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Published: November 18th 2005
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It´s been a while since I´ve had access to a computer and we´ve visited the most amazing places since my last entry.
After the two night journies between Iguazu and Salta, I think I´ll try and avoid them as much as possible in future! If you were to look at a map of the roads in Northern Argentina, you´d see that there´s one very long, straight road from Resistencia to Salta. One might imagine that, since about 4 coaches travel along this in both directions every day, the condition of the road might be fairly condusive to a good, smooth journey. Not the case. Alison and I thought we were lucky to be given the two front seats on the top deck of the coach (they´re all double deckers over here!) but in fact it meant that we were far too scared to sleep and had the pleasure of spotting animals at the last minute as the headlights lit up the fields alongside the pitch black road. Fortunately a car in front of us hit a horse instead of us hitting it! We then of course had to back up the road for a while to see what had happened. Luckily
the coaches, the animals and a couple of random cars seem to be the only traffic around so the midnight reversing along a top speed road didn´t cause any further accidents.
Anyway, the journey to the North West was definitely worth it. Salta itself is a pretty little town with some excellent restaurants at excellent value. We hired a car from there to drive up towards the Bolivian border. They scoffed at us when we asked if a 4x4 would be necessary and instead gave us a Renault Kangoo (which is basically a minivan)! Just what we were after! It was fine along the roads through the ABSOLUTELY STUNNING multicoloured rock valley called Quebrada de Humahuaca. This is the only area in Argentina where communities of indigenous people still exist and the adobe villages with local crafts are gorgeous.
When we pushed further on up past the valley, towards a salt water lagoon called Laguna de los Pozuelos, the minivan was not quite as nifty. Although we´d mentioned we would be taking this route, there had been no mention of having to drive through riverbeds to get to the lagoon! Fortunately, on the way there, it was so dry due
Purmamarca
The village with the ´Hill of Seven Colours´. Took far too many photos here but it was lovely! to lack of rain that we were laughing at the river being called Rio Grande. We arrived at the lagoon to see wild llamas, vicuñas (smaller, more delicate type of llama), flamingos (which are called flamencos in Spanish!) and sury (a kind of emu type thing). It was definitely worth persevering down the dodgy track to get there but, having spent a couple of hours admiring the wildlife, we heard thunder and saw a huge big mama of a black cloud over one side of the mountains encircling the lagoon. Not only this but we could see mini tornados! We therefore nipped back to the van as soon as possible to get out of there before the river showed us the real reason for its name! We were lucky enough for there not to be too much water flowing by the time we crossed back over the river beds but we wouldn´t have liked to have risked a moment longer at the lagoon. The dark, brooding scenery lit up by regular fork lightening made for a beautiful journey back and the whole thing was an excellent adventure, dude.
After returning to Salta to drop off the car, we made our
way down to Cafayate, a lovely little town where we met some other travellers for dinner and booked ourselves onto our first couple of organised tours! The first one was excellent and it was only me and Alison with a guide called Rupay, who lived in the mountains 8 hours walk from Cafayate and trundled barefoot over the rocks on our way up to some waterfalls. I´d never done any rock climbing before and was very grateful for Rupay and Alison´s help as we climbed up, through and over huge boulders. Made the final destination even more rewarding and listening to tales of Rupay´s life was fascinating. Times like that when the Spanish really comes in handy.
The second tour was into the Quebrada del Rio de las Conchas. This is a wider valley, similar to the one around Humahuaca. All I can say is wow really - you´ll see the photos.
After that we moved on South to Tucuman, via a little misty mountain village called Tafi del Valle, passing through green subtropical forest on the way. Couldn´t believe the difference in environment from dry, dusty red rock to this.
Tucuman reminded me of India - and not the
good parts of it! Alison took her flight from there back to Buenos Aires to go home and I got on the first bus possible out of there! It was dirty, polluted and the noisy protests in the morning didn´t make me feel any more comfortable.
So, now I´m in Cordoba, smack bang in the centre of Argentina. It´s the second city and seems to have the oldest architecture. I´ve just booked myself onto a horseride around the neighbouring Sierras for tomorrow. Think I might base myself here for a bit and explore the surronding countryside and villages.
Sorry to waffle on for so long! Hope you like the photies!
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