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| Hi everyone, next installment coming up... ok, right now I am in Salta after a wonderful few days with my old Uni mate Paul and finally have reached warm regions again. I arrived here knowing I was going to miss meeting the canadians (by hours!) and with a stinking cold. I thus decided to stay in an hospedaje as I would probably snore and didnt want to wake anyone up in dorms and wasnted to stay nearer town than the hostel was anyway. Luckily (as it turned out) a worker from the hostel, Jorge, was waiting to pick up any tired travellers and after 2 days on the bus, I was more than that and willing to be taken anywhere if there was a free ride. Within minutes of being there I met up with a motley crew consisting of 2 germans, an english girl and an israeli guy. A very unlikely band and yet all nice friendly people. They were talking about taking bikes out to Cafayate, a small town 180kms south of Salta and cycling back as the journey was reported to be incredible. After much discussion, questioning of a kiwi couple who were cycling around argentina and debates a decision was made and myself included we decided the next day we would hire bikes from here, take a bus out to cafayate and cycle back over two days taking the bus for 60kms in the middle part which was not as interesting. So the next day off we set and I got to know a little more about these guys, the germans, one of whom was very calm, sweet and seemed to me like a big gentle daddy bear. The other was more of a loner, he would hang around the others but did everything individually, ate, slept, everything. The israeli was like the mother of the group and seemed to frustate the other incredibly with his fussing and worrying and yet becuase he was so kind hearted it was impossible to be mean or not have him around. The english girl, of Indian origin was dead cool and the first other lone female traveller I have met here in South America. Anyway, Cafayate was fantastic, a really small desert town, very quiet and full of low adobe style housing. We were met by a guy at the bus stop offering us stay in his house which was beautiful, cool, kind of colonial spanish style with a lovely courtyard where we spent the afternoon fixing up our bikes and gathering information for the next day. We drank a little too much wine that night and I thought we would have troubles but things turned out ok and although we got off to a late start, the result of a crew with such strange dynamics, we were all excited and eager to get out on the road. The road itself was easy, mostly downhill and after 45mins we had already gone 15kms. Suddenly we entered a gorge, a huge canyon which before had seemed far away, although we were surrounded we had space, now we were encased on all sides by giants, immense red rocks and in an instant I was taken back to Bryce Canyon, the colours of the rocks, the feel, the formations were so akin to parts of Arizona and Utah, I almost felt like I was at 'home'. I was wearing my red sunnies bought in Vegas as lovingly retained even after I lost one arm in Brazil. I had attached them to my necklace and although the sun was beating down on the road into the direction in which we were heading I couldnt wear them for the muting of the colours. They were so strong and picture postcard like against the impossible blue of the sky, rows of colours from black to green to grey against a million different reds lined the pillars and windows carved in by milleniums of weathering. Huge amphitheathers accessible only by a hike some way off the road the rocks angling diagonally upwards so that you could visibly see nature in action, the earths plates crashing, grinding and puching upwards causing this phenomoenon, a small sounds reverbarated, amplifying the sound and sending it echoing up through the top. The devils throat, another amphitheatre with layers of rock creating almost a circle raising up from the earth. All of us had set our own pace and the leader (usually Marcus the loner german) would stop every now and then and we would rest and eat and share our appreciation. But this also meant that we were pretty much alone whilst cycling, at times I wouldnt see anyone for almost an hour and to be alone in all this was incredible. This road was continuous for 83 kms until it reached the first point of civilisation outside Cafayate. So we knew we had at least this distance to bike and that was where we had planned to take the bus from. However when we finally arrived there, by this point very very tired after two big long hills which really took it out of us, all being untrained and out of practice, we realised that Alemania, the 'town' was actually a ghost town in which now resided a small hippie community. I met a few of the kids so sweet and heart wrenchingly scruffy and dirty. They told us the nearest place to buy food and water was in Talapampa another 19kms...uphill! they also pointed out that our friend, Marcus, had gone on a while ago and were we going to find him? It was here that I learned Marcus often did this and would probably meet us back at the hostel. The Israeli fretted about everything and eventually a guy in a pick up truck offered us a lift to Talapampa which was incredibly kind of him and he poopoohed any offers of money. We refreshed ourselves there and wondered about marcus who we hadnt seen at alll and then the guy offered us a lift another 60kms to the point we had planned to spend the night in as he was heading that way anyway. We left some money discreetly on his seat almost making it appear like an accident as we knew he wouldnt accept it otherwise. Once there though the Israeli decided he wanted to go home, another day biking another 60kms was too much and so in the end we all went. But what a day, I couldnt stop smiling the whole time and surprisingly didnt hurt as much as I thought I would. So...next stop...the Atacama desert! big hugs raspberries snogs and giggles to you all tons of love Emma _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com/ |
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