Tilcara

A 4 hour bus ride north has brought us to our next stop, Tilcara (122P, Balut). The second half of the journey was absolutely stunning, riding through the magnificent Andes. Huge mountains of different coloured rock, covered in cacti.

On the way we continued to see lots of little shrines at the side of the road. Google says these are tributes for Gaucho Gil, a Robin Hood type figure.

We are staying in Waira hostel / campsite (300P, 4th night free). It has beautiful little rooms surrounding a courtyard.

Tilcara is a beautiful little town, full of cobbles, dust and llamas - we've both fallen in love with it. At 2,500m, it is the next step up in our altitude training and we felt it walking with our bags! When we got off the bus we were hit by a wave of heat which was a welcome change from Salta however about 4pm the clouds came over, the wind picked up and then it got a bit shivery. My fleecy coat came out!

At last, I got to try Argentinian ice cream and it was worth the wait - huge waffle cone dipped in chocolate and nuts with 2 big scoops and choc sauce for just over £1. Anna struggled to finish hers so I was kind and helped out :)

For dinner we went to Qomer and Anna had Wok Andino - quinoa, vegetables and llama (taste is similar to venison we decided). I had the veggie version which was bland in comparison but nice to eat healthy food. Portions were huge and could easily have shared. We also shared a humita for starter (mushed corn and masa harina wrapped in husk) which was nice but fairly bland in my opinion. Anna decided to order a huge litre bottle of beer which she could barely finish (tummy bug really took it out of her!). With fresh orange juice for me it cost 271P so not cheap but good to try all the regional dishes.

Our room is cold. It doesn't retain the heat of the day and we have a small heater which is next to useless. Whilst I snuggled up under 2 llama blankets, Anna was prancing around with little on. When questioned why she wasn't cold she replied "I've just eaten half a llama... And llama stuff keeps you warm, right?". Beer jacket?!Read more