Back to school

Marion and I are back at school. Well, I'm sitting in a cafe drinking a very good espresso (or expresso to use the Argentine term) while she's at school - my turn this afternoon. I can't be too long as I have homework to do!

Alex and Rijkje in San Lorenzo. Our first hosts, and will be hard to beat!

We are now in Salta, staying with an Argentine lady called Cristina. We left San Lorenzo on Thursday after a wonderful few nights staying at Casa Hernandez with a dutch couple, Alex and Rijkje.  It was a lovely place and we would have stayed longer, but we had the opportunity to do a home stay as part of our Spanish course. We're now each doing a 20hr course over 5 days, but separately as Marion's Spanish is considerably better than mine. Today is day 3. We do 4 hours a day so have time to see the sites and relax too. Yesterday we went to the MAAM museum which was quite amazing. They have a mummy of a child, sacrificed by the incas. Not for the feint hearted.

We've also done our first bit of cycling - an 8 1/2 mile hop from San Lorenzo to Salta. It was great to get on the bikes and ride fully loaded for the first time. They weigh a ton and I think it's going to be harder than I imagined to keep up our planned average of 10mph. But, they're comfortable and stable which is a relief!

Time for some homework, but before I go, we've got a photo album on Picasa now, and a map where we'll be plotting the route as we go.

Bye!

We made it... to the start

Greetings from the other side of the world! I'm assuming that you are most likely to be reading this from England or Guernsey.

We survived our 30 hour journey to Salta without too much of a hitch. They took our bikes on the planes, the screaming babies in the seats over the aisle stayed quiet long enough for us to sleep on the way over the atlantic. In fact, the most complicated part involved a short taxi ride from the airport. At one point we thought we wouldn't be able to fit even one boxed bicycle in the only estate-sized taxi at Salta airport and we seriously considered unpacking the bikes for a 20km cycle to our B&B. Luckily, determination won out.

We're staying in a wonderful guesthouse run by a Dutch couple who have been hugely helpful. Yesterday we had our first awesome argentine steak - the portions are so massive we shared a steak between us. Pob had another steak for lunch today but we're going to a pizzeria tonight to avoid 2 steaks in a day!

Finally, Feliz primavera! Today is officially the 1st day of spring, and it's 32C.