Salta

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A few facts , this being the age of electronics and wanting to up to date you have to bring some cables and other gear such as this here little computor on which this is written apart from that I have:

1 telephone, cell with charger

1 razor with charger

1 Ebookreader using the same charger as the telephonme but another cable

1 camera with charger

1 car USB carger to have music in the car

1 cable from the phone to the car stereo

1 pair of headphones

1 charger for the computor

All in all about 2 kgs of gear, a few years back I had a pen and got paper on the way!

Travel light is not so easy anymore but then again I DID travel with loads of books to have something to do in my spare time and 15 paperbacks or so weigh a lot as well, but they do work without electricity.

I don't know where I left off the last time, any way Cafayate is a very nice little town , laidback and gentle,

Mountains and vineyards, and amazing colours everywhere, we went for a spin in the chariot and ended up with a flat and the spare was a bummer. it held air but had a large bulge in the side wall ,and this on new years eve, well we got a patch on the tyre for next to nothing but with 2 tyres that were gammy we staid at home all excursions abandoned.

The tyre guy said that one tyre was bad and the other one really bad.

Caught between a rock and a hard place and with 190 some km to do until Salta we decided to save our tyres for that trip.

New Yeras eve saw us with drinks in our hands and merry smiles all over.

Dinner was nice and we hung around until 1.30 am and no party, no music and to top that it was raining and not too warm.

So slightly disappointed we, walked back and went to be, N put her alarm on but didn't wake up, too many Fernets and cokes maybe?

Next morning we heard that the party started at 3 am, wail and hadn't stopped at 6 in the morning.

BUT and this is a big but, in contrary to other hostel people we were bright eyed an bushy tailed in the morning.

So after a leisurely breakfast we saddled up and went to Salta, slowly and safely.

We passed the Quebrada de las conchas on the way to Salta and wow, double wow it was spectacular to put it mildly. The pics are pure misey compared to the real Mccoy but they might give an idea.

Somehow my computor, the only on in the whole hostel does not access the net and I can´t get the pics on this one.

New place Huamaca so we'll see if it works.

Anyway Salta was nice enough but we spent 2 days to many there, punctures galore and they want to mend them properly, and stay away from SIXT carhire, bunch of wankers who can't even spell the word service, they wanted me to buy new tires and bring the old back to Baires!!!

Ruta 40 the famous and infamous is mostly gravel and some sharp rocks abound so now 2 flats and loads of hazzle.

WE went up to San Antonio de los Cobres a 350 km return trip in a beautiful Andean landscape.

A trip to nowhere and back, I'd hate to live there at 4000 m + altitude, The fact that it's beautiful for a tourist for a couple of hours doesn't necessarily mean that it's a nice place to live

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