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So, yet another retrospective entry - but at least this time we're still in the place I'm writing about!
This is Saturday, our third night in Salta, and in fact our last night in Argentina, as tomorrow we cross over into Bolivia!
We had a long drive day on Thursday, across more flat, flat landscape. It was a bit more interesting than the day before, as we occasionally drove past villages, with pigs, goats and horses wandering about grazing by the roadside. We also saw the remains of one poor horse, who may have made the mistake of grazing a bit too near the road. The vultures had obviously been snacking on him for some time. Not a pleasant sight. Still, even the sight of a rotten, half-eaten horse corpse was slightly more pleasant than the sight that met us in a toilet at one service station we stopped at, which has to be the dirtiest toilet in South America! (Of course, it may not be, as we've still got a few more countries to see!) We also passed a massive cattle ranch, with thousands of cattle standing wedged together in enormous penned areas, with apparently nothing to eat except dust.
Eventually, however, there were hills on the horizon, and we were out of the flatlands. Salta is at about 1200m, so the last part of the journey was a gradual ascent, and the scenery much more interesting.
We arrived in Salta, settled in to our nice little hotel, and met the other two couples who are joining us for the rest of the tour. Later we all got taxis to a restaurant reputed to have the best steaks in South America (it seems to have been a day of superlatives!) and Tony did actually say that he thought it was the best meat he had ever had. I had some char-grilled vegetables, which were tasty, but not the best I've ever had.
Yesterday morning 6 of us went to a ranch, about 45 mins drive from Salta, where we first had breakfast, and after getting kitted out with 'chaps', and being briefed on the techniques of Argentinian style riding, two gauchos took us horse riding through the surrounding countryside. It was a wonderful 3 hour ride, followed by a sumptuous BBQ lunch and endless quantities of 'vino tinto', provided by our charming host, Enrique. Then it was back to the hotel to shower off all the dust, wash our clothes, and have a relaxing evening.
Today we have explored Salta, which has lots of lovely churches and other historic buildings, visited a couple of museums, and climbed 1070 steps to the top of Salta's big hill, San Bernadino. There was a really good view of Salta from the top, so worth the climb. Luckily there is a cable car too, so we rode that back down in just a few minutes.
Tomorrow's border crossing is at the end of our drive day, and if they let us into Bolivia, then it's only about 100 km to Tupiza, where we're staying for a couple of nights. The town is at over 2000m, so the altitude is going up, and the temperature will be going down!.......... Goodnight.
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