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Published: January 23rd 2007
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Thats a nice cactus
Peter next to a very large cactus. As you can see he is easily leaning on it- showing his immense resistance to pain! Well here we are again with another amazing installment of Pete and Triona´s adventure´s of South America.
We start this weeks episode in the small oasis town of Salta. Well it is not actually that small as it does have four large soccer stadiums- but for South America it is apparently necessary to have one large soccer stadium per 100 people!!! Sorry not soccer- football!
Salta is a nice enough place- very hot though. It is full of beautiful old churches and buildings (by old I am not referring to the Australian definition of old- i.e 150 years is ancient! I am referring to been built nearly 500 years ago!!).
We decided to stay two days in Salta, move onto Jujuy (still cant pronounce properly- resulting in strange stares from bus drivers and local towns people) where we planned to stay antoher two nights and then onto Humahuaca for antoher two nights. At the end of this we were to return to Salta to spend about a night before we got on a bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. However as we have learnt it is very rare for your plans to go ahead as hoped!
Thats a nice cacti
Peter taught Triona how she too can resist the pain brought on by leaning on a cuctus- allowing this photo to be taken. In Salta we undertook very cheap activites such as walking city tours where Pedro (peter) and our lonely planet book were our guides. Part of this tour included walking up a the tallest hill in Salta to check out the view. Pedro (peter) informed Triona that this was for Inca trail training as we needed to become confident stair walkers....
We left Salta and headed towards Jujuy. We chose a bus company for this trip with the emblem of a duck- after all if duck bus can not get us there then no one can!!!!
Jujuy was exactly how we had imagened South America to be- lots of cars, lots of people, lots of noise- basically it was chaotic. Plus they loved there Siestas there (of which we have also learned to love and rely on). Most towns that we have been to have a siesta from about 1pm until 2.30- 3pm. However Jujuy were the masters of the siesta, with it starting at 1pm and finishing at around 5.30pm. The entire town was basically deserted during this time and every store was closed- which made it very hard to find food if you accidently lost track of
7 colour mountain
I am not too sure if all seven colours are visable in a photo- but they are there (We counted)! time and did not eat before 1pm. In Jujuy we stayed in a really cool hostel with a pool and also every night they would ask you if you wanted dinner which they would cook for you and you could get 50 times more than you could ever eat for 10 pesos which is about 3 dollars, it even worked out to be cheaper than going to the supermarket!!!!!!
Our plan was then to go from Jujuy to Humahuaca which is about 2 hours north however when we checked if there was any accomodation in humahuaca there was none so we decided to take a day tour instead. This worked out pretty well as on these types of tours you get to see all the touristy things in one day and then get dropped back to your accomodation without having to do it all on your own.
On our trip to Humahuaca we got to see all sorts of interesting things such as the seven colour rocks and the painters pallet both of which are rock formations where the rocks are all different colours and have really interesting patterns. Humahuaca itself was meant to be an out of
the way small town however since the lonely planet was written it has realised the value of tourists. Although it was still pretty basic the local kids had set themselves up as impromptu tour guides and being the holidays they were everywhere offering guided tours as only a 10 year old can. It was really great to see all the kids doing this as sometimes it can be a bit frustrating to see them just sitting around especially if they are begging for money, but here they were really getting involved and they were making a killing as well. Humahuaca is one of the most northern cities in Argentina and as such there were Catci all over the place. We arent sure how long it takes for one to grow, but some where well over 8 metres!!!! which is a decent sized cactus. Humahuaca was really nice however it was ridiculously hot in the sun which meant there was lots of reclining in the shade in the siesta hours.
On the way back we stopped at a series of ancient ruins which pre-date the incas and were actually concered by the incas sometime ago (i forget) this was really
interesting and the ruins where really well restored. Another interesting thing is that you were allowed to just wander around through them all and go into the little houses etc which was pretty cool. The only problem was that apparently they were built before man discovered the growth spurt and the houses where tiny neither of us could really fit through the tiny doors and much bending was requiered once inside the houses.
We were in Jujuy for another classic argentinian football event the Boca Juniors V River Plate clash basically these 2 football teams are the biggest in Argentina and the majority of the population support one or the other. The match was described in the paper as the "premier superclassico" and being in Argentina we decided we had to watch it with the rest of the hostel on TV. Triona decided that Boca Juniors were her team as they are the poor mans team and triona is a poor man??? Peter couldnt decide and still hadnt picked a team when the match had started, however when one of the River plate players smashed a Boca Juniors player he made a noise and half the hostel turned around
Triona in a small pre-inca doorway
As you can see- we probably would have had trouble in this civilisation as we did not fit in the doorways.. and a few guys asked him if he supported river plate. He was now compeled to say yes and a new love affair began. The rest of the hostel it seemed supported Boca and tried to get him to change his mind however Peter not wanting to follow the crowd became more defiant and his love was greatly rewarded when River Plate won 2-0 and he was able to hold his head high but very quietly as the rest of the hostel seemed a bit dispondent about Boca losing.
We left Jujuy the next day and headed back to Salta where we have to stay put for a few days as the bus we wanted to go on was full and the next one is not for a few days this worked out well as we are now going rafting and after we finish this blog we are going to spend the rest of the very hot day at the towns massive pool.
Anyway its getting hot so we should go
Peter and Triona
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Jen
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Jujuy
Heya guys! Its mad that each new place you go has very different sites to see, and that you haven't run out of casho yet. But DAMN!!! You guys are making me jealous. Traipsing around south America visiting magnificent old civilisations, getting midday siestas, seeing awesome soccer matches AND spending your days in the pool cooling off! Raaa! Raining today back in Syd....while I work....before I go home.....and sleep.... before another monotonous day at work!!! Meanwhile - make sure you get out those Aussie Flags guys and girls - Australia day is the 26th remember. Represent. Keep having a blast!