Salta to Cusco

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it has been a while since the last entry and much has happened. we headed north through argentina and have made our way into peru. some highlights: horse riding in san lorenzo, traveling up to tilcara a magical little village in the north, mountian biking with giant cactus, an epic bus journey from argentina to chile
to peru over 40 hrs straight, seeing a convent that has been closed to the public for 4 centuries, and finally arriving in cusco to see the famous machu
pichu!!

salta -

a beautiful city of little colonial squares dotted with churches and other historic buildings. the whole city is surrounded by beautiful green covered hills. we started our discovery of salta by riding a cable car up to the top of a morro (means mountian). it was sort of like a mini version of corcovado (the large jesus statue in rio) combined with sugarloaf. the views were fabulous of the surrounding valleys and of the city itself. the moutian top had a great little park area filled with waterfalls and a lovely cafe where we had some fresh juice and soaked up some much needed sun. we also go to witness one of the more incredible spider displays we´ve ever seen. litterely every single tree or bush was covered with huge web networks. in the center of each of these was a gigantic spider. at one small opening we counted about 30 spiders.
creepy!!
the next day we got up late (i had a bit more to drink then i intended) and we headed up to san lorenzo. WOW what a find. we got of the bus and were
surrounded by dense green forests and picturesque rolling creeks. after walking around for a bit we decided to do a 3 hr horse back ride up to the top of the mountian. the views were fantastic but even better was getting the horses up to running speed. this was the first time for me and it is excellerating!! i
found myself flying down the trail and the adrenline running through my body. horses are funny creatures because they lul you into believing that you are in
control, this was clearly demonstrated when my horse decided to randomly turn right. i could hear the guide yelling in the background.....after about ten minutes and a lot of urging on my part i got him turned around and back on track. we ended the day with a drink at a beautful cafe, some good food at the hostel, and packing for the bus ride to jujuy (pronounced hoo- hooey).

Jujuy
we spent only one night here, and mostly centered around the bus station. there was a great and cheap hotel accross from the bus station, so we dropped our
stuff and headed out for food. the city was a lot bigger than we thought, and pretty industrial. there were only two main streets crowded with saturday
afternoon pedestrians. we ate at a cafe, then got some ice cream and headed to the plaza. the highlight of the plaza was the gigantic cathedral (i think we are almost catholic now). it had great artwork and ingravings. we watched the sun set in the background and went back to our hotel. we ate dinner of hot dogs (superpanchos) at a cafe in the bus station and hit the sack, an early night for the early morning trip to tilcara.

Tilcara
this is a beautiful dessert town in the andes, dirt streets but wildly colored mountains in the background. we passed through a square with vendors set up all around selling weavings, alpaca sweaters, belts, local foods. it was our first real taste of andean culture. we continued past a church and up an exhausting hill to the hostel. the hostel had gardens and cabanas all around, great places to sit outside and enjoy the views of the valleys, mountains and a river connecting them all.
we ate andean food on a patio: humitas (which are tamales) and tamals (which are humitas) and an andean stew called locro. it was all delicious, and they even had hot sauce or ahi picante! after we filled our bellies and soaked in some sun we went in search of pucara--rebuilt fortress and ruins of the original inhabitants; the humahuaca quebrada. we ended up taking a long walk in the wrong direction, but passing over hillsides with original irrigation systems still in use, cacti that were taller than trees and gorgeously colored rocks. eventually we got back on track and made it out to the ruins. the humahuaca
quebrada really knew how to choose property! they built their gigantic town on top of the hill with the best view (it was also a fortress after all) about 500 meters over the river below, and directly accross from the mountains that changed colors with the movement of the sun. we finished off our day at a cafe with a folklore band who played music from around the region.
the next day we rented bikes and headed up a little hill that felt like mt everest to alana. several dirt and cacti covered hills and valleys later we ended back on the highway for the easy pedal into town. we passed sheep herders and alpaca herders. and we got passed by trucks. we returned to our hostel and sat outside with mitchell, our neighbor, a fiftysomething industrial engineer from buenos aires. we talked for several hours about argentina, his life, our lifes. he was happy to practice his english. we taught him some funny english slang and he shared mate with us. later on, ben cooked us all dinner and we continued our conversations. it was a wonderful night. tomorrow we head out to chile.

Chile?

we caught a bus very early to take us to a bus that crossed the very high (4000+meter) jama pass. the first bus left us on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and yet somehow, our bus into calama chile knew exactly where to get us. the ride up to the pass was gorgeous. we passed the rainbow mountain. it does have strata of every color! we also passed huge salt flats, and then a lot of nothing. barren desert. you could feel the lack of air at the top. about 8 hours later we crossed the chilean border, about 2 hours after that we arrived in calama, and about 4 hours after that we caught a bus up to arica. we arrived in arica about 10 hours after that. we then found a collectivo taxi to take us over the border and into peru. the drive between chile and peru was like the race in the desert in star wars. fast and barren. and our taxi didn´t have a speedometer! we arrived in peru in a town called tacna. we caught yet another bus from here up to arequipa. we made the mistake of sitting on the upper level in front. with each hairpin curve, rise and dive down dirt dunes, and pass by of a car or overturned vehicle on the side of the road our knuckles turned white.

Arequipa
we arrived safely and accident free. but not for a lack of effort by the bus driver. we spent three days exploring the city. this town has a unique look. most of the buildings are made out of white volcanic rock. behind the city, in the distance you can see snow covered volcanos. it´s beautiful. there is a wonderful plaza in the center that feels very european. out of the center there is a gigantic market in typical south american style. we could have purchased anything from a puppy to fabric, fresh produce to backpacks. there are a series of alleys lighted by iron laterns and lined with restaurants. there is a lot of great food and fun bars. on our second day we went to santa catalina convent. it is essentially a walled city within the bustle of arequipa. it has small cobbled streets and brightly painted colonial buildings. they are painted bright to stop the refraction of light from the glass particles in the white volcanic rocks. the convent is very peaceful and quite. there are relaxing places to sit, and the old waterworks through a garden here where the nuns used to do their laundry is now a unique fountain. go figure. the convent only recently opened up to visitors. it was very special to see how they used to live. the place was so beautiful that it didn´t seem bad at all.

Cusco
we took an overnight bus from arequipa to cusco. it was a very long night. and very uncomfortable. so long to the days of the luxurious argentinian buses. we arrived in cusco before the sun. it is weird to get somewhere when it is so quiet and empty. with our packs and hiking up steps we felt the lack of air. then we crashed for several hours and went out to explore the town. we have spent a few days here. there is a lot to see. but more on that later, because i am off to one of the bars that shows free movies during the day. a special treat. one of many. more on that later.

love,
alana and ben

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