Tafi De Valle

On the scale of things our latest bus trip at 3hrs was like a trip to the corner store. Destination was Tafi De Valle which is located 2000m up in the mountains. We were expecting to finally enter cactus country as Tucuman and Salta are said to be very dry and desolute regions of Argentina. It therefore took us by surprise when the bus started winding up through dense green forest/jungle. To make it all the more bizzare, with the blink of an eye and a few turns of the bus we reached the peak to see the extreme jungle open out to the extreme dry desert planes and yes we found our cactus which was 3-4 times Matts height (no, that is not a way of saying that Matt is short). The cactus was huge! After finding a hostel and meeting a couple of Aussies and a belgium guy, we went on a 12km rather flat hike following a small stream to Parque los Menhires. Here there is an amazing collection of 130 monolithic stones that were carved by Tafi indians and still wear signs and symbols that are yet to be deciphered. With the 4 antipadeans drier than the surrounding landscape, we caught the last bus back to Tafi for a few quiets.

The climate up here is crazy. If you are in the sun, its stinking hot (given there are no clouds, this is when you choose to stand in the shade) but come night fall when the sun disappears over the mountains, the temperature drops instantly and Matt risks surrendering all his warm clothes to Leanne.

Day 2 here we hiked to a peak in the surrounding mountains which sat over 3000m. Having no map or trail book we asked our friendly hostel owner who gave us directions. Given our very limitted spanish and his very limitted english we left for our hiking hoping that we had interpreted correctly. With unmarked trails and limitted directions we were able to make it to the top with a few dead end journeys along the way. Once again the steep climb was rewarded with a fantastic vista!

Still aware of the fact that we want to get to Bolivia soonish we must drag ourselves away from here to Cafayate via the Ruinas de Quilmes (a fortified citadel built by the Quilmes indians).
Adios for now from the worlds slowest computer.

PS Leannes nanny was admitted to hospital and we are constantly thinking of her.

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