This afternoon we arrived in a small town called Tilcara which is just a few hours south of the Bolivian border. Tilcara could be straight out of a gaucho film set. Its dusty and dry, and surrounded by huge mountains. The Andean culture is apparent now as we head further north. The locals have darker skin and artisean offerings are of colourful ponchos and hats made of llama wools for warmth. Its very pretty here and we are staying in a great hostel perched higher above the town. Tommorrow we head to Bolivia which will be a whole new world, and one that we are really excited about.
Before we reached Tilcara, we spent 2 nights in Cafayate and did a tour through the Quebrada de Cafayate. The quebradas are a spectacular mountainous range of of distinctive formations and colours, mostly red but with sulphur green linings through parts. Wind erosion shapes the quebradas and some very cool strcutures have formed which you can climb on and around.
The next day in Cafayate, we went for a hike to the Cascadas waterfall which should be a 1 hour hike from the base of the mountain. Jeb, Arendt (our Ducth friend) and myself set off and said no to a guide as he only spoke Spanish. Bad idea. We hiked through some seriously intense mountains and creeks for over 3 hours before nearly giving up. Having a breather, we saw some people! til now it had only been insects and a herd of goats!. We crossed the creek again (shoes off, sketchy jumping etc for about the 8th time already). The local guide laughed at how long we had been walking and showed us the way to the falls. Which was only 10 minutes so very glad we didnt turn back, and stoked to have only 1 hour back. Freezing so i didnt swim but nice to have made it and appreciate the hidden water source. Despite the length, it was a very cool hike and we felt sore and satisfied afterwards.
We then spent 2 nights in Salta but didnt do much. Took the gondola up the mountain for views of the city and walked down (1070 steps). Like we needed more exercise! Salta is a nice town with an open city plaza area, but really really busy at night when everyone in town seemed to be out. Also students seem to overwhelm the place, but we think there was a teacher strike or something that day.
We are now going to eat our very last Argentinian parrilla before we head to Bolivia tommorrow.
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