It turns out the "Train to the Clouds" isn´t running due to a landslide which took out about 40 meters of track. There is, however, an outfit that runs 4WD trucks along the same route. I signed up for it, but couldn´t get on a tour for three days. As a result, I had some time to kill in Salta.

I walked to the top of one of the mountains circling the city on Tuesday to snap a few photos from on high. Not a gorgeous city, but not the worst I´ve seen by any means.

Unfortunately, that was about the most exciting thing there was to do in Salta (at least for me), so I headed off to a small town called Cachi the following day. Cachi was pleasant, a village surrounded by towering peaks, but it was really the drive there that was most impressive. Even though I slept through most of it, at points where I was awake, it was really gorgeous.

I walked around the town a bit and visited the cemetary, but there wasn´t a bunch to see, so I headed back to Salta to wait for the big tour.

The Movitrack tour was the most expensive activity I´ve undertaken thus far, aside from my Spanish lessons, and it was difficult to convince myself the cost was justified. We piled into the vehicle at 6:00 AM to start the trip out.

My first concern was that this would be a tour populated by, and catering to, the retired crowd, but it was unfounded. Most of the group of 12 was under 30, and the whole tour had a fairly young vibe as a result. Once the sun came up and the temperature got a little warmer (though not much, it was around 50 degrees F, I would guess) we popped open the top of truck and spent the rest of the tour either standing half-in, half-out of the truck as we barrelled down the mountain roads or, my preference, sitting entirely on the roof. It was awesome, if you don´t mind the frigid temperatures and a few bugs in the beard. Just the experience of riding on the roof as we travelled the Andes was great, but the scenery was truly beyond description. I was taking pictures the entire day, but none do justice to the beauty of the route.

We started out in the Oriental range, inland of the Andes, which were very colorful. Apparently the minerals in the rocks from when they were under the ocean give them the vivid colors. This was the explanation given by our tour guide, and I have no reason to doubt it. They were gorgeous.

We visited the little village of Tastil, which was the cite of some impressive ruins from a civilization 700 years ago. They were quite advanced for the time, but since we only got to visit the little museum and not the ruins themselves, the town llama, Pepito, was really the highlight.

Afterwards we climbed out of the Oriental Range, passing 4,000 meters on the way, and entered the Puña region. A large barren area between the Orientals and Andes. Since we were well above the tree line, the rest of the day, vegetation was at a minimum, but the scenery was really striking as a result.

After winding our way through the Puña and into the Andes, we made it to the end of the road (for us at least) and San Antonio de los Cobres. SA was located at 3800 meters, and we would spend a few hours here for a city tour and lunch. I was a bit concerned about altitude sickness, as we were well over 2 miles above sea level, but I never noticed much impact.

San Antonio did provide me the opportunity for another tour entirely in Spanish. By this stage it was old hat, though, and the guide never caught on to my ignorance (I think).

We piled into the trucks afterward for the chilly ride back. It seems we were driving with the wind going there and the added velocity on the way back my have set back my battle with baldness a couple of years.

It was definitely the best day of the trip thus far, and well worth the money. I probably shouldn´t complain about a $33 trip anyway. For the cost, I can think of nothing better.