22nd - 23rd November 2011
We´re in Salta now and staying at the municipal campsite, which has the biggest swimming pool I think I have ever seen! It apparently takes a week to fill (it was empty whilst we were there). We decided to stay here for a couple of day to sort out ourselves, decide on a route and just take it easy.
On our first day we headed in to the city on the bikes, which was a little hairy as Argentinian drivers especially the bus drivers don´t have much time for cyclist, but we arrived unharmed. We found somewhere to secure the bikes and walk to the museum we both wanted to visit. It was the museum of high altitude archaeology and the main exibit was the almost perfectly preserved remains of three Inca children (only one was on view at anyone time). The preservation was remarkable, not only of the children themselves, but also the items they were buried with. Feathers which had been dyed rich colours still looked as if they had been done yesterday, fabrics as well. It was an amazing place and well worth the money.
The rest of the day we chilled in the city centre drinking coffee reading and generally being lazy.

The 23rd was another lazy day, we rode to have a look at a view point to see if we could get a gauge of what lay ahead of us. The view point was atop a small mountain, (sorry it was probably a hill) and you could either walk up or take a cable car. We opted to take the car to save our legs. At the top the views were hazy, but still very impressive if not a little worrying. The mountains were huge even at the distance we were from them and tomorrow we intended to venture into them.
So, with that in mind we went shopping and made sure we ate and drank plenty. The bikes were given one last inspection and we sat down and chilled out with 2 cycling couples we had met, a swiss couple who had been cycling for 18mths and a Japanese couple who had been cycling for 2 and a half years. This made our little trip fell rather pathetic, but hay we will still have as much fun as possible.