Salta and Humahuaca

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We are currently chewing cocoa leaves (local remedy for altitude) about to take a 2 hour bus to enter Bolivia and can´t wait to get there. So where have we been in the last couple of days?

A night in Salta was a great stop. We stretched our legs by skipping the gondola ride and climbing the 1070 steps to the lookout for panaromic views of the city. It was Sunday and mid afternoon (siesta time) so nothing was open but the parks were chocker full of people. It was nice wondering among the locals.

From here we got on a bus heading for Humhuaca which should have been a short ride of 4 hours. But hey this is South America. Not more than 2 hours into our trip we rounded a corner to see black smoke billowing into the blue sky. Yes thats right, we had timed our entrance into a small town to be the 3rd vehicle in line of yet another protest (What for? Who knows??). We waited here for what felt like several hours. While other tourists on the bus got irate, from experience we both knew the only cause of action was to chill as the bus was not going anywhere fast. Matt delighted in his steak sandwich made from the night befores leftovers. After 6 hours we arrived in Humahuaca which is beautiful little town with cobbled streets and surrounded by yet more cactii and colourful palate of rock formation. We decided to park up here for 2 nights to acclimatise before heading to Bolivia as we were now at 3000m. We spent our full day here walking to see some ruins in an outlying village called Coctaca. We were told not to try this in the heat of the day and boy were they right. We walked 10kms to what ended up being a pile of rocks and a hundful of mud brick houses. So after our 10km walk back, a cold beer was on the top of our list and we sampled some fantastic local quisine (humita, tamales and goats cheese empanada). So that updates us to now when we are about to cross the Bolivian border and say goodbye to Argentina.

Quote of the day from a Begium aquaintence:
we ask- Have you been to Australia?
Answer- Yes. I loved it!
we ask-Have you been to New Zealand?
Answer-only Tasmania
(Leanne found this hilarious!)

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Photos

Another Road Block
More Tyres Burning

After step 1070
The View of Salta

Desert Country
Coctaca Ruins (all we could see were rocks and more Cactus)

Sun Set
Nice spot to wash down a quiet Cerveza