We took a long scenic bus journey through to Salta from San Pedeo. We had to stop at the borders to get an exit stamp from Chile, which will be our fastest entry and exit into any country yet, although we are coming back to Chile as we fly out of Santiago. We passed another set of salt flats along the way, right along the side of the road. There were also lots of multi-coloured mountains too. It was also our longest bus journey to date, however, it didn't feel like such a long journey because we had to stop a few times at the border controls, so it really broke it up for us. 

Our only reason for coming to Salta was so that we can get a bus to Iguazu falls because there weren't any direct buses from San Pedro . By the time we arrived in Salta, it was early evening time. We booked Coloria Hostel, so we had to try and find it, luckily at the bus terminal, we got given a map, so it was easier to find. The hostel was a bit further away than we would have liked, but we found it easily enough. They had a problem with our booking, so when we tried to check in, they didn't have us booked in on the system. After about 10 minutes, they let us check in, but still couldn't find our booking, which frankly wasn't our problem, as we had made a booking.

After that, we went out for a wander around the city and to get some food as were starving. When walking towards town, we found a pharmacy and for some reason I wanted to go inside. When I did I saw some weighing scales, and since I haven't weighed myself since leaving home, I thought I would. When I did, I was surprised to find that i'd lost over a stone and a half since we've been travelling. At first I thought the scales were broken, but they weren't . I was pleased that I had lost weight. First thing I did to celebrate was have a McDonald's for dinner! After that, we then went and had an ice cream, at this rate, I'll be putting all the weight back on in no time!

First impressions of Salta are good, there are a lot of Art-Deco, white buildings about. I like what I see so far. Now we are in Argentina, we're certainly noticing the difference in price compared to the rest of the countries we've already been. We walked around plaza and there was a huge Christmas tree and lots of lights dotted around the park. This was a pleasant site as it reminded me of home, and we've not come across many places that look like they are celebrating Christmas. As most of the population are Catholic, Christmas is celebrated and is an important date in the holy calendar. We won't be here to celebrate it, and haven't yet decided exactly where we'll be for it, but we have a bit of time to decide.

The next day in Salta, we had to check out and store the luggage, as our bus was leaving later in the afternoon . We booked the bus ticket from San Pedro when we booked the ticket to Salta, however they could only book us ticket to Posadas, and not directly to Iguazu Falls, but they said there are frequent buses to Iguazu from here. So we went out to visit the city of Salta again today in daylight. The city has a real Parisienne feel. I wish we had more than a day to explore more of the city. There was a nice cathedral which was painted in pink, and the architecture of the city was amazing. We saw the same plaza we visited last night, which was even nicer during the daytime.

When we'd had enough of wandering around the city, we wanted to find somewhere for lunch. We shouldn't be eating out, but it was just easier to do that today. We came across a pizza restaurant, and haven't had pizza in ages. We ordered the nicest avocado pizza, even John was happy without meat! After the pizza, we walked back to the hostel to collect our things and then ordered a taxi to the bus terminal as it was such a hot day, it saved the hassle of lugging our packs around in the heat. So excited to be finally travelling to the mighty Iguazu Falls.