Neil's and Lloyd's Most Excellent Adventure: The Pitstop to Nowhere, One Month and 19924.32 km

One month... I can´t believe it has gone so quickly! I have seen so many things these past 30 days and yet it feels if we have barely started. We have travelled, as the crow flies, 19924.32 km! That´s almost halfway around the world!

I woke up with a good feeling. The spider bite (probably) that I suffered in Mendoza is not turning into a necrotic wound. I´ll probably live...

NOT AGAIN!

We are now in Salta and it was a big suprise! For some reason I had the notion that Salta was going to be a desert town or at least dry with vineyards. The only desert here is the green type. We´re back into the humid jungles. Apparently though just a few kilometers west and you do get the dry Andean conditions I was expecting. Salta is a very colonial city, with typical Spanish architecture. Pink buildings, narrow cobbled streets, leafy plazas, little cafés selling cheap lunches and strong coffee and gold-gilded almost gaudy cathedrals and churches. And of course more excellent ice-cream. Argentinean ice-cream is incredible! They have about 30 standard flavours to choose from and they are all SO good... Today we have to do our last shopping before crossing into Bolivia. We have to buy insect repellent and some Argentinean souveniers. We also have to go on the gondola. Salta has a gondola to the top of a mountain overlooking the city. Should be beautiful! But, before we came to Salta we had QUITE a bit of adventure. Our trip to Los Penitentes was amazing. First we had to travel the Andean passes to our destination. This trip was probably the most dramatic and intimidating of the tour. The mountains TOWER over you, many of them reaching heights of 5000m+. The bus trip goes through valleys, tunnels carved from the rock and past strong-flowing rivers. The higher you go the more dramatic and desolate the landscape becomes. When we finally came to Los Penitentes we couldn´t quite believe our eyes. Could this really be the place? The 30 dusty buildings looked silently at us while our bus disappeared into the distance. Most of the buildings were deserted and shut tight. Shutters squeeked eerily in the stiffening breeze. A lone eagle let out a harsh cry. You get the idea...

hum the theme song of the good the bad and the ugly

Luckily there was a very nice restaurant open. I call it The Pitstop to Nowhere. Los Penitentes is barely more than a pitstop on the way to Aconcagua and Chile in the summer and a tiny ski-resort in the winter. They quickly pointed us to our hostel, a pleasant little wooden building.

the view of Aconcagua from our hostel

After we checked in we decided to hike our way to the Puente del Inca, one of the main reasons for coming here. We set of on foot towards the next town, 7km away. It´s going to be easy to hitch a ride, I said. Just stick out your thumb, somebody is sure to stop! We ended up walking 5km before someone stopped, and nobody stopped on the way back. It wasn´t that bad. Walking through the dusty, majestic passes holds a certain unique charm. I felt like a gunslinger. Back in the old days.

hitch-hiking in the Andes

The Puente del Inca (Bridge of the Incas) was worth the walk. It is a huge stone bridge, formed naturally, with a raging river flowing underneath. On the bottom there is an ancient bathhouse containing sulphorous thermal springs staining the bridge yellow. Unfortunately you can´t go down there anymore and we had to be satisfied with looking from above.

sulphur caked Puente del Inca

We hiked back and settled at the hostel with a well-deserving and aptly named Andes beer. After a nice dinner at the local restaurant it was back to the hostel to get some sleep. Alas, a band of decidedly strange foreigners had also checked in. They were mostly Polish I think. They kept on giving us strange disturbing glances whenever they saw us and making wierd noises in the showers... Having just finished climbing the mighty Aconcagua they were also in an extremely loud party mood, and sleep would not come easy this night.

The next morning we went up the ski-lifts to get a nice view of the town and surroundings and then sat waiting for the 12h bus. It is only in South America that you buy a ticket for the 12h bus at 13h and eventually get on at 14h30! Nevertheless we finally got back into Mendoza and decided to go directly to Salta on another 18h overnight bus trip. We have to start moving... Here are some of the promised photos!