Provincial Hotel Salta

... having such a gourmet, home cooked restaurant here.   We settled down to a platter of goat&#8217;s cheese, home cured meats and a variety of marinated beans and fresh bread.  The kids hit the cake section like Billy Bunter would have, had he been here. <br><br>Salta looked like a metropolis compared to where we have been.  It&#8217;s been ages since we have been in a city.  Our hotel was in a square and walking distance from all the sights ...

... Without batting an eye, Riky, with her "can do" attitude, volunteered to bring our clothes to Puerto Iguazu since they were flying there the next day - we would arrive only slightly later. This would allow us to see Iguazu Falls with them as well. We felt relieved and grateful for this win-win situation and agreed to meet at the Hostel Inn in Puerto Iguazu. It was set. For the first time, we felt like we had true travel buddies.<br><br>

... but we went to one bar that was open and had a couple of drinks there and danced to the crazy argentinian beats! It was fun! But i think we were a bit too drunk haha! <br><br> <br><br>The next morning, we were very messy! We had to check out the hostel at 11.30am and i managed to drag myself to the internet cafe round the corner. I was feeling so rough, and at one point I had to leave my computer and go outside to puke up! it was not very ladylike of me ...

... That said it was a short walk across nomans land bridge towards Argentina where we joined the first of many control points - getting into Argentina was going to prove to be much more of a headache than getting out of Bolivia! Actually it sounds bad but all it really involved was a lot of waiting, queing and searches. The que to get stamped in took only half an hour or so, but then we had to join the several hour que to get our bags searched, make our way to the bus ...

... brought there by his parents as a small child due to the clean country air being conducive to improving his health as a result of respiratory problems as an infant which led to childhood asthma. So Che had asthma. #1 thing I did not know. Che was Argentinian. #2 thing I didn't know. Despite seeing The Motorcycle Diaries (WATCH IT) it was many years ago. I don't have a photographic memory, I don't even have a pencil drawing one often, so if you'd have asked me ...

... a town called Coronel Moldes, near this town is a big dam, where apparently you could do watersports. So we set off driving through the peaceful countryside, driving through dusty one horse towns for a couple of hours until we turned off the main road and reached the dyke. When we reached the actual bridge that you can do bungee jumping and our cool stuff from , we were actually disappointed, it was only about 20 metres from the water, so not very ...

Tuesday was a holiday in Salta and everything came to a halt. I woke up feeling groggy and my head was pounding. I´d like to pretend that it was an effect of the altitude but it was almost certainly the tequilla I´d bought so readily on the advice of Emily, the night before, in a Karaoke bar in the centre of town. And so the tone for the day was set. <br><br><br><br>It has not been easy settling into Salta, from the moment I arrived in Buenos Aires I felt at home. But Salta is a stranger, I ...

... was roasting and my scottish skin was taking a hammering! So, Rafael and I have a deep and meaningful conversation which mostly consists of Rafael talking about his life and philosophising about his life while I try and search for the words to reply. He told me how he has a young daughter but is no longer with his wife but she is still the love of his life and he prays that they will end up together eventually. He also tells me that when he was younger he drank far ...

... out and was dreading getting bogged in the sand. So Blair took over the reins and likened driving in sand to driving in snow: just don't stop. He found that the washboard effect was diminished if he drove 70km/h rather than 50km/h, but then the holes came at us a little quicker, it was a fine line to tread. It seemed to take forever to cross the altiplano, and I give credit to our little buzzbox (it was a two-door Chevy Corsa) for ...

... felt like one of the locals. There even was this English guy who had become a gaucho and really looked like on of the locals. Nightlife is very good in Salta as well as the countryside which is really amazing. They have really cheap and nice litre bottles of beer in Argentina, generally called after large towns such as Cordoba, Salta etc. After 3 night we decided we had to head onto Bolivia as we have to be in Cuzco, Peru for the Inca Trail on March 26th.