Hi Friends and Family, We had a chilled day today, it was the 1816 Argentinian Independence day celebrations today so everything in town was closed including most of the wineries. We went into town for lunch and to watch the horse parades. They were pretty impressive all dressed up in the old 1816 outfits, there must have been well over 300 horses all with women, men and children riding them in formation and cantering. We got lunch from one of the food stands at the parade, we got beef and pork sandwiches, and both were amazing. We walked around the shops (well ones open) and looked at all their different arts and crafts; Vick loved all the hand woven baskets and clay pottery. In the hostel we found a new friend, a stray ginger and white ... read more

Hey Everyone, After our lazy day yesterday catching up with blogs, we decided to head into town to explore today. We got up early, had breakfast at the hostel then caught the $3.90 Peso bus into town at 10.00, which was about 30 minutes. Luckily Vick had her GPS maps working so we knew where to get off near the main square. First thing we did was to walk to the bus station to book tickets to Cafayate as it’s cheaper to book at the station than online most of the time!! On the walk back we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch Vick had soup but they had run out of everything else so I waited and got some empanadas in a small place elsewhere. We wandered around shops and the local area, it’s ... read more

Hello Everyone, We checked out of Talar Hostel in San Pedro at 9am, and then walked the short distance to the bus station where we had booked our 10.5-hour bus journey to Salta from San Pedro Atacama to Salta (20,000 Chilean /£21 each). We were told that the bus may not run today due to the icy winter weather on top of the Andes, but thankfully all was running on time. We chose the best seats when we booked-up at the front so we could stretch our legs out over the rail. They were also semi-reclining seats again and the bus included a cheese and ham roll for lunch and a biscuit and cup of tea in the afternoon! It took about 3 hours to the Chile-Argentina boarder crossing. This was very straightforward; queue up in ... read more

Hi Friends, family and bloggers, We are embarking on the Salt flats 3- day tour (all in one blog). Day One. So we woke up nice and warm in our room this morning, the little heater in the center of the room did its job and warmed everyone. We had to be a Thiago Tours office at 1030 to start our tour and meet our fellow companion’s. We had a shower in the morning and there was a free breakfast of toast and cereal, which was nice and unexpected. We were told we would be freezing most of the tour –day and night, so I went to the shop to purchase some gloves for £2 from a local shop. Classy llama ones!!! We finished packing, went to the shop to get snacks for the trip and ... read more

Hello Friends, Today we started the Silver Mine tour at 9am, after a good breakfast of scrambled eggs and cereal. We had the opportunity to witness working conditions in one of the cooperative silver and zinc mines, the conditions are among the most grueling imaginable. We had plenty of guide books telling travellers not to underestimate the dangers involved in going into the mines and to consider the voyeuristic factor involved in seeing other people’s suffering. It definitely was at our own risks, and there were plenty of dangers with the stability of the mines, which had me terrified during most of the tour. Although we didn’t feel like we were prying on the workers, the miners are proud of their work in such tough conditions and generally happy for visitors to observe their toil. We ... read more