Salta: We arrived about 3 in the afternoon and checked in to a hostel called Backpackers Home a really cool hostel with very hot water yes bonus....... We decided the next day to do a tour of the ?Train to the Clouds` we set off at 7.00 in the morning and had a full day exploring the landscape we saw some Inca ruins and we travelled all around we got higher and higher and reached 4170 meters above sea level and my word you can feel the altitude Rob felt really ill bless him you feel really drunk and you have no energy at all. But we did it and it was amazing we also saw the 7 coloured mountains which is really impressive its a group of mountains in many different shades and colours. It was a great day and then when we got back to they hostel we had a huge BBQ and my god the Argentinians know how to cook a good steak.  The next day we decided to chill out and check out the town and relax.  Again another beautiful quaint town with orange trees growing all over the place (too sour to eat though) and loads of street cafes (plenty of dog poo though which is pretty common for South America we´re told).  We had nice pizza and on the way back booked a days horse riding at a Goucho ranch.  After a few beers and pasta and meatballs (cooked by Rob) we hit the hay early as we had a long day ahead.  We were picked up at 9am and drove 30 minutes to the mountains to a farm.  The ranch was run by real Gouchos (South American cowboys) and within 30 minutes we were on our horses going through the countryside.  The horses were so well trained it was like driving a car, you pulled slightly top the left and it moved left, pulled back and it reversed etc etc.  After 30 minutes on the horses (Lee´s was called Pretty Lady) we were doing full gallops and trots!  We were riding for 3 hours before we went back to the ranch to have a bbq and red wine that was produced just down the road.  We all sat around the table consuming the best meat and wine ever and chatting the the locals who lived on the farm.  After the food and a bit of a chill out we jumped on the horses again for another 4 hours.  We went into the mountains, visited a native burial ground and then took a mosey back to the ranch whilst the sun was setting.  When we got back we set a plan to move onto Bolivia the next day.  We woke up and decided we were going to have a chill out day in Salta instead.  We spent the whole day wandering around the orange tree lined squares and sat and had some coffees and pizza.  When we headed backed to the hostel we met a couple of guys Christian (a French Brazilian) and Jon (good old English) who were heading to Uyuni in Bolivia the next to see the salt flats.  We decided to all go together as it´s a slightly complicated route (a train, 2 buses and a boarder crossing) and it would be more fun the more of us there were.

So Salta was such a nice place, really pretty looking and so chilled out.  Anyway, time to move on so we will update as soon as we have been to Uyuni (the salt plane stop off) and experienced minus 20 oC!!  Love you all and speak to you soon. 

Rob & Lee   xxxxxxxxxxxxx