Tafi del Valle, Quilmes, Cafayate
13/7 In Tucuman I meet a couple of mad northerners, share a hire-car with them, and drive off to Calafate to taste some wine, dropping off at the Quilmes ruins and passing quite a few cacti.
Some anxiety going on. The previous night I had 2 dreams. In one I get mad and smash a shelf of plastic cups onto the floor. My sister and mother are in the room. In another I witness a skydive that turns into a balloon landing. I am next and scared.
In my diary I note how of two girls I met recently, the one I spotted and approached myself (rather than being introduced), was more typical of the sensitive type I am attracted to. Not surprising really, but made me think that subconsciously I'm looking to rescue and be rescued but if I want a casual affair, I should pick girls more randomly!?)
Cachi and some canyons
14/7 We're on a tight schedule having the car for only two days, so Simon "Schumacher" puts it to the test. We race along some roads winding through canyons stopping to visit the odd "devil's gorge" here and there.
Spot the backpacker
Salta
Climb a hill. Visit church. Tick.
16/7 Heavy snow, quite pretty.
Get the woollies on, "matching" hat and jumper, as people keep commenting, though the hat comes from Nepal (a gift from my sis). Funny that remote peoples separated by oceans can produce matching winter-wear. Else it all just looks "ethnic". Oops missing the photo maybe will find one.
And since its snowing i take the opportunity to lose my jacket, stolen in a bar at night. I try pity as a chat-up but it fails and I end up going home alone in the snow at 4am wearing only a t-shirt.. de na na naaa. Well the jacket served its time well, and someone probably more in need of it will benefit.
Jujuy
17/7 A bit of a blur. Town itself reminds me of somewhere like Slough, but with better looking women.
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Though i remember staying in a crappy hostel but met someone who told me about a great thermal spa just out of town, so I move into luxury for a night to recover from the cold grime of the hostel.
Termas de Reyes
18/7 Check-in to a beautiful spa hotel in the middle of no-where. Lounge in a natural thermal volcanic pool while it snows. Lush. Just missing the romance.
Purmamara, Salinas Grandes
19/7 Lots to see that's hard to reach by public transport, so i hire a car for a day. Drive to Purmamara, a beautiful town nestled within a strikingly coloured landscape. My pictures don't do it justice.
Here I meet some backpackers including a chirpy mexican I call Divette and offer to drive them to Salinas Grandes, some awesome salt flats.
Later head back and onto Tilcares where we all stay at a terrible hostel. I crawl into my sleeping bag to escape the cold.
Humuhuaca
20/7 I escape alone before dawn and enjoy the early drive, past the tropic of Capricorn (my sign) and onto Humahuaca, another pretty town nestled in more pretty coloured hills.
Find a nice place for breakfast which turns out to be a lovely hotel as well, so I check-in and a naughty thought crosses my mind. I call Divette, the chirpy mexican, and invite her to come over and stay with me (she is heading north also). I'm a bit surprised she accepts. While she makes her way up on the bus, I return the hirecar to Jujuy for lunchtime, and then catch a bus back. The logistics are a bit messed up, times like this I wish I had my own car. Anyway, I'm excited that a pretty young mexican girl I met yesterday has agreed to share my double-room tonight so it doesn't matter.
But it turns out she is a good catholic mexican, and her "body is a temple". Well I had been looking forward to worshipping it, but there were some irreconcilable differences in definition here. So we just sleep peacefully like saints, and in the morning I test her English by using the expression "Morning glory". I explain. At this she jumps out of the bed as if there had been a snake in it (well there was, sort of), and from this point on I'm convinced the one-eyed chappie is on a dead-end mission here.
Scene of no crime
However, we get on well and decide to continue travelling up north together. I can't decide if I like or loath this girl, but either way it makes a change from travelling solo, and I get to practice my Spanish.
Divette, propping up the flintstones bar in Humuhuaca
We hop onto a bus to the Bolivian border for the next leg of adventure..
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