La Cumbre

Our minicoach with reclining seats swerved its way out of Cordoba lulling me to sleep. When I awoke in the late afternoon my eyes fell on the beautiful mountains I had seen earlier this week from the air. We had wound our way amongst them and our trip out of the city had begun. It was a treat to escape the hoards of people who you fight for your space between on the streets and the noisy traffic. Our hostel had a pool (not that you'd have EVER jumped into the green sludgey water) and no English speakers. Once we'd been shown to our room by an old spanish lady with wirey hair and missing teeth I settled down outside in the warm late afternoon sun to write in my journel, which has been kept surprisingly well! There were bikes laid all over the sloping grass out the back of the stone house, being tweaked and maintained by a group of young argentines. The place was deserted other than that, as La Cumbre is where you come for outdoor activities. The radio floated spanish voices and music into the still air, accompanied by birds that visited the roof and the crackling fire inside a more permanent oven style barbeque ready for the evening essado. The odd motorbike could be heard starting up and pulling away in the distance. We wandered into "town" and found that we had arrived coincidently just before the biggest bike race in Argentina is held every year! 9km long the roads were filled with cyclists kitted out in race gear and emerald, amber or azure sunglasses. The sun set over the mountainside leaving yellow and blue layers in the sky, and a cool fresh air settled over us, certainly the coldest it has been since leaving home! Dinner, acompanied by books, was a deliciously creamy tomato & cheese sauce on spagetti, (how I love comfort food) on a deserted upstairs balcony.
We rose early in the morning, Rhi setting out to horseride in the mountains and me to satisfy my addiction to the sky: I went Paragliding! The sun heated the cool morning air quickly and I was glad to be hurtling along a mountain road in a red rusting truck with the windows down and the dust blowing through my hair. We darted around cyclists the entire way, swerving to miss larger rocks and ruts in the dirt track, and jiggling over cattle grates. Conversation was a real mess of spanish, english and french! But we got by and taught eachother a little of each. The mountains opened up infront of us to reveal a valley speckled with cactuses amongst a thick covering of bundled greenery, that thinned out towards the river where the rocks congregated to paddle. Once we reached the plateau 1000m above sea level, where I'd be running and jumping off, I absorbed the 320 view that rose from the steep drop infront of my walking boots (accounting for the road there) with about 10 others, pausing after their assents to the spot on bikes, horses or feet. The instructions were as simple as: push your all weight forward and run until your feet not touch the ground, on my "go go go". And with that and a quick harness adjustement we were up! Staggering drop was marvelous and I could see so much from my little seat- including a small waterfall, and the cars winding their way along the tracks below. It was so calm and peaceful being above everything in sight, slightly more exciting when he made us "dance" in the air. We spotted condors as we swooped though the air and a few other paragliders, with their bleeping altitudemeters. All too soon a running landing saw us safely back on the ground as the chute floated and collapsed in a neat pile to our right. We parted with argentine kisses (one on the right cheek) all round, and delighted with the mornings events, I jumped back in the truck to head back into the central green (or should I say brown, the grass was dying and there were water shortage notices everywhere so we had to be sparing).
Rhi was knackered from her 3 hours clambering over rivers and steep mountain faces so I parted with her once again to do a mountain bike treck over them with my guide Ierail. It was incredible. We splashed through rivers and hopped to avoid rocks, I fell quite a few times to end up running down the slope! The ground was so dry and dusty that the tyres slipped easily if you werent concentrating! The sun beat down on us hard and with no shade to protect us we stopped often to rehydrate, gazing over the views surrounding us, which were so gorgeous, the autumn leaves lit up in the sunshine to blazing firey colours. We also stopped off at an alfahores factory - and I was pleased to discover I could understand a few parts of the tour (including all the different flavours they did there)! I thoroughly enjoyed the free ones we got, the finest ones I've tasted in all my time here!

I have to go catch a bus to Salta now but I shall continue when I next reach a computer!! XX