Catch up...

Northwest Argentina has been a great ride. Since rolling down off Paso Agua Negra, Russ and I have cycled through some incredible scenery, camped in some strange spots and eaten many hundreds of ice creams. Chocolate con Almendra is my favorite flavour now...



Some of the highlights of the last few weeks were (in no kind of cronological order):
Camping in a field and drinking homebrew mead
Cactus strewn deserts
Sergio teaching us how to make an asado in Las Flores
Camping in the plazas of little villages
Panchos (hotdogs)
Push starting a broken down German motorbiker with horrible moles on her back
Quilmes beer
Christoph - a preposterous Frenchman
Huge wide views with mountains in the distance
Sandstone formations between Cafayate and Salta
Buying knifes
Screeching parakeets
Stars
Mountain pass between Villa Union and Nonogasta
Milenesa (steak, egg and tomato sandwich)
Condors
Meeting a family who gave us heaps of ice cold water in Pituil
Spending the night by the velodrome in Belén and watching a race through the town.
Watching a cycle race for 5 year olds. There was a false start and they all burst into tears...

Back on my own again, I left Salta acompanied by a marching police band and some men dressed in big hats on horseback. You think I could make this stuff up?! Between Salta and Jujuy the scenery is very lush. A world away from the semi-desert of the last few weeks. At one stage I wound my way through some forested hills that seemed almost like rainforest... Checked into a very sparse "Residential" in Jujuy. Cheaper than a hostal and will serve as penance for the debauchery of my last night in Salta (my second visit to a nightclub on the trip).

In other news... I am still not an uncle but my sister is 2 days overdue and enormous (saw her bump on a skype video call).