 3 children sacrificed at the time of the incas. They were ceremoniously married and then walked to the burial site where they were given copius amounts of beer until they fell asleep and were buried. Because of the high altitude they are perfectly preserved. It was fascinating to see, but one of the mummies was in a dark box that you had to turn the light on to see. Because I couldnt understand the spanish I just switched on the light and nearly jumped out of my skin!

The following day we decided to take a horse trek with Sayta horse treks, an hour south of Salta. The ranch is run by Enrique, probably the most entertaining person Ive ever met! We were treated to a traditional breakfast before heading out on a 3 hour ride. After convincing the gauchos that yes I could ride, I was given ´buen mesero´ a little chestnut who apparently needed a good rider, but turned out to be the quietest horse Ive ridden in years! She was amazingly narrow too, the horses are built very differently here (Alex, Mitch would be a solid giant by these guys!) We had a nice quiet ride through the country, with a gallop at the end. Id love to see these Gauchos really ride, one used to train polo ponies for the Argentinian team, and the other has never been further than 200km from home. He once tried to catch a plane to go on holiday but got scared of the plane and had to come back again! Even so, Im super jealous of their upbringing!

After our ride we had the most amazing lunch. A spread of beef, ribs, sausages, adn blood sausage, and a LOT of red wine! Im sorry to say the beef is probably better here, or maybe its just the cooks. The wine is made by the local monks, and I think Enrique exhausts their whole supply. Apparantly the wine is so blessed it doesnt give you a hangover, so says the devote atheist! Here a half full glass is an empty one and promptly filled so mucho wine was drunk.

Enrique was pure entertainment, full of words of wisdom, most not appropriate for family reading! He is very knowledgable, he´d even had a Maori princess stay at his ranch. He has been married twice and now insists you should only have friends with benefits. He hated cats, comparing them with women because they are independent and dont listen to anything you say. But he loved women, you can probably imagine the difference! He joined us on the ride back to Salta, buying beer at the shop along the way, and continuing with his wise words. Ive videoed much of it so will hopefully get that up on here one day, though it probably needs sensoring!

After a drunken slumber in the afternoon (way too much red wine) Gemma woke my after reading about the earthquakes back home. I thought we were the ones in earthquake country! It was really scary reading about all the collapsed buildings and how big the quake was and not knowing how everyone was. Note to family, please tell us youre ok when such things happen!

Our next stop was Purmumarca, a little village in the Andes on the way to the northern crossing into Chile. We managed to navigate the ticketing, bus platforms and boken down buses in Jujuy to finally arrive in Purmumarca a bit late but checked into a really nice wee hostel called Mama coca. The town is famous for the mountain of 7 colours and is a really amazing place. We met a mexican and Portugese guy at our hostel and headed out to a local bar to hear some local music. There was one guy on the panpipes who was amazing, playing 3 at once.

Purmumarca is a nice quiet (but very dusty!) town that throngs with tourists twice a day as the tours come through. The mountains are awesome though. We were also getting our first taste of altitude, only 2200m, but its enough to slow you down. Just as well the helado shop was there!