From far far away to home

Finally we have found somewhere that we love, that has made us stop longing for home and start taking our trip for what it is, an amazing adventure. We have enjoyed all of our time up until now, but here in Tilcara with cobblestoned streets and adobe houses, nestled in a valley surrounded by hills covered in giant cactus, we have found a place that has met all of  our expectations.

Cordoba - 4th of April to 10th of April

But first, to recap the last couple of weeks as we have been a bit lazy with our updating!

From Rosario we headed north to Cordoba, where we were welcomed with open arms into the house of an amazing guy who we met through couchsurfing.com. Our welcome to Adrians house was in the form of a sticky note on the door bell.

'James & Brenna, Just gone to get us some beers! Adrian :D'

We knew right away we were in for a good time, we weren’t wrong. Our first night with Adrian he took us to ‘Salta La Linda’ to buy us the best empanadas in town. Here in Argentina I must compare the empanada to the Australian meat pie, or vanilla slice. Each town or region has their own slightly different version, and each town declares that theirs are THE BEST. After our feast of empanadas Adrian took us to a couple of his favourite night spots, he is a party animal and somehow managed to bring that out in us eventually!

Cordoba was a nice city, but big. Big plazas, big markets and big churches and an even bigger night life. We spent our time there lazily wandering the city, the local hills, the parks, the zoo and a museum dedicated to the 30,000 people who vanished during the dictatorship. It was all enjoyable, but by far the most enjoyable and memorable occasions were all to do with the people we met, who took us into their homes, fed us, plied us with many drinks, and showed us how Argentinians have a good time.

We were invited to a family dinner at Adrian’s Grandmothers house, Adrian’s dad had come to Cordoba with a 32 kilogram sudubi fish caught in the Parana River, in Rosario. His grandmother cooked the most amazing fish empanadas, I think the best empanadas we have had so far, and his dad cooked big chunks of fish on the asado, completed with a blue cheese sauce. Delicious. The food was amazing, but even more amazing was the company. Adrian’s dad and step mum, aunties and uncles, cousins, grandmother and brother were all thrilled to have us there, continually thanking us for coming and declaring that it was a new era, an international friendship, how amazing.

We were truly humbled. We were welcomed by a beautiful family, two crazy gringos who can speak barely enough Spanish to get by, amongst a lively, fiery family, 2 of whom could speak English, yet the conversations were real and meaningful despite the language barrier.  And despite how grateful they were to have us in their home, we were a hundred times more grateful for this amazing cultural experience. We were invited to Adrian’s dads wedding in December, I do hope that we can make it…

As I mentioned Adrian also managed to bring out the ‘party animals’ in us. Our night out with Adrian to was celebrate his lovely friend Emilia’s birthday. You must understand that Argentinian parties are not like Australian, while Australian parties tend to finish at 2 or 3am, that is when Argentinian parties start, though they do begin with pre-drinks earlier. Emilies party began with a small asado, at about 10pm, followed by much drinking and dancing. We learnt to dance ‘Cuarteto’, the local, Cordobese style of music and dancing, and drank from the communal jug of fernet. Fernet is the local flavour, and oh I do like it a lot, its mixed with coke and leaves a slightly bitter but refreshing aftertaste. It is always shared between friends. We shared it liberally. Around 2am, when I was thinking I may not be able to handle much more, it was announced that the party was about to start, we were heading out to a local nightclub. The nightclub was nothing different to Australian nightclubs, overpriced drinks, loud music, dancing, lights and smoke, and even though we haven’t been to a night club since the early days of our courtship, we danced and drank and partied with the best of them. We finally gave up the fight about 4:30am, that time in the night when the singles become couples and the couples become attached at the hip, or worse. We headed back through streets as crowded as if it were day, via a bakery that had just opened, and didn’t open our eyes for many hours after our heads hit the pillow.

'How the hell will we get home from here?!'
James and our host Adrian exploring the bus timetable
to get home from our adventure to 'Casa Bamba' in the
local hills.

Tucuman - 10th of April to 15th of April

From Cordoba we headed to Tucuman, where the universe was kind to us in a very round about way. We were lucky to find our wonderful hosts Julio and Innes, again through couch surfing. They have three beautiful daughters, the youngest of whom is 17, and a lovely, luxurious house in Yerba Buena, a suburb next to San Miguel De Tucuman (the capital city of the providence of Tucuman). Tucuman was a nice city, but again, another city. It’s not really our style, city city city city city. The heavens decided to open while we were in Tucuman, it rained every day, but it gave us an opportunity to chill, to relax, to take it easy after our crazy time in Cordoba.

Though perhaps I should be ashamed to admit it, the highlight of our stay was a visit to the cinemas, ‘Titanic 3D’. I must admit that when Titanic first came out I bought the VHS, the soundtrack, and I’m sure I had at least a poster or two on my walls. It was pretty influencial in my teenage years, shaping my views of romance and class divides, and watching it again was a real experience. The cinema was filled with people my age, nearly all of whom were sobbing by the end of the film, the men trying to hide it and the ladies openly embracing. It’s a strange experience to watch a film like that, a film that was really important in shaping your view of romance, slightly awkward as it brings back feelings and memories from so long ago, imagining finding a man as beautiful and romantic as Jack, breaking out from all of your constraints. During the lead up to the first kiss everyone was oddly silent, but when it happened applause erupted through the cinema. It was fantastic, everyone was on the same page.

We tried, and failed, to get tattoos in Tucuman, we tried and failed to get to the local hills, but we did succeed in resting up and having a beautiful taste of home and family life, something we had been missing so much.

Salta - 15th of April to 17th of April

We left on a cool morning that was promising to turn into another soggy day, a sad goodbye to our lovely hosts but an excitement about moving on to another stage in our journey.  This time a few more hours north, where the flat lands end and the hills begin, to Salta, nicknamed Salta La Linda (The Beautiful Salta), and it did live up to its reputation. We stayed only two nights, our main excitement there being a cable car up to the top of a great big hill with a beautiful view of the town and surrounding mountains which left James shaking and me grinning from ear to ear. We made it our mission to try some local delicacies in Salta, indulging in empanadas, humitas and locro, and of course some more submarinos (I’m sure I have mentioned them, hot milk with a stick of chocolate added, wonderful to warm the belly on a cool evening), all of which we enjoyed. The museum in Salta is reputed to be wonderful, containing mummies found in the Andies, but to our dismay the museum was closed on Monday, the day we were there. We stayed in a lovely hostel and left after two nights in high spirits. 

The cable car and the view over Salta. Lovely.

Tilcara - 17th of April to 24th of April

We were told over and over again that we must go to Jujuy (pronounced Hoo-huy), and Tilcara was suggested as a good centre for exploring. We were shown photos and I thought, well, it looks nice, why not… So we seated ourselves on another double decker bus and settled in for another long drive. This drive was much more scenic than any we had been on yet. Through beautiful big green hills, we were surprised as we thought we were heading to the desert. We climbed in altitude to over 2,000 meters and were surprised when we arrived in the capital of the province, that it was surrounded by lush green hills, similar to Salta. The photos we had been shown were of huge barren mountains, cactus, dry dust and blue skies. Well, a lot can change in two hours of driving, even bus driving, which is ridiculously slow. The change was quite sudden, and had us both glued to the window, oohing and ahhing at the beautiful colours of the sand, the giant looming mountains and the great rock formations. Never have we seen anything like it, the photos we saw were nice, but in reality, the beauty is beyond belief. We  knew almost as soon as we stepped off the bus that this could quite possibly be our favourite place we have visited in Argentina, and this has proved to be true. The streets are unpaved, except the main few which are cobblestoned, the houses are adobe or stone, the shops are unimposing, you actually have to look for them, and our hostel is filled with local folk music and wonderful people from around the world, and a view to the surrounding hills.

Tilcara is located in the  Quebrada de Humahuaca, a narrow, fertile valley surrounded by grand imposing hills. The altitude is 2456 meters, over 400 meters higher than the highest point in Australia, yet the mountains that surround the town reach up to 4000 meters above sea level. It is a small town, a population of less than 3000 people, but really it feels smaller. The residents are happy to give you a smile and a buen dia when you walk past them in the street, and despite the number of backpackers the place doesn’t feel like a tourist trap. The days are warm and sunny but the weather turns as soon as the sun drops behind the hills in the evening, an instant change to long pants and a jumper to combat the cold wind.

On our first day here we headed to the local ruins, the Pucara de Tilcara, which were partially restored in the 50s when they were first studied. They are a 10 minute walk from the town, located on a small hill in the middle of the valley, with views of the surrounding mountains and along the valley each way. The ruins are pre-Incan, a fortress that the local indigenous people used to fend off the Incas… a long time ago… traces of habitation go back 10000 years, in the 12^th century the Pucara was inhabited by around 2000 people, before it was finally overtaken by the Incas in the 15^th century (thank you Wikipedia!) It is a pretty amazing sight, the houses were built from stone with thatched roofs, some of the houses, the church, and the animal corals have been re-built, but the foundations of hundreds more houses are easily visible among the cacti that have long since taken over. Amazing.

Later in the afternoon we decided to climb to the local lookout that gives a great view over the town, we headed out with Diego, a great Swiss guy who was staying at our hostel. Somehow or other we couldn’t find the path, which was meant to be quite obvious, so instead we headed straight up another hill we found. It was a beautiful view, a deserted hill, great company, a beer in the backpack and a feeling of success. Success that we had finally found a place that had made us forget about ‘home’, stop pining and longing and start living for our adventure. I may not have mentioned the steep climb that it was up the hill, but I will mention the fact  that we almost had to slide back down the hill on our backsides as our path up the hill was much too steep to go down!

We took a 4 hour horse ride through the hills, stoping for a picnic of humitas at the 3,500 meters above sea level, and having our first taste of coca leaves, a traditional remedy for problems related to altitude. We went for a 4km hike to the Garganta Del Diablo, a beautiful canyon and a waterfall. We had a great time, meeting up with our new mate Dutchy, and our friend Diego. Again, the people really helped to make the journey amazing.

That night the hostel put on an asado at the nightclub that they own, its hard to describe how it feels to spend the day with new friends from around the world, the sit down with 25 others from all corners of the globe, to share a meal and a laugh, and to finally feel at home. To dance and to laugh and to marvel at the strobe lights in the cigarette smoke, to be so familiar with the local tunes that I can almost sing along, to share fernet with new friends and to know tomorrow, there are no obligations. It is corny, I know, but home is where the heart is and up until Tilcara my heart hadn’t left Australia. But finally it is here with me again, the giant mountain views have proved a barrier to my longing, the fresh air and large skies have opened up my horizons, and the people from around the world who are also far away from their loved ones, who open up so quickly and without fuss have started to fill the hole that has been left by being so far away from my family and friends. We danced long into the night with the euphoria of the long day, and needless to say the following day was spent doing nothing, oh sweet nothing at all.

We are still in Tilcara, staying a little longer than expected thanks to a mix up with bus tickets to Chile, but really I’m quite happy about that, as this beautiful little town has given me back my passion for our adventure. Today we visited Purmamarca, a small town an hour bus ride away, with new friends from Columbia, America and Japan. From there we went further to the Salinas Grandes, the local salt flats, passing the highest point of the local mountains at 4,170 meters. It was just amazing, both the highest point and the salt flats, like nothing I have ever seen before but just a small taste of the salt flats in Chile and Bolivia. We then had a lunch of empanadas and tomales and spend the afternoon walking around the ‘Hill of 7 colours’. The colours here in the hills are amazing, but aren’t done justice by photos….

Our plans for tomorrow are to relax, perhaps go to the museum if its open, book in a caving session for Monday, and just enjoy each others company. It is much too late, I have been typing for much too long and I do give you a big congratulations if you have managed to read my whole novel…

Well, I was about to say, its time for bed, but we have just been invited out to the pub, and why the hell not. We are on holidays after all…!

Cacti, Pre-Inca Ruins, and the beautifully coloured hills.

The sky here is so big.

View over the fertile valley to the hills opposite.

Horse riding through the hills.

Our lovely horses taking a spell at the top of the hill.

The 'Cascada' at the 'Garganta Del Diablo'

James couldn't resist!

The view from way up high, I can't tell you the
altitude there,  but not long after we were at
4170 meters above sea level.

Snow capped mountains reflected in the saline
lake at Salinas Grades. Amazing.

The salt flats go on and on and on and on... beautiful.

And Next...

Our plans now are to head to San Pedro De Atacama in Chile, then north to Arica, then into Peru. On the 7th of May we are starting a 5 week Spanish course in Cusco, Peru through www.fairplay-peru.org. I am so loving now, but also looking forward to the future.