I survived a flood

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The town of Humahuaca is located is a gorgeous canyon. The surrounding mountains are rich in minerals and they give the hills amazing stripped colors in red, yellow, greens and blues. Really amazing. We stayed in the most wonderful hostel, Posada El Sol, with Kate and I sharing a great lofted room with views of the mountains. They even made fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast.

The night we arrived is rained hard, so the next day on our excursion the Salinas Grandes (salt plains), we saw the river had grown by more than 10 times. Pretty much all the locals spent the day watching the river in amazement/horror. We, however, pressed on to the salt plains, which unfortunately, were covered with about two inches of water. They were still neat however. Anyway, by the time we headed home, the river had destroyed the road. Seriously, it destroyed the road, dropping it about fifteen feet. We figured we`d be stuck for days, but luckily the government got busy building a bypass and we were able to make it home by 10 PM. It was quite the experience observing a small natural disaster at work. Yikes!

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After a day of recuperation, we took a small hike to see the sunset and headed out to the cultural center (a cool restaurant, peña and bar) to see your guide`s band (The Humahuaca Trio) play. We only made it until about 1 AM, then turned in for the night. After a day on the bus, I`m now in another canyon town, Cafayate, known for its wine. More on that later.