Ummm. why did we come here?

  Salta, Argentina Sunday, May 15, 2016

Well we had high hopes of Salta. We know a few people who had been here and all had said yes - it was a city but it was very nice and very colonial. So thinking it was going to be lovely like Quito, Cuenca or Sucre, we headed here in good faith. Unfortunately it was nothing like any of those and neither was there a general backpacker area of hostals and guesthouses. We had arrived around 6pm and after walking around for an hour with our bags and no joy, we headed for a restaurant to eat. We make much better decisions on a full belly and nothing seems quite so bad after you have eaten! We had a lovely meal in the main square and abused their wifi to google places to stay. Eventually Bryan went for a walk this time leaving Jody with all the bags in the restaurant. He came back an hour later and we set off to Miranda Hotel. He had found a lovely friendly, clean place right on the main shopping street - it actually felt more like Swindon than a colonial city! We stayed here just 2 nights in the end. There wasn't much to do here and we did most of that on day 1 and so were bored. Time to head off again. This time we had something more rural in mind. We got a bus and even the scenery was dull out of Salta. Bryan slept and Jody even got started on a book. Then about 2 hours out the scenery started to change - quite dramatically. We headed into a more mountainous area and it wasn't long before we had the cameras out again. As always a few wobbly pictures from the bus but what amazing rocks again. The whole of the eastern edge of the Andes has been dramatic and quite incredible. And all easy to see from a bus window. Then as we neared Cafayate - our destination, the scenery flattened out and became a beautiful fertile valley with vineyards as far as the eye could see. Yes we were very glad we had left Salta and now we had something else to look forward to. Bryan - did you pack a corkscrew???   :-)