Friday morning, we woke up late (after yet another excellent desert bonfire party in San Pedro) and had to rush to catch our all-day bus to Salta.  Some of our group went ahead to catch the bus, and some were lagging behind getting their belongings together.  I was in the first group, and dropped my bag off, turned around and tried to get everyone else together.

I walked down two blocks, found some of the others and led them to where the bus was.  Or rather, to where the bus had been.  We were left standing in the dust that our bus had left behind.  I didn’t panic until I realized that all of my worldly possessions were presumably speeding toward Salta, across the border in Argentina.

My other two stranded friends assured me that all would be fine, as we set out down the dusty road in an attempt to hitchhike across the border.  Soon enough, we found that we were actually very close to the Chilean border control, and figured that might be a good spot to try and catch a ride.  As it came into view, I saw a number of buses waiting in line to be processed, including, luckily enough, ours.  We flagged them down, explained ourselves, rushed through processing (ahead of some very understanding and friendly Argentinians and Chileans) and took our seats on the bus.

The rest of the ride went without incident through some breathtaking desert, mountain and forest scenery until we finally pulled into the city of Salta at around 9pm. We found hostel Correcaminos, set our stuff down, cleaned ourselves up a bit and left to eat some delicious Argentine grub (I think I’m going to love this country which is known for both steak and Italian food, two of my absolute favorites).

The next few days, we spent our time escaping the blazing morning heat, exploring the city, grilling tremendous, delicious, cheap steaks, and partying with locals. Two of our friends had met a girl from Salta earlier on their trip, back in Ecuador, and they met back up with her.  She quickly became something of a guide for us, showing us the cool places to go and also recommending that we join her when she headed back to Cordoba, where she is a veterinary student.  She told us about a folk music festival there over the next few days.

So, last night, we bought tickets (the elusive, mysterious full cama ticket – where the seats recline to a nice flat 180 degree bed – we’d heard the legends but none of us had seen it up close) and set off.  The seats did in fact live up to their hype, as we all had a decent night’s sleep as we travelled overnight to the city of Cordoba.

We’ve been walking around Cordoba in the blazing heat, trying to kill time before our trip out to the festival (it’s a bit of a ways outside the town). Though it’s a very nice city, with some decent parks and some nice archictecture, we just spent four days in the city of Salta, and I’m looking forward to getting out to a festival and escaping city life for a day or two.