Our plan after Paul got better was to do some Salta tourism, namely San Bernardo Hill, then renew our international auto insurance and head north. But when we went to renew it on Friday (11th) afternoon, we were told the office we needed was closed for the weekend, and since Monday was a public holiday, we wouldn't be able to renew until Tuesday!!
There was no way we were doing four more nights at Xamena, so we looked for somewhere else to stay, ideally an out of town hostel with secure parking and other travellers we could meet. After a bit of surfing, Paul stumbled across Loki, a new hostel 20 minutes outside central Salta. He called them up explaining our situation with the campervan and was told we were more than welcome to park up and what's more, they had a promotion on that meant rooms were free!!
Loki Salta main building and dorm buildings
We couldn't have planned it better had we designed it ourselves. It was really nice to be away from the city and, best of all, to meet fellow travellers at various stages of their journeys. They included Franco and Melinda, a Swiss/Australian couple who'd spent the last few years driving tourists around in an 18-tonne truck on 8-month tours of South America and other places. They'd just started working at the hostel on a year-long break from travelling. We got a lot of advice from them about driving conditions, where to stay and which roads to avoid.
The first night we were there, we learnt a new drinking game called 'flip cup'. Guess what our team was called....
The next day Paul helped Franco kicked a door down and then tried to work out why the lock was broken. Grrrr....manly.
The best part of the extended stay in Salta was white-water rafting on Monday. A couple of Irish girls, Sharon and Jacintha, had asked the hostel about rafting trips, but they had asked too late on the Sunday for transport to be arranged. So Paul offered to drive a group of us in the campervan. Franco even agreed to come along with us on the 2 hour journey to show us the way! We had the van at capacity with 7 people: Sharon, Jacintha, me, Paul, Franco and Manuela & Nico - an Argentinian couple from Buenos Aires who had come to Salta for a wedding on Saturday.
L-R: Manuela, Nico, Sharon, Jacintha, yours truly
The rafting was fun - the rapids were only level 3 (of 5), so perfect for me as a beginner. Paul still enjoyed it too, despite the fact that he's done it before in level 4/5 rapids. Our guide, Frank from Bremen, was very funny and the morning was really well-organised (we went with Salta Rafting).
Loki was quite difficult to leave, not just because the rooms were free (until December!), but also because of the BBQs, the massive roast dinners and the bonfires.
We finally left today (Tuesday 15th) after getting our insurance renewed. We've probably got a couple more nights in Argentina before we get to Bolivia, where a new gas cylinder challenge awaits us.
