On the way to our next stop in Talampaya national park we saw 3 fellow motorhomers, a huge increase in the 0.1 daily average we have seen so far. The first was a German couple in a rugged looking 4x4 overland camper. They had just come from Bolivia and were able to allay some of our fears about the road conditions up there but also warned us of potential difficulties getting the locals to sell tourists diesel. Next was a converted Mercedes van we saw on the road and finally was a cool homemade truck belonging to John and Linda, an American couple who we met in the campsite at Talampaya. Their van was beautiful inside with all wooden ceiling, floors and fittings. We spent the evening there drinking beer and chatting to them about their travels. They had spent the last 40 years traveling the world by various means, bringing up children as they went and had some amazing tales to tell.
The guidebook describes the campsite at Talampaya as desolate and windswept but I think it is quite pleasant, especially the new toilet block where I had the best hot shower I have had since arriving in S America...it's the little things.
The park offers bus, hiking or cycling excursions. The bus was out for us as we already spent a lot of time sitting around in a vehicle, so we decided to opt for a combined walking and cycling tour. What they didn't tell us at the time was that we had to drive the campervan for about 1/4 mile through really deep sand to get to the bikes. It didn't help our confidence that we got stuck in a very small amount of sand coming out of the car park and needed a push from our fellow trekkers to escape!
In the end it was actually quite good fun driving at breakneck speed to keep up the momentum while we slid all over the place.
The tour was really good and we made sure we had a guide who spoke English this time (well sort of).
There was also some pretty amazing scenery.
