aideenandeoin

Up Norf

Hello again,
Getting close to the end ;-(
We´re up in Tilcara which is just north of Jujuy (pronounced something like "who-hoy" but I´m not 100% sure) which is right up in the north west of the country.
We´re now definitely in the land of the cactus and multicoloured rocks. It´s hot and high (>2000m) and even after nearly 7 weeks in the fresh air we both got burnt yesterday.

Yesterday we went to a salt pan (Salinas Grande) which was really stunning. White and glistening till the horizon. 25 km wide and 75 long. We were in a landrover so drove out into the middle for lunch and wouldn´t you know it a German tourist bus came along and decided to set up camp about 30 meters away....
After lunch we had a wee cycle on the salt pan before driving back to the top of the pass (4100 meters) where we got off and cycled the 35 km (and about 1750 meters vertical drop) to Purmamarca. It really is the way to go. I hardly pedalled at all and the guy in the landrover was driving behind aideen and said she was going about 60 kph while me with my 16 stone momentum power was probably going 70 !!! truly amazing (getting a bit overused that word but it´s all true)

Anyway, as to other things... dietwise I have expanded my range to include rabbit and Llama which have both been amazing but unfortunately Aideen hasn´t had more than the sauce (carmel and Black lager... yum). Steaks in general seem a bit smaller up here but are still holding up in terms of quality... Empanada are getting much better as they´re starting to use pepper and chilli!

Back to our travels and not my tummy
Prior to getting up here we´ve been through Cafayate and went to some vineyards where we learnt how to descibe the wines we´ve been drinking on a nightly basis in a proper Jilly Goolden way - "Tea and Chocolate"... and also did some mad cyclying - definitely NOT downhill. 100km through the midday sun, getting a puncture, not having enough water... but the scenery was beautiful - multicolored rocks eroded into all sorts of bizarre shapes.

We´ve also treated ourselves to two lovely hotel-hostels (at Quilmes and Cachi) with swiming pools and as it´s teh end of the season, they´ve been pretty empty.
And we´ve been taking some awesome bus journeys that have succeeded in keeping even the narcoleptic aideen awake.

The music here (and I don´t understand the words) gives the impression of being similar to the mournful Irish ballads and even the small Pena houses seem to have great singers.

Still meeting interesting people (Most recent were some lovely Americans. However none of the american´s travelling are Bush supporters....)

As to the rest of the world, which we see now again, the death of the pope has certainly been taken seriously here with masses that spill out onto the street and tv which has wall to wall coverage. As it´s much older up here there are also a lot more churchs and cathedrals and many of which are over 300 years old and often full of women reciting decats (?) of something or another... sure Aideen knew what they were!

Anyway off to Iguazu on wednesday another huge bus journey so aideen may eventually beat me at backgammon!
hopefully find a FAST internet connection and chuck up some more photos, in the mean time take care and see you later!
E

posted by eoino @ 7:43 AM