Augustus Jujuy Hotel San Salvador de Jujuy

... angry-looking people. Even the main squares and streets lacked any kind of joy or planning. Tiago didn't like it either, mainly because of the awful drivers and horrific sign system. We tried to make our way by car to the central plaza (predictably called San Martin, what else?) but as we drove towards it we could see swarms of people in the street. Forced by traffic to go closer, we soon realised that the swarms of people were in fact angry protesting workers all brandishing sticks ...

... I chose Friday night in the disco -in Spanish, it was OK) , we carried on northwards, sharing the driving, we did get pulled over once by a policeman, who told us that when driving on the main road in Argentina, you have to have your lights on!!!Naughty naughty!! About an hour later we reached the town of Huamahacha, it is quite a picturesque town, with whitewashed buildings contrasted with the burnt oranges and brown of the surrrounding hills, we did not pause long here ...

... Argentina and Chile. This place was weird. Apparently it had been part of the sea (even I could work that one out) but had then risen 3000m and become a salt flat. Risen? Was this going to lead to another conversation about him upstairs? Setting off in the baking sun to investigate, and to avoid the God question, I found myself staring at a landscape that looks like the moon, and crunches under foot, and is punctuated only every now and then by ...

... park, up to the edge of the preserved area and then walk back down, 27km or so, so that we could see the whole landscape. When the 1970´s mercedes bus turned up I couldn´t hardly get through the door for the sacks of spuds. We scrambled on. It was packed to the high roof with locals and their supplies for what looked like a month and a bloke with big smile full of broken teeth and coca leaves stood up with open arms and said "welcome to ...

... over there." Jujuy was a mid-sized city, but instead of a tranquil town square with ice cream carts, Jujuy seemed to be mostly appliance and electronics supercenters, shoe stores, and cheesy glass and chrome shops selling jeans and t-shirts. Not my style. But it did have an ATM - so I had cash again! After finding a hotel, I had a killer steak dinner, a glass of wine, got some sleep and made plans to bolt to Salta the next morning.

... waren ingeslagen door de bliksem. We ruilden euro´s in het hostel en konden weer verder richting Salta. Ik kocht nog snel een sorberijsje met Cabernet Sauvignon en Torrontés smaak en we renden naar de bus. We lieten ons verleiding door een hostel met een zwembad en gingen daarna de stad Salta in om een excursie te regelen voor de maandag. Salta bleek een verrassend leuke stad te zijn, vooral toen we ´s avonds gingen stappen in een straat met wel 100 barretjes, terrasjes ...

... is cold at night, but an interesting place. The women´s dress is a source of fascination, but this is enough for today because you are getting weary of reading all this stuff! Tomorrow an (almost) obligatory tour which is exciting because I think the beauty around here will be breathtaking. Monday the train to Uyuni ... a step closer to the salt lakes. At home and away, all take care and have fun. I do hope the floods recede. xxxx

... ponchos. This would be our last stop in the Andes. We are now in Mendoza on the edge of the Andes, the 20 hour bus journey south from Jujuy was long and pretty boring. We have a nice place to stay and although this is our third night we have not seen anything here yet because I have been ill. I think I have what we both had in Peru, so I have been holed up in our room for the past two and a half days, whilst Matt has been wandering around the city and last night he ate ...

... out en el hotel a las 10:30 y nos fuimos a caminar por las orillas del Rio de Yala. Ahi, Diego y yo nos estreteniamos haciendo cambiar el curso del rio. Como testimonio de esto, aqui vemos a Diego y de fondo la correntada que logramos desviar. ;) Tirando piedras, caminando entre los arbustos y mirando las agujas del reloj, esperabamos al taxita a las 12 am. A esa hora, recibimos un mensaje que el remis, estaba ...

San Salvador de Jujuy, referred to as just Jujuy, is the capitol of one of the smallest and poorest provinces in Argentina. Unfortunately, it has been nothing but rain over the last few days and my explorations have been limited to the main town. I've had plenty of time to practice pronouncing the name of the town...."who-hueeey"!! <br><br>Internet is only 1 peso per hour so I've had plenty of time on-line to research some future stuff. I ...