Hotel De Turismo Tilcara

... few restaraunts. This is a REALLY small place, like 10 cobblestone streets, (saw a guy on a horse today on the street), but surprisingly, there were a number of "upscale" restaraunts. Finally walked back to a place I saw when i came in that looked equally posh, but turned out to be awesome! See photos of food, but it was one younger guy** listening to a fantastic mix of vaguely alternative tradtional music, pretty loud. He served me lorca which is a traditional local ...

... in the area's wild, rocky mountains, every boy's cowboy and indian dream-scape. I would like to have hired a bike and explored the locale on wheels, too. It would have been great to spend more time relaxing beside the pool in my charming and cheap hotel (where else could you get an ensuite twin room, with a huge buffet breakfast, and a flower filled courtyard with swimming pool looking onto the mountains, all for less than 7 euro!!). But I have places ...

... locaux et 3 sec pour les etrangers, moi et l espagnol vont frapper a la porte pour qu ils fassent accelerer les choses. Ca a lair d etre compris. Ils envoient qqn pour grouper les etrangers, puis prendre les passeports. 10 min plus tard, on est bon pour passer. Les 2 francais sont verts, ils ont attendu 5 h et nous 1/2 h. Pendant l attente, je discute encore avec les espagnols qui, en fait vivent en Argentine et me proposent de m emmener a Tilcara en voiture dans la Quebrada ...

... on limited km) and was really boring. Whoops. When we got to Jujuy it was like another world again. After two days of dry, dusty canyons and no vegetation but cacti, seeing lush, green, forest-covered mountains was very strange indeed. But the green didn't last for long as we continued north to Purmamarca, where the landscape returned to that of the desert. Purmamarca is famous for it's mountain of seven colours ...

The Rio Grande snakes its way along the Quebrada as glittering mercury, indifferent witness of struggles, expeditions and slaughtering. Inca armies, caravans of prisoners, columns of Spanish conquerers, later on patriotic cavalries expelling the Goths northwards and these, in turn coming back southwards, and again being repelled by the patriots. With spear and carbine, sword and knife, mutilating and beheading each other with the rage of brothers. Then nights of ...

... the town that gave fantastic views down the valley and held the remnants of a necropolis where we had to watch our step that we didn´t fall into one of the grave pits. We thought we´d get in some training with a hike at our current altitude of about 2500m... which was quite manageable for Steve, even while smoking a cigarette, while for me it was quite challenging as I´d been developing quite a nice production of mucous with a cold I´d picked up in BA. We made ...

... paid 20 pesos each to be driven to Las Salinas- the salt flats. It was an hour in a car going over a large mountain pass that was incredibly curvy. I had to keep my eyes shut to keep from getting car sick or really scared at how the man was driving. I survived! Las Salinas were gorgeous, with a bit of water on top of the white salt. It looked like the sky and land were the same- one big sky. We took a bunch of pictures and really enjoyed the gorgeous salt flats. The ...

... apparent farm yard which turned out to be the village of El Mojon, home to 28 people. It's dwellings were fabricated similarly to those seen earlier in the morning. It had it's own church, a micro museum & a unique restaurant/bar which had a bamboo roof, a table of salt & llama cushioned chairs. It was the most unique place I've dined & I tried llama so definitely a memorable experience had. Following on our track for another half hour we reached Las Salinas Grandes, the salt ...

... at some time. I have run into the same people at least a dozens times and with some of them had been some friction and then ended up bonding later in the trip. One example is the German that I hiked with back from Tres del Lagos. We had had dinner the nite before and he was being pretty weird. So I check out of my room early a jump in a car with 2 Belgium and 1 dutch. We head west and follow the Tren de los Nubes and travel for a great day of viewing the Andes ...

... Yacuiba with the train station and bus station is a 5km ride away. We have now bought train tickets to Santa Cruz. They cost only 47 bolivianos, and we were told the reclining seats recline no longer. It is 15 hours, so we are in for an uncomfortable night. The alternative was 15 hours on a bus on an unsealed road, and knowing Bolivian buses, the seat recliners would likely be broken.