Frozen bodies

After a couple of days in iguazu we headed for Salta, north west Argentina. Due to a faulty air con system on the bus we spent 2 hours of the jouney to salta in a bus garage. During this time we met a Dutch couple and two English lads.

Salta was a nice change from Iguazu, friendly people, beautifull churches and parks, and most of all we all found a clean comfy hostel, Hostal La Linda (meaning pretty). That night the owners took us to an amazing local steak house (and there was us thinking the steak we had in BA was big!!). The meal and wine cost us less than a ´super size bigmac meal´ in the UK. Rob loves Argentina!

We decided to get off our fat lazy bottoms and work off some of that beer and steak. All 6 of us rented bikes and headed for ´the best mountin bike ride in South America´.

We were told not to forget our suncream and a hat, not one word was said about taking a jumper! Following an early rise at 6am and a rather long bumpy ride in a dodgy bus we arrived at the top of the mountain range in the clouds (over 3400m above sea level). We now realised that our suncream and hat was not needed and our shorts and tshirts were extremely inadequate! With visibility of 3 meters and temperatures at zero we headed as fast a possible down the mountain range.

This was our first experience of the effects of altitude and lack of oxygen! The ride was mostly downhill but even the slightest of uphills would see us out of breath (ok so it could be down to all the steaks and being unfit, but we prefer to blame the altitude!) A couple of hours later and after a number of moans and frozen toilet stops we reached below the cloud level.

The temperature rose and at last we could appreciate the amazing scenery and begin to understand why this ride was rated so highly. Around every bend there was picture, with amazing mountain ranges and colours! The ride should have taken 6-7hrs, but after a half hour stop for a puncture on one of the english lad bikes, disaster struck my bike(rob). After some riding in a stream the inner tube and tyre went pop!!! We tried a bodge repair but the tyre was knackered, so the rest of the ride was done very slowly. We got back to Salta late that night after an incident filled amazing bike ride! Beer all around.