The beautiful Norte

We're in Brazil now, and would you believe it, it has rained every day. Punishment possibly for our gloating about freezing Blighty. We're in a gorgeous seaside spot called Paraty - cobbled streets, colonial architecture, jungle inland and countless islands with soft sandy beaches to our east. Shame about the weather.

We've a few days staying in a cool pousada (Bamboo Bambu) and now that the flood waters have subsided the internet is working again and we are able to pay proper homage to the north of Argentina. The truly beautiful norte. Not that we didn't like the south - El Bolson especially (since ravaged by wild fires we've heard) and the alpine-line Lake District were pretty.

But from Mendoza on, we found Argentina stunning - mountains, salt flats, endless landscapes of mountains and valleys, towering cacti, adobe villages, llamas and palomino donkeys strolling across the roads. We were based in Salta a few days - in a delightful oasis called Bloomers, run temporarily by a Argentinean former corporate lawyer turned musician. He has a great love of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Brazilian Bossa Nova; and he also introduced us to some modern Argentinean bands and gave us our first bowl of mate.

And then we toured further north along the route once chugged through the Andes to Chile by the tren de los hubes (train of the clouds);






Then to the huge Salinas Grandes - mile after mile of salt plain glistening like compacted snow (below)



And then up to the almost ridiculously pretty adobe village of Purmamarca nestling beneath another cerro de los siete colores - and the unpronouncables Jujuy and the quebrada de Humauaca






Here's a few pictures while I can....lots of love and catch you later with pix I hope