A shaky welcome to Salta......

So our trip into Salta, Argentina was interesting to say the least! We crossed the border with no problems & continued on our way. It had been decided earlier in the day that we would drive as far as we could to get close to Salta (if not all the way). So at about 6pm we started looking for somewhere to stop for dinner.....that & the fact that we were running out of fuel....& we didn't have driving lights on the front of the truck.....which is illegal in Argentina!! We stopped at the first servo we found & were going to cook dinner there too....until we spotted all the wild pigs running around & the shack in the corner serving as the local pub....hmmmm, I don't think so! We kept driving until we found a slightly less dodgy servo where Andrew wired up lights to the front of the truck so we could keep driving. Eventually we stopped at around 7.30pm to cook dinner...where we were only stalked by some feral looking dogs!

Photo: Even the locals gathered to watch the "Loco gringos"

Photo: Dinner time :)


Soooo, not bad so far. We drove on.....& on.....& on....until we finally arrived in Salta at about 2am & rocked up to the front gate of the designated campground to settle in for the rest of the night.....ummmm, morning!! That was until the security guard came out & told us that it was actually closed for business as it was under renovation....& had no running water! Huh? What's weirder is that they had sent the tour leader an email confirmation for the booking the day before. O-kay.....so we drove around Salta for the next hour looking for another campground with no luck. We ended up back at the first campground where the extremely drunk security guard ended up letting us in. With no running water, all the girls went off into the darkness to look for a "lady-loo", which would have been fine if the security guard & his rabid dog popped up out of the bushes with his torch & stood & watched us. O-kay.....we set up our tents & just before 4am got to bed.....with the promise of a sleep in! That was until the very same security guard who had let us in came around at 7am & started shaking our tents & screaming at us "Get up & get out!"...."You must leave"......"GET OUT"....all the while his rabid dog was barking & running around the tents like a lunatic. It was fun :)

In less than 30 minutes we found ourselves sitting in the local shopping centre, using their free WiFi to find anothe campsite. Luckily we managed to find one....unfortunately it was quite a long way out of town but at least we sure there would be no crazy, drunk security guards at the new place........well, fairly sure!!

Photo: Take 2 on the campsites......hopefully we'll have more luck at this one........