Apart y Hotel Ibero Argentina Salta

... that border Chile on the other. There were a few settlements, with llama, vicuna, and goats grazing.

We had planned on staying the night at San Antonio de la Cobres, a Puna settlement and former mining town, but we made better time than planned, so decided to head down the hill to Salta, basically gaining a day to use elsewhere.

On first impressions, we were glad not to be staying in San Antonio. It was dusty and sparse, with little ...

... which helped us get to know eachother. Riky, with her hair in a "corn row" braid from Bolivia, was especially friendly. She explained that the 2 of them started traveling together only a few days prior. Feli had come from Cusco, Peru where she is based now, living with an uncle and volunteering. We decided we would spend our second day in Salta with our new friends.

The day began relaxed as we got the go-ahead to do our ...

... bridges and loops, immersed in the mountains surrounding the area. Unfortunately the train only runs once a week on a Saturday so we missed it which was a bit upsetting, hopefully there will be more successful train journeys in the future. We spent the 2 days in Salta seeing the all the sights and wandering through the town. The town is surrounded by mountains and we took a cable car ride up Cerro San Bernardo which gave us an amazing ...

... at least tries to explain what happened after Chile and the treatment we received subsequently. Maria our host mother is a director at Codesa and informed us in Meeting 1 that it had been her who had agreed to have us both in their house, she had had to convince her family, and particularly her husband of it. Maria then went away on a month long holiday to Africa. Suddenly her husband and family turned nasty and the school for no good reason asked us to leave. I'm ...

... amount of this scarce resource relative to other members of the population. However, farming is the livelihood of most of the region's inhabitants and water is the lifeblood of farming. Clearly, completely privatizing and charging for water would cause a massive revolt. Additionally, an argument could be made, just as with subsidized universal lifeline phone service in rural areas of the US, that free and fair access to water is a ...

... drifting off asleep, to arise or look up in completely different environs: whether it is the time of day, the city or the topography! It is always a fun exercise to figure out what city you are passing through. The bus itself was magnificent, I felt like I was riding first class on an airplane. In the 36 hours on the coach, there were probably about 8-10 movies shown, we were constantly fed, the seats ...

... black plaits down their backs look like theyīre well over a hundred. Itīs also impossible to guess the age of anyone between 17 and 40. The women wear big shawls and little bowler hats balanced on top of their heads. The men are more difficult to spot but are vaguely associated with llamas. But thatīs enough racial stereotyping. I ate a llama in Cafayate. Well not a whole one. Llama stew and nice wine for the first time on this continent.

... sign on my forehead for you two! All that said, I met some awesome foreigners and backpackers in Argentina, which helped properly balance out my people experience there. Rhetorical Questions/Comments for Argentineans: * Same advice as to the Taiwanese: Smile more, and stare less (I know I am gorgeous, but...) * I did get tired off all your police checkpoints and police stops. What are you....a police state? * And, what's with the police ...

... sure we could find it for later (we did!) and popped out at 8.30pm ready rather ravenous after all the driving. We opened the tin door behind the house that had the restaurant sign and found ourselves in a garage-like room on the edge of a courtyard garden. The owner welcomed us profusely, offered us a drink and then phoned the cook to come in. We ended up having a lovely meal with some local wine, on our own in the restaurant, watching Bridget Jones (in English) on the ...

... could understand why! The miles of salt only stopped at the foothills of the surrounding mountains and sky on the horizon, and displaced any sense of perspective. Crazily disorientating place. We have left Salta with great memories and new friends. It was a place that exceeded our expectations, where the luna landscapes, food, hospitality and thunderstorms made a great impression! Next stop... Mendoza.