Rosario

We stayed in the riverside town of Rosario for 3 nights on our way to northern Argentina. Rosario is a small town about 5 hours north of Buenos Aires. The river has lots of man made beaches and it gave us chance to recharge and enjoy the sunshine. We had a stroll around Rosario and came across some beautiful buildings. We even had some home cooked meals there. We tried to do a big shop in a spanish supermarket and I managed to rustle up a spag bol and a stew. I did have to use some ready steady cooking skills though! But it tasted good and filled us up. The only thing to report is that we finally managed to get ourselves lost! We decided to head to a beach just outside the town and took a local bus there. The journey there took us about 15 minutes but on the way back it took us 2 hours!! Somehow we managed to miss our stop in the town and ended up in the middle of nowhere! I cant even tell you where we went! Eventually Mark asked the driver where we were heading and if he could take us back to the town. He was a very nice man and even let us off the bus to get drinks and then back on for free and drove us back to the town he even showed us where we needed to get off! At least we saw ALL of Rosario!!

Salta

We arrived in Salta after another long overnight journey. We fell in love with Salta straight away. Its a very romantic city a little like a Paris in Argentina. We checked into our hostel Backpackers Soul which was really nice and had a walk to the main plaza. It was surrounded by beautiful buildings as you can see in the photos. We ate at a really nice restaurant and watched the people around the plaza.

The next day was Friday the weather was really hot but in Salta theres a perfect breeze so its cooler. So we headed up the cable cars in Salta to Cerro San Bernardo for a spectacula view of the city and Lerma valley. The hostel held a bbq for its guests the 2 of us ate all the beef we could for 25 pesos which is about 4 pound!!

We decided to book a tour with our hostel to see the surrounding areas around Salta. The trip was called the trip to the clouds, it included some off roading in a 4 by 4 and took 15 hours! So we got up super early and headed towards the Oriental mountain range in our truck. The landscape was like nothing wed seen before the mountains had so many different colours. We climbed up to about 2000 meters and visited some pre inca ruins. The guide told us to be careful walking around because rattlesnakes lived under the rocks!! Unfortunaltey we didnt see any just a few lizards!!!!

We understood why we needed a 4 by 4 then because the roads were none existant it was just a dirt track on the edge of the mountain!! Chris, Lucy would of been great!!

We visited a native village called San Antonio de Las Cobres. We were really lucky because after we left our guide had a phone call from her sister to see if she was ok, the village had had a rock slide!! But we missed it by a few hours so were both ok dont worry parents!!

We drove a long way and arrived at the salt flats which were amazing. It looks like it should be freezing cold on the photos but it was so hot still! We carried on through the mountains and reached the clouds at 4300 meters! We started our climb down 2000 meters in around half an hour and arrived in Purmamarca home of the 7 coloured hill. Mark was struggling with a migraine so our guide took him to the local walk in centre as the pharmacy was closed. I was sat in our truck and the guide came out to tell me Mark had been given oxygen!!! I rushed inside to be told he was suffering with altitude sickness but was assured he was ok they told me it happens a lot. He struggled with it because our climb back down was so quick! He was much better then and we headed back to our hostel. Hes 100% now (Monday) so again dont worry parents!! Were going to pick up some altitude sickness tablets incase it happens to either of us again but we were assured that if you reach high altitude gradually we should both be ok.

Now we are on our way to a tiny town called La Quica at the very top of Argentina on another overnight bus we depart at midnight tonight (1st February) and arrive at the boarder of Bolivia Tuesday morning. We somehow have to get across that and grab a train to La Paz in Bolivia. We arrive in La Paz on Wednesday so if you dont hear from us until then dont worry! This is real backpacking!!

Hope you like the photos!!
Missing everyone xxx