Hello 2009!

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Oh my god! What an amazing New Year I had! Everything just seems to be working out perfectly. Had I not forgotten my passport and missed buses etc I would have missed out on so many experiences.

When I said before that I would be happier seeing the stars on NYE instead of dancing I didn´t realise that I could do both!!

Just a quick aside first though. Getting off the beaten track has been great in terms of the people I have met. I have hardly seen any english /australian backpacker types. Nearly everyone I have met recently has been from Argentina which is great.

The hostel I was staying in organised a BBQ for NYE which was really good fun with lots of dancing and eating. At about 1am they whisked us off in a mini bus into a valley where a party had been organised locally.

We literally turned up just as the DJ was arriving with the decks and various other parties of people. The stars were absolutely amazing. I have never seen so many. I just took myself off to a little place on my own for a while and layed on the ground looking at the stars.

Then the music started pumping and it was a full on dance party. As you can imagine I got into the swing of things pretty quickly! I even had a sleep for a while (I am learning to sleep everywhere and anywhere now a days!) and then I woke up and started dancing again just as the sun started to come up.

Until it had started to get light I had no idea where I was. It was bloody spectacular. We were in the middle of a canyon which was 40 million years old! The colours and the rock formations were out of this world. It was such a great place to bring in the new year.

I finally got to bed at about 10am and missed my 2pm trekking (that I had rather ambitiously booked the day before) but I didn´t care. If I had to choose one or the other it would definitely be the party.

The following day I finally made it to Salta! Yipee! The bus journey took about 3 hours through winding roads cut into the mountains. Again the scenery was amazing. Imagine lots of Ayers Rocks that just go on and on!!

I am now in a really nice hostel in Salta. It is a converted house and I have realised that these are my favourite types. The 3 hostels I had stayed in prior to here were all Hostel Internationals and they tend to have big dorms with no windows. This feels like a house.

When I started this trip I had started to keep a note of everyone that I shared a room with but after about a week I realised it was far too hard. It is crazy though to think about just how many people I have now slept in the same room as. Sometimes it is a room full of boys, sometimes girls. often mixed and everynow and then it might be just me and one other. I am so proud of myself for my new found sleeping skills though. I seem to be able to sleep through everything now!

When I arrived at this hostel yesterday I had a bit of a re-union with a guy I had met in Mendoza. We ended up staying up until about 7am (this may explain why I am sleeping though everything!!). It is really cool to bump into people you have met before and I am sure it will keep happening now that I am on a specific route.

Most people from here are heading straight to Bolivia but I am going to explore a bit more of NW Argentina before I had to the desert in Chile.

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Photos

Having a rest
Unfortunaltey my battery on my camera died before the sun came up so you will just have to take my word for how spectacular it was.