We had originally planned to travel north from Valparaiso to the Atacama desert before crossing over the border to Bolivia. However, after a bit of invesitgating, it turned out that there is very little to see in Chile between these two points. Instead, we decided to cross over the border to Argentina and travel north, before crossing back to the Atacama.

We took a bus over the border to Mendoza, travelling through the beautiful Andes mountains and up some of the craziest roads so far.

Mendoza is a lovely Argentinian town in the wine region. All of the hostels give free wine and pretty much the only thing to do is go on wine tours. We took full advantage of this and tasted plenty of tasty wine. We also visited an olive oil factory which was very interesting. To complete the Argentinian experience, we also ate lots of steak. Its very cheap here, but quite overcooked and disappointing – although that could be because we were eating in the less fancy places!

Mendoza is a very dry city, with 20 cm of rain falling each year. I think at least 10 cm of that fell during the two days we were there and the water was running down the streets. When you’re staying in a place with free wine, this seems like a small problem though!

After Mendoza, we headed up to Salta. All we knew about Salta is that they have a museum with mummies in it. It turned out to be a nice city, with a square that was perfect for people watching. The mummy museum also exceeded our expectations, and told a very interesting story about the Inca traditions. The most beautiful children of the leaders would be united in a ceremonial marriage. They would then be given some alcohol and left to fall asleep. Once they were asleep they were buried alive at the top of a mountain.

These Inca mummies were uncovered by mountaineers who excavated the burial sites. The mummies, along with a huge amount of artifacts, were then put on display for the public.