Cactus country

Tilcara is a small town near the border with Bolivia (I say near, but it's still another 4 hours away - Argentina IS huge). It's ringed by cactus covered mountains and full of single story adobe houses built with bricks of mud and straw, and roofs of cactus wood covered in clay. This is real cowboy country folks. Yee ha!
We all instantly fell in love with the town and it's laid back vibe, staying a few days longer than planned to take in the carnival and some mountain walks, including the geologically famous 'mountain of seven colours' in nearby Purmamarca. 
Overlooking Tilcara is the hilltop site of an important pre-Spanish settlement, each building carefully reconstructed and open to explore, and a botanical garden consisting only of cacti, which was much more interesting than it sounds. And I got to try my first llama steak (not dissimilar to pork). 
Surprisingly our guidebook didn't say much about Tilcara, other than it was a pretty place to stopover - but it's been one of our favourite stops yet. Maybe the fact it wasn't over-run with other Gringo's added to the sense of 'discovery'.