Thursday morning I got up before anyone feeling refreshed and absent any signs of altitude sickness.  After a lazy breakfast (which of course included mate), we packed up the car and headed out.  Our path today would take us back past the saltflats to start circling back towards Salta.

Once we passed the saltflats, we stayed in the flatlands. The morning drive had little to offer in terms of scenery.  Sure, we passed by the random burro or horse or guy on a bike.  But, that was about it.  For lunch we stopped off in San Antonio de los Cobres.  After lunch, we had another incident involving one my compatriots.  Pepe, without warning, fell off his chair onto the floor – a victim of altitude sickness.  We got him to the hospital where he was given plenty of oxygen to get him to a state where he could travel in the car.  Luckily, we weren’t far from where we would get out of the high altitude.

The afternoon drive was fairly relaxed.  We traveled through some beautiful canyons.  The route we took was the old “Tren de las Nubes” or, Train of the Clouds, route.  It hasn’t run for years but the scenery in the area was spectacular.

Our goal was to get to Salta for the evening, but by 8PM we were still at least 2 hours away.  So, we stopped off in the town of Campo Quijano.  We struggled to find lodging for the first time on the trip.  We approached a hostel off the main road when a guy with his son drove up next to us asking if we needed lodging.  He turned out to be the owner of the hostel – which was fully booked.  But, he said he had a house we could rent.  So, we followed him and we stunned by what he offered us.

We had each been paying about 25 pesos (~8USD) per night everywhere we stayed.  We had the full range from cabanas to shared rooms with bunkbeds.  For the same cost, we had a 3 bedroom house.  We immediately took it.  We couldn’t believe our luck.

The guys went to the store to buy a few things while Kim took the lead in the kitchen with Noemi’s help.  We had a grand feast to celebrate our last night together.  We reflected on the week and toasted each other.  A week ago we didn’t know each other and here we were after a week-long roadtrip like we were old friends.  Truly a remarkable week.  Given all the luck we had had this past week with lodging, sightseeing, friendships, etc., I nicknamed us, “Los Cinco Suertes” aka, The Lucky Five.

Originally Published September 14, 2007

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Tags: Argentina travel, career break travel, Jeff's Career Break Blog

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