On Sat 12th as planned I crossed the border in to Bolivia- 6th country of the trip! I travelled with an Austrian couple, Marion and Daniel, who had also been waiting for the blockades to be over. I think it was about 4 hours to the border town then a short taxi ride to the border. You do both Argentinian and Bolivian immigration before walking across the bridge to Villazon, the Bolivian border town. As soon as I crossed the border and walked up the first road I ...

NB. Once again, couldn't upload a picture... Tuesday morning I got the bus to Tilcara, which is a small town about 30 minutes or so from Purmamarca. To get there you drive through the mountains, the Quebrada de Humahuaca, needless to say it was a beautiful drive. Tilcara is another place surrounded by mountains as it is in the Quebrada. It's bigger than Purmamarca but it's still small and the LP from 2010 gives 6800 as its population. The hostel has a garden a...

NB. Couldn't upload a picture of the mountains :-( On Sunday 6th May I took the bus to Northern Argentina. We exited Chilean immigration in San Pedro then drove about 3 hours up over the Andes (a slow climb!) to Argentinian immigration at 4230m! Both immigrations took a while and for the first time entering Argentina the backpacks had to go through a scanning machine. The journey continued and we arrived at the first stop, the village of Purmamarca, at 8pm, abou...

So in total I ended up staying in San Pedro for 11 nights, 10.5 days! I must say I enjoyed what became a little break from travelling- nice to be in one place for a few days, ok, a few more days than normal! Thursday I went for a walk to the ruins of the Pucará de Quitor, about 3km from the centre of San Pedro. It was my ideal type of walk since it was flat, but it was pretty hot! The Pucará is on a hill so you get great views of the surrounding landscapes, in...

Following my first few busy days in San Pedro it was now onto the lazy days! San Pedro is an easy place to relax in, as it is a quiet and has lovely weather. Although it gets cold at night, during the day it is hot and sunny (apart from the 2 afternoon sandstorms!) and so it's almost too easy to find yourself lying in the hammock in the sun with a book, enjoying doing nothing! I am feeling a bit tired at the moment, lethargic is perhaps more the word, but after 8...