Hostal Condor Pass Salta

... to note a few bespoke boutiques offering some more tasty pieces.  Unfortunately I was now with two very bored children and no space in my luggage.

However I did discover a find on the way home, a beautician who offered waxing.  Thank god my legs were beginning to look like a tarantulas.  My outrageously, expensive waxing in Las Vegas had grown out.  I also asked for a pedicure as well and within minutes Lily, Edie and I were in a dingy room painted a washed out yellow ...

... after this and after curiosity took me to the malaria map for Indonesia (my destination in a few weeks´ time) I had a speculative look at the malaria map for Argentina. Disaster - the Iguazu area is malaria central. I had stopped taking my doxycycline three weeks ago as I no longer needed it where I was travelling. Now here, to use a phrase made infamous by Robert Downey Jr.´s character Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder, I went ´full retard´. I had got it into my ...

... our side. Once we got away from Salta’s microclimate however we didn’t have a cloud in the sky and spent a beautiful sunny day with the most amazing scenery. I’m not sure what we were all expecting but what we saw surpassed all expectations at any rate. We were out amongst mountains of all colours, shapes and sizes, it’s a geologists fantasy world! Some of the highlights especially were a natural amphitheatre, where a few of the ...

... riding their horses, invited us to a dance recital of their eldest daughter and let us spend the most wonderful day at their house on the bank of El Dique reservoir. I am indebted to them for their generosity and for going beyond their commitment to Lattitude, Felicity is very lucky to be placed with such a caring, generous family. I also need to thank a good friend I made in Salta, Kike. Keen to give me a bolt-hole from my host family and desperate that I didn't ...

... for Cuba. Seeing all the photos of him meeting the leaders of countries such as Egypt, China, Congo and others dressed in his green army boilers suit, boots, beret and cigar was AMAZING, he never stopped being a soldier. How about the fact that Ernest was an impersonator, moving his image also from one which the whole world recognizes and from which through his adult life he barely deviated but who when required he was able to adapt from to go undercover to get into ...

... more than about 20 meters. The trip itself was kind if cool because it was about 3.5 hours on a dirt road, which made it fun to drive and gave me the opportunity as the driver to show my rally skills. After a few hours we decided to turn around as it did not made much sense to continue without any vision. While I was looking for a good point to turn around, the clouds suddenly dissappeard and ...

... br>

That evening I decided to clear away the fuss of this housing debarcle with a night out on Balcarce with the Lattitude group, this turned out to be just three of us and Emily's host sister, Daniella. But we had the best time yet. Daniella introduced us to her friends and we spent the night trying to make conversation in Spanish and drinking wine. Tom unfortunately found himself in the toilet of one of the bars evacuating the contents of his abused stomach in an awesome 2hour ...

... with tomato slices and chunks of chicken on crustless white bread, to milanesas (a sandwich with thin meat, egg, ham and fixings), to great meat of any kind, it was pretty delicious. Argentina also has Frenet - a little like nasty Jagermeister, the official drink of Argentina that will knock you under the table - mixed with Coke, and some of world's worst beer - Quilmes. The People: Argentineans are conservative in nature, but nice. Not ...

... are tobacco fields and huge tin drying cabins. Apparently Golden Virginia grow tobacco here (but call the farm something different entirely). The hostel was shared bathroom only, but there were only 2 other people staying and we had a private room. We asked the host were we could eat, and she suggested a restaurant and gave directions (all in Spanish - I am impressing myself now!), which was down a residential road across the square. We decided to do some exploring to ...

... as we were only going for the Salt Plains and they have some in San Pedro). However, we were told they were fully booked until next Sunday (9 days time!). We tried Geminis and they had a couple of tix which had been reserved and had to be paid for by 6pm. We got the hostel to contact the bus company for us but sadly the tix had been sold :( Later in the evening we went back to the bus terminal and went to book tix for Sunday with Pullman and were ...