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.

Life around Cafayate.

some of the views from Cafayate...

Wow...

...Cafayate is just beautiful. 

Before I go on about how gorgeous it is though I have got write about our epic journey to get here.

We left Cordoba a couple of days ago quite suddenly. About an hour before we needed to leave the hostel it was raining and the whole of the city had decided to get taxis so when we were suddenly offered the choice of leaving right that second, or maybe being late for our bus,  we had to get a move on. We quickly bundled our stuff together and ran to catch the taxi, it was quite an abrupt goodbye to Cordoba.

Tucuman

So, from the time we left our hostel in Cordoba till the time we arrived here it was a total of about 20 hours of travelling. It was pretty tiring. In the end we had 36 hours without sleeping which is not very fun. The first part of the journey was over night from Cordoba to Tucuman, we arrived at 7.30 in the morning having had no sleep and went in search for a bus to take us to Cafayate. We had a small moment of panic after reading the information and asking at the desks of 65 bus companies to see if they went where we needed to go. Not getting the response we were hoping for each time was a little worrying... booth 66 was one of our last chances and it had one bus at midday. phew!

Jim in Tucuman!

We bought our tickets and then had 4 hours to kill so we wandered into Tucuman to have a little nosey. It is a frantic kind of town, not at all touristy, a little unfriendly but really interesting to see. There really wasn't much to do but we did pass a busy but quite run down market that sold lots of plastic toys, sunglasses, burnt copies of dvds and bits and bobs which I couldn't really tell what they were. It was interesting to see a market aimed at locals and not just for tourists.

us on no sleep

We caught our next bus with no problem and were on our way up through the mountains. It sounds idyllic with the gorgeous landscapes and amazing views but when you get travel sick from the smallest of journeys it quickly becomes a bit of an nightmare! The roads were winding and pretty scary for 5 hours... poor Jim had to put up with me telling him I was dying (which I was!) and I don't think either of us would repeat the journey any time soon. We arrived and pretty much went straight to bed for a lovely 12 hours sleep.

a funny llama house

Cafayate is a small town in a valley full of vineyards and bodegas. Surrounding it on two sides are awesome (in the real sense of the word) mountain ranges which each have their own individual characters. The people are really friendly even though they have to put up with a fair amount of tourists, both foreign and Argentinian. The actual town is a perfect size to wander around and you see the same smiling faces again and again which gives it that welcoming feeling you only seem to get from small places in the countryside.

selling llama salami

There are gorgeous views in all directions. I can't really describe all the different landscapes you can see with words but I'm sure I will be posting a lot of photos! Jim probably sums it up best when he says 'I know I keep saying it but this really is so beautiful'.

I feel like I could stay here for a very long time, just relax, soak in the atmosphere and I could easily forget all my other plans.

We booked 4 days but I have a feeling we might be extending our time here.

had a barbecue with the staff at the hostel

lots of meat.

went for a bike ride.