Paseo Tierra Azul Tilcara

... the area. Also staying at the Posada El Sol were government officials from Jujuy who were using it as a base to visit remote settlements in the area to ask the (probably mostly indigenous) inhabitants about their needs.<br><br>We had dinner in a cold restaurant called Casa Vieja. I had quinoa and bean stew (quinoa is grain just becoming trendy in NZ but that has been a traditional food here for centuries). The boys had llama ...

Before we set off we learned the first rule of driving in Argentina: at intersections in the city you have the right of way if the other car is on your left. BUT the car hire lady said: if the other car is bigger than you, you let it go first, always! The second rule we learned on the second day was that "camino consolidado" means "the worst dirt raod you can ever imagine", but more about that later..<br><br>So ...

... gardens and huts. Here the locals lived on potatoes and llama bi products until the Incas came along and enforced their levies and language. They must have been seriously short, the doors were about half my height. Bizarrely in the 1930s a monument to the archaeologists who first excavated the area was erected on the site. It took the form of a pyramid which ...

Tilcara, in Jujuy province, is a very nice town in the north of Argentina. It´s in a beautiful valley surrounded by soaring multi-coloured peaks, their shape resembling the Rockies but in every other way completely different (there are no cacti in the Rockies!). The town has a nice quiet rhythm, full of mud-brick houses, a very lively crafts market, some pre-Inca ruins (the pukara) and not a lot else. We have been taking it ...

... La Quiaca and then walk across the border into Bolivia and to the border town of Villazón. There is political unrest in Bolivia at the moment and a few fellow backpacker I´d met were keeping away, especially Americans. I decided to carry on, and all I can say everything was fine, again the bus journey passed through some spectacular scenery, passing numerous Lama farms on the way. La Quiaca is a typical border town so as well is Villazón - both are not pretty but ...

... from about 100 other tourists. Then he has all of us stand in a separate line. We think he is going to speed up the process. Which he does for a lot of people. Unfortunately for us he took our passports first and piled everyone elses on top of them. So we were the last people called! It was ridiculous how long we waited! The first stop in Argentina ...

... house. It was well decorated and had two dogs. We had a pretty relaxing day. Tilcara is a small pueblo with dirt or rock roads. Apparently it is a huge tourist attraction (seeing as how I was there..) especially during Pascua (easter). We took a two hour siesta, shopped in the big craft/market place, then went to a pena that night for some good traditional food and amazing amazing music! I was so tired from not sleeping the night before and kept falling asleep, but ...

Bolivia here we come! The 300Km up to the Bolivian border from Salta are breathtaking. Multicoloured mountains, pre inca ruins dotted around the hillsides, the sheer magnitude of the mountains and plains leaves us feeling somewhat insignificant, but so very privileged to be here. Thanks Argentina and arrivederci!

... area of this poor country. Well, I was half right. The stuff about the towns - right. The stuff about the internet -wrong. Any romantic notions I had about travelling in an area almost completely cut-off from the rest of the world, of stepping back in time if you will, were shattered within seconds of stepping off my bus in the town of Humahuaca, population 6000. There, in front of me, clear as day, were 2 internet cafes. Internet ...

... whatever that means) place to stay; and two, find some horses able to bear my greatly beef enhanced bulk. For stage one we headed to Tilcara, a small town in the middle of the north south running Quebrada de Huamahuaca (a UNESCO recognised gorge complete with awe inspiring coloured rock stratas and small settlements overlooked by pre-Inca ruins). We'd booked two nights at the Hosteria Rincon de Fuego, described by our guidebook as a "fabulously ...