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Published: November 15th 2008
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ladybug
getting geared up Hey all!!
We had lots of fun in Salta, despite the camping!! Our campsite was pretty poor; squat toilets, stony ground, and a family living in the shower blocks!! We were pretty impressed with Argentina however, the change was evident as soon as we went over the border - better infrastructrure (i.e. tarmac roads) better houses, billboards everywhere, very modern!! We stopped at a Shell station which had shiny tiled floors, fridges, soap dispensers, and ferrero rocher- pure luxury!!
On our first full day there most of us went white water rafting. We were expecting a grade IV river and were looking forward to it as we didn't do it in Cusco, as Salta was really hyped up. Unfortunately it was hyped up a bit too much, it was basically a grade II river with a few grade III whitewater sections. We had fun though, the seven of us squeezed into a raft with Frank our German guide and his two dogs- Cami and Waki. It was quite difficult to paddle at times with the dogs sitting in your lap and panting in your face, but we managed!! Some of the sections were great fun but not too extreme
wheeee
soaring over Salta and no-one fell out!! The photos are hilarious. Unfortunately we only had an hour and a half paddling before we had to get out, we felt a bit cheated!! Although when we got back we had an absolutely delicious BBQ with Argentinian steak and sausage and masses of salad and baguettes, all washed down with cold beers, so we felt better about that!!!
When we got back to the campsite we found that it had been fumigated and covered in rat poison, and we couldn't prepare food 'til 9pm. It was enough to make us move another campsite, which was way further out of town but had great facilities- proper toilets, grass to camp on and steaming hot showers!! It was my teams turn to cook and we made chilli con carne. It was an early enough night for those of us who were to do the paragliding the next day.
Six of us did the paragliding, which launched off a hill overlooking Salta. I got to go first and was lucky to get really high - the guide (tandem) performed some tricks which involved spinning around in circles creating a tremondous amount of g-force!! It was class!!
We landed well too. Denise was next and then Tamara, but just when they were finishing up, the thermal current dropped and they ended up having to land at the bottom of the hill instead of at the top!! It took ages for the jeep to make it down and back up, and then we had to wait an hour for the winds to pick up again. Anne and Laura both landed at the bottom on their turns, but Mary was lucky and was able to get up very high - tricks and all!!!
It was a long drive yesterday to the border, and past it into San Pedro in Chile. We are in the Atacama desert, the driest in the world, and it gets really cold at night!! Have two free days here and then we head to the beach again for more camping on the way down to Santiago!!!
Six days left of the tucan tour!!!
Orla
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