The road never ends, but my savings will

So I get to the valley and sweet little ol town of Cafayate and its dozens of vineyards to visit and wine taste. Standing on the edge of this massive dry valley with pockets of green and with a backdrop of the Andes, needless to say spectacular. Got up in the morning, bought some wine, slab of meat, salt and some tomatoes we took a short drive to where some told up we could climb and reach a river to take a swim. I don´t like bragging about going where no tourists goes, cos what the hell am i anyway, but we were the only ones, with Julian the local tourist who carried his barbeque grill and meat up a mountain in true argentinian style, made a fire and we ate the most tender beef you can find on the planet. Meanwhile some local kid were swimming in the canal and barely watching us go by.

A young mountain man comes by (what did he do really but live and wonder the mountain i don´t quite know) but kindly told us to take our rubbish with us - US! the only ones with containers to collect our ciggarret buts in, let alone other rubbish, and let me remind you that the keep australia clean campain never made a south american version. Anyway, he sat and shared with us and we quickly became friends. Next things you know he´s taking us to up the river where we find a mini waterfall with freaky cold water but with no other option other than to go right in it... little things make you happy to be alive. But alas, the day ended, we saw him off and ended up at a Bodega (winery) to dry the spectacular whites, a specialty of the region.

And then there´s the drive to Salta. We went through these mountain ranges that look nothing like mountain ranges, Las Quebrada de las Conchas (or de Cafayate). How they were formed over millions of years i won´t get into, but suffice to say i saw shapes that that don´t make sense, colours of pink, purple, yellows, blues and greens all on these rocks that look like a napolitana ice-cream scoop. Getting to towns and cities now is a let down, like arriving in stinking hot Salta and getting stuck there cos we couldn´t get our connecting but across the boarder to Chile, although it was quaint.

Seeing we now had 3 days to kill we decided to go to a smoky little village a couple of hours north, although with our bus going at 20km/hr at times, it took us 3. There again was spendour. Cool and unassuming Tilcara happened to be quoted in the guide books and was still coping with its newly found fame, yet not spoilt yet. Sometimes when your on the road a lot and sharing one too many bathrooms it´s such a treat to find a nice peaceful place, so missing our bus and getting stuck in Tilcara was a godsent. It was truely sad to leave that place but we had a date to meet.

Drove through the Andes again, passing layers of mountains and several salt lakes, we arrive to dusty San Pedro de Atacama, Chile once again. It took a whole day but we were forced to get on the bus again within hours to get to Arica, bordering Peru, because there wouldn´t be another bus with seats for days, so we made the gruelling overnight bus ride. Arica didn´t say much to me and it was only recovery time there although we did get heavily wasted on our last night there. A bit of a mistake cos we had to get to the bus station in the morning to get our dodgy tickets to Cuzco. 9 uneccessary hours of waiting in our first Peruvian terminal and then the overnight ride from hell, many swartzerneger films, and 30 hours later we are here in very cold Cuzco, and guess who´s not well dressed for the cold.

It´s christmas eve an i´ll be happy to finish my coca tea, get some warm tucker in me, have a shower and and go to bed.

Merry Christmas!