The time came to head east towards the Salta region, not before the 'charming' Johnny in the Flecha bus office made us a sneaky little deal where we didn't get what we asked for, long story short, if you ever travel in Argentina, don't travel with Rio Uruguay. (It's 100 times worse than london buses and you can find old food inbetweeen the seats, yum...)
24 hours later, after a brief hour stop in Resistencia, right on the Paraguayan border, we arrived in our favourite city thus far, Salta. A beautiful, colonial city with a charming, chilled atmosphere, it all centres around the main square, Plaza Julio. This is where we discovered and devoured the best Argentinian 'Helado', ice cream (Muy rico!). We spent two nights in the town in a really friendly and relaxed hostel called Corre Caminos (the first time we actually chilled out on this journey), and had our first homemade Argentinian steak Paridilla (bbq). Here we also met a Canadian that turned out to be going north to the same organic farm as we were. Small world.
Back to Salta. The town boasts a pink cathedral but don't let the colour put you off and it was very majestic. We also checked out the local mountain that hovers over the city via cable car and then walked down the south side by a few thousand steps. Fantastic views of the city and surrounding mountains.
After our short stint in Salta, the three of us (remember the Canadian?), pressed northwards to Jujuy (pronounced ghuughuwy) where we hoped to be picked up by the owner of the farm, but as he wasn't available, we had to spend a night in 'Ghuuguwy'. The next morning, we headed to the bus station after a dismal night of pouring rain, with rumours that the bus wasn't heading in the direction we wanted. Thankfully it turned up, and the bus was about as clapped out as every other old bus we had taken, but that was part of the fun. Slowly the bus made its way through town picking up all the locals and we witnessed the slow morning greeting ritual that takes about 10 minutes per handshake.
An hour an a half later after meandering through the lower Las Yungas region, we arrived at Tilquiza. Luckily, a French couple, who were staying at the same farm guided us on a 3km uphill hike through mud, water, jungle and more jungle (only to inform us that as we entered the jungle, the massive spiders go up when it's wet and it was very wet...Susan was bricking it!) We arrived at the farm, Aldea Luna Natural Reserve, exhausted as our backpacks are pretty heavy with rubber boots and wine, to a small breakfast before being guided to the corn field for our first day of work. (Volunteers on the farm work 4 hours in the morning and have the afternoon free to explore the 1000 hectares that are on offer)...As I type, Susan has just received a Submarino, hot milk where you place a bar of milk chocolate over it while it melts into the milk...tasty.
We spent 11 days at the farm, a fun experience where we learned a lot about other travellers, in particular the locals, and got a few tips on organic lifestyle and how to live off the land. The only draw back was the lack of meat as we lived a strict vegetarian diet during our stay. We came to the conclusion that some of our views on life and the world are somewhat different to some of the other volunteers who have a more holistic view on the subjects. However, we approached it with an open mind, as you have to do with these farm experiences, and it led to some great discussions and conversations. We came across a couple of characters that you wouldn't find at home, a couple of tarantulas, a diamond headed snake (poisonous) and the foot print of what could be best attributed to that of Sasquash (or however you spell it).
So, 11 days of hard graft on the land; digging, seeding, hauling logs down mountains, macheting, and much more, we got a lift with the owner back to Jujuy where we intended to go north to Tilcara, Pumamaraca for some more country views. However, there was a carnival in the Jujuy region, which meant every bus heading north for the following two days was chock-a-block. So, we returned to Salta for one night with the aim to move southwards. Another excuse to indulge in the tasty Grido Helado. This is where we leave you this time, folks, we are about to move towards a town in the local wine region called Cafayate.
We once again leave you with a few images of our travels. Hope all is well back home....
Salta - the pink 'majestic' cathedral
Enjoying some refreshing watermelon for lunch
View of Salta from above
Iglesia San Francisco
Our first empanada - basically a small, hot, tasty cornish pasty, much better than Ginsters
Balut bus - Gordon and James en route to Jujuy
A refreshing drink in Jujuy while awaiting our bus
Chocklo - one of inmates of Aldea Luna, he liked to find shade in our porch
The communal area in the 'restaurant' at the farm
Luke and Dave from Austrailia
Food - over 100 ravioli were handmade for lunch
Le Toq - Laurent designed the board - it was a game played in the quiet afternoons and evenings, to much cheer and excitement
Paulo Coehlo and Fyodor Dostoyevsky - powerful stuff
Hugo - one of the furry friends - 5 mutts who lived there. Took a distinct liking to horse manure
Susan in her bakers boots - Jujuy had a somewhat limited selection
A hen before it's fed its feast of worms for the day. Yuk.
Susan relaxing by Rio Tilquiza. A nice spot to read and walk
Our dorm for the 11 days.
We call it home....
After a hard days work....smelling pretty bad....
Just when skinny dipping is a little too far, this will do
Enjoying a 6 hour Sunday stroll along the river
Rural head gear...helps dry the hair after diving under some waterfalls
The rare footprint...the locals claim it's an ant-eater, we beg to differ
Beautiful morning sunrise before breakfast, Susan got up nice and early to grab this awesome shot