Heading north...

We have left Cafayate. We were at our hostel for such a long time compared to other travellers that the lovely manager offered me a job! I found it interesting to see how many people travelled through in the time we were there. They all had schedules to keep to, places to get to and people to meet along their chosen journeys. All of them kept asking us why we would want to stay in such a small town for longer than a couple of days and what could we possibly have to do there... mean while we were wandering why nobody wanted to stay in such an idyllic town for as long as they could and why we had to do anything at all except absorb our surroundings, enjoy talking to the locals and take some time to breath and relax. We did decide that it was time to move on however when one of the days our only objective was to try a particular type of ice-cream!

We spent a couple of days in Salta, a city with lots of tourists, lots of traffic and after the peace of the countryside the change of pace was really noticeable. Salta had some nice bits to it but I didn't feel like we were missing out on anything spectacular by only spending a short time there. The highlight was definitely a ski-type-lift to the top of a nearby hill where you could see the whole city. Scary trip up but worth it for the view.

We then booked our bus to head north past Jujuy (pronounced who-who-eee... I tried all sorts before I worked out how to say that one!) and when we were all packed up and standing, waiting for our bus we suddenly realised there were quite a lot of policemen around, men with make shift percussion instruments and firecrackers, and crowds of confused tourists. Long story short, there was a national bus strike and we ended up getting a couple of quite expensive lifts/taxis to our next destination.

So, having left Cafayate, one of the most gorgeous places we have ever been to, we have now arrived in the equally gorgeous village of Tilcara! Tilcara is surrounded by mountains with layers of rocks of every shade of red, orange and brown. The little maze of cobbled streets climbs up the mountain and the weathered looking buildings look like they have been cut out of the hillside. The sun quickly heats your skin as the cold air cools you down and for the first time it feels like we have begun our journey through the Andes.