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Friday off to Salta, after flying for 2 hours and the Pilot of our plane making some dodgy landing manoeuvres we arrived and were picked up by our driver and taken to our hotel. Rhondda was keen to do the City tour so we did that and the boys went for a walk. We checked out the Andean town that is spectacular with its colonial architecture and surrounded by Andean peaks.

The following day it was up at 0500 am for the “MoviTrack safari”. We travelled on a specially prepared 4 wheel drive truck with about 12 other people and followed for sometime a train called “The train to the clouds”. The route took us up onto the salt lakes (Salias Grandes) to 4200 meters above sea level. This company where extremely professional, the driver and the guide were outstanding. A number of people suffered from altitude sickness and the truck had a sick area where people could go and sleep. We could rave on for some time about this trip. We arrived back some 10 or 12 hours later and headed for a restaurant with a view looking out into the town plaza which is pretty bloody nice!

First train to cross over the Andes.

An Indian with his house 3000 metres above sea level.

Our truck with an Indian selling clothing and stuff she had made. We bought the kids some whistles.

These kids came to see us and we asked to take their photographs. The said we would have to pay to take their photographs so here I am sorting out the money. It is hard to imagine how anyone could live here, the land is so barren, but these people have skills that we could not imagine.

As you can see these kids were great and well accustomed to doing business. We thought they were better off than many in the cities who could only beg for money.

The place we had stopped was nothing more than a few shacks and a railway station and shunting yards. This place was called Santa Rosa de Tastil. And the route we were following is called Quebarada Del Toro. That was a purely dirt road with chasms on one side and cliffs on the other. It was only one vehicle wide and at times we had to stop for oncoming trucks.

We had followed the train to the clouds as it wound its way through the pass. On reaching this point the pass became so steep that the train no longer could get traction so a system was devised to raise the train by using points.

In this area the train that has been travelling forward stops and the points are changed behind the train. The train is then reversed reaching a certain speed backwards along a separate track once the train reaches its maximum climb on this set of tracks then the train stops and a set of points in front of the train is changed and the train moves forward onto another set of tracks building up speed again .This process is used a number of times using gravity to help the train climb. In effect the train carries out a number of Zig Zags that have dips in the middle that helps the train use gravity to get to the next level.

The truck has an open observation area and being a biker I stayed there the whole trip. It was a totally awesome experience.

Our guide said that for a place to be called a town it had to have three things.

A soccer field, a pub and a grave yard that always faced the rising sun.

Our driver and guide were two young fellahs who were most considerate, they dealt a number of people who were suffering from altitude sickness.

We noticed that they bought gifts for families along the way. It did not appear that this was a tourist thing or that they made any money out of these people because the truck only momentarily stopped to off load some stuff and then moved on.

They gave an interesting insight into the difference in generations. We were all talking as a group and our young Argentine guide used the words “And our brothers from Chile” The middle aged Argentine guy said “They are not our brothers” So I guess heres the young fellah was looking forward and the older guy buried in his dogma.

The Indian family moving back to their house after collecting their gifts.

A town on the top of the Andes. Note the clear blue skies. This is where we would have lunch being a typical local Andes stuff. Not to my liking but I ate what I was given. This was San Antonio de los Cobre at 3773 metres above sea level. Here we turned off the road to Chile san pedro de Atacama Paso de Sico.