The Dreaded Empanadas

A relatively painless 2 hour border crossing back into Argentina, being pulled out of the huge queue and fast tracked through, seemingly just for being gringo's, and being told by the customers officer to walk on through, again just because we were Aussies. A nice surprise. Such a relief to be back in Argentina. A country with fabulous food and wine - little did we know.
We arrived into the tiny town of Tilcara with no reservation. It became obvious very quickly that this may not have been the best of plans. The place was heaving. So G was left in a park with our piles of luggage and I was sent on a scouting mission, and discovered it was the pre-Carnival celebrations. There were almost no rooms left in town. I found a very sweet little hostel with just 1 room left, way over our budget, and I took it.
The next day we chose to wander the streets people watching and sat in the sun eating delicious steak sandwiches and bbq'd chorizo. We found tiny little restaurants that served every type of empanada, our new favourite being cheese and quinoa.
By the next morning G was not well. Bad tummy, tired, nauseous. Not realising it was food poisoning I went out into the world alone, and went back to the same restaurant we had had dinner at the night before. By late afternoon G was a little better so we caught a bus 4 hours south to Salta. And as we pulled into the bus station I began to feel a little funny, 10 minutes later I had my head stuck out the taxi window deep breathing, by the time we arrived at our hostel I was running for the bathroom. And so my complete stupidity paid me back and I spent 24 hours flat out sick. We could not believe we survived Peru and Bolivia with barely more than a hiccup just to be struck down the day we arrived back in Argentina. Damn those cheese and quinoa empanadas!

Once I was recovered we did explore a bit of Salta, relieved to be back at lower altitudes and in green places, we hadn't seen real big glossy trees since Lima! We went to see another ice mummy, the Girl of Lightning, who was 6 years old when she was sacrificed and is still in amazing condition, apart from a small burn on her face that was struck by lightning while she was still in her burial chamber, she looks like she has just drifted off to sleep.