Paragliding in Salta

Hey all!!!

We had lots of fun in Salta- despite the camping!! Our campsite was pretty poor, squat toilets and a family living in the shower blocks!!! There ground was full of rocks too, not the most comfortable nights sleep!! We were pretty impressed with Argentina however, the change was evident as soon as we went over the border- better infrastructrure (tarmac roads) better houses, billboards everywhere- very modern!! We stopped at a Shell station which had shiny tiled floors, fridges and ferrero rocher- pure luxury!!

On our first full day there most of us went white water rafting. We were expecting a grade IV river and were looking forward to it as we didnt do it in Cusco as Salta was really hyped up. Bit too much unfortunately- there was a lot of water and the section we were brought on was only grade III- with a hell of a lot of flat sections in between!!! We had fun though- the 7 of us squeezed into a raft with Frank our German guide and his two dogs- Cami and Waki. It was quite difficult to paddle at times with the dogs hanging off your lap panting in your face, but we managed!! Some of the sections were great fun but not too extreme and no-one fell out!! The photos are hilarious. Unfortunately we only had an hour and a half paddling before we had to get out- felt a bit cheated!! Although when we got back we had an absolutely delicious BBQ with Argentinian steak and sausage and masses of salad and baguettes!!!

When we got back to the campsite we found that it had been fumigated and covered in rat poison, and we couldnt prepare food til 8pm. It was enough to make us move a another campsite, which was way further out of town but had great facilities- proper toilets, grass to camp on a steaming hot showers!! It was my teams turn to cook and we made chilli con carne, myum. It was an early enough night for those of us who were to do the paragliding the next day.

Six of us did the paragliding, which launched off a hill overlooking Salta. I got the first go and was lucky to get really high - the guide (tandem) performed some tricks which involved spinning around in circles creating a tremondous amount of g-force!! It was class!! Landed well too. Denise was after and then tamara- but just when they were finishing up, the thermal current dropped and they ended up having to land at the bottom of the hill instead of at the top!! It took ages for the jeep to make it down and back up, and then we had to wait an hour for the winds to pick up again. Anne and Laura both landed at the bottom on their goes, but Mary was lucky and was able to get up very high- tricks and all!!!

It was a long drive yesterday to the border, and past it into San Pedro in Chile. We are in the Atacama desert, the driest in the world, and it gets really cold at night!! Have two free days here and then we head to the beach again for more camping on the way down to Santiago!!!

6 days left of the toucan tour!!!
Orla
xx

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