Road Tripping in Salta
18 hours on a bus sounds pretty daunting, but the Mendoza to Salta ride went fairly smoothly as we were kept entertained by movies and bus bingo (hosted by the unenthusiastic bus attendant). Arriving at 2am, we dumped our bags and passed out.
Salta is a city in northwestern Argentina and the capital city of the Salta Province. It is Argentina's 8th largest city with 464000 inhabitants. It is also one of the oldest cities in the whole of Argentina.
Our hostel, Corre Caminos, is a small, cosy place with helpful staff. In the morning we were advised the places of interest to visit and we moved out. The town's architecture is heavily influenced by the Spanish colonial occupation. We walked to the main Plaza and visited several museums and galleries.
The Museo del Norte gives a background to the town's development under the Spanish colonial rule. By far the most interesting visit was at the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology (MAAM). In it were housed the mummified remains of 3 Incan children who were left high up on the icy dry slopes of nearby Mount Llullaillaco as a religious sacrifice. The bodies were remarkably well preserved and proved to be very spooky to look at!
After a busy day we relaxed at the hostel and played some team pool against Scarlett (US) and Johnny (Ire) which we comfortably won! I normally would not rate myself as a pool player at all but I was on fire that night! Must be all the asado I have been having the last month.
Alison (A-Bomb, Snoopy) is a Spanish/English teacher from Minneapolis in the US. She seemed to have lost just about all her possessions at some point or another and still maintained a positive demeanor! Respek.
Nelson (Nelly) Sheridan is a teacher from New Zealand with a penchant for belting out his favourite rock songs on a whim. Also a walking encyclopedia for all sorts of bizarre and interesting facts.
The road from Salta to Cafayate is regarded as one of the most scenic in all of Argentina and we were certainly not disappointed. The green forests of Salta gave way first to green cactus scrubland and finally to red sandstone canyons (they appeared to be mainly angled layers of stratified rock and sandstone). Nearer to town the landscape flattened out and scenic vineyards lined each side of the road. These vineyards were certainly far better looking than Mendoza! We arrived in Cafayate and checked in at the Hostel de Valle, a beautiful guest house that had an upper level conservatory with a great view.
In the evening we walked around town where we picked up a trip mascot, a small Llama figure who we called Senor Fluffy. We had a look at the local Carnaval where the local kids attacked us with spray cans of foam! A spooky reminder of the mummified children from Salta was on display as one of the costumes. Tragedy befell us at the end of the evening when we realised that Senor Fluffy had decided to stay with the Carnavale festivities. He had lasted a whole 4 hours.
Foamed
Snoopy got the treatment too. She also didn't realise that I was telling all the kids to spray her! Snoopy they weren't just picking on you cos you are a girl I'm afraid.
The road to Cachi was a bit more "deserty" than the day before
We arrived back at the hostel late at night and had some wine before heading out to party in town. Nelson, Alison, Helena (Norway) and Maria (Norway) went to a local bar called Macondo which was alright but not gripping enough for us to stay late.
We took the same road back and while the sun started to set, the mountains caught the light in spectacular ways! Another relaxed night in the hostel and poor Riverdance is still not 100% although slowly getting better it seems. We went to the local cinema to watch "Slumdog Millionaire" which was excellent although all the places where Indian was spoken, the subtitles were in Spanish and not English so I missed a bit. Money issues have struck us again with all the ATMs not functioning for damned HSBC cards! On a better note it seems like Seb (my brother) has managed to pickup my replacement card in London and so I should have a solution to my cash flow crisis in a few weeks!
Our next plan is to get to Bolivia but we have decided on an interesting route. We have booked a bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. This is a small town situated near the Atacama desert (driest place on earth). From there we will hopefully get onto a 4x4 excursion which will take us through the desert and into Bolivia where we end at the salt flats near the town of Uyuni.
Riverdance sporting a new tattoo
Salta is a city in northwestern Argentina and the capital city of the Salta Province. It is Argentina's 8th largest city with 464000 inhabitants. It is also one of the oldest cities in the whole of Argentina.
Our hostel, Corre Caminos, is a small, cosy place with helpful staff. In the morning we were advised the places of interest to visit and we moved out. The town's architecture is heavily influenced by the Spanish colonial occupation. We walked to the main Plaza and visited several museums and galleries.
The Museo del Norte gives a background to the town's development under the Spanish colonial rule. By far the most interesting visit was at the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology (MAAM). In it were housed the mummified remains of 3 Incan children who were left high up on the icy dry slopes of nearby Mount Llullaillaco as a religious sacrifice. The bodies were remarkably well preserved and proved to be very spooky to look at!
The Cathedral on the main plaza
Museo del Norte
Generale Guemes who took part in the liberation of Salta - what a hero
Big Moths
View onto the main Plaza
Warning - Spooky mummified kids inside
Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art
San Francisco Cathedral
Owning the pool table
In the morning we walked to the cable car service and took a trip up San Bernardo hill. They are meant to have some ingenious waterfall system up top but when we were there it seemed to have dried up. After checking out the panoramic views of town we took the cable car back down (lazy lazy!).
Down below is Salta
Christ the Redeemer is not only found in Rio it seems
Just as it seemed that Riverdance had gotten over her bout of illness in Mendoza, she was struck down again quite severely with what appeared to be food poisoning. It was a bit odd though as we had been eating the same food throughout but I guess my 3rd-world lead belly helped me out! The doc prescribed some rehydration medication and anti-nausea tablets as well as a diet of rice and bread (I really felt sorry for her now!)
While she was bed ridden I made some new friends in Alison (US) and Nelson (NZ). It appeared as we all were intending to do some road tripping to the nearby town of Cafayate so we decided to hire a car between us. Luckily Riverdance was feeling a bit better so she joined us on our first trip there. I had forgotten my license in the UK so it was up to Nelson and Alison to drive us. Our car was a new, silver, 5 door, Chevrolet Corsa which we named "The Pacifier". I can't quite recall the reason but I remember I was a firm supporter of the name "The Punisher" but this did not float with the rest of the team so we compromised. After we had made our plan we made a team dinner and got ready for the next few days.
While she was bed ridden I made some new friends in Alison (US) and Nelson (NZ). It appeared as we all were intending to do some road tripping to the nearby town of Cafayate so we decided to hire a car between us. Luckily Riverdance was feeling a bit better so she joined us on our first trip there. I had forgotten my license in the UK so it was up to Nelson and Alison to drive us. Our car was a new, silver, 5 door, Chevrolet Corsa which we named "The Pacifier". I can't quite recall the reason but I remember I was a firm supporter of the name "The Punisher" but this did not float with the rest of the team so we compromised. After we had made our plan we made a team dinner and got ready for the next few days.
Nelly and Snoopy with a pretty amazing meal we cooked up
ROAD TRIP TO CAFAYATE AND CACHI
A quick bio of our new companions:
A quick bio of our new companions:
Alison (A-Bomb, Snoopy) is a Spanish/English teacher from Minneapolis in the US. She seemed to have lost just about all her possessions at some point or another and still maintained a positive demeanor! Respek.
Nelson (Nelly) Sheridan is a teacher from New Zealand with a penchant for belting out his favourite rock songs on a whim. Also a walking encyclopedia for all sorts of bizarre and interesting facts.
The team, joined with our trusty mechanical beast "The Pacifier"
The road from Salta to Cafayate is regarded as one of the most scenic in all of Argentina and we were certainly not disappointed. The green forests of Salta gave way first to green cactus scrubland and finally to red sandstone canyons (they appeared to be mainly angled layers of stratified rock and sandstone). Nearer to town the landscape flattened out and scenic vineyards lined each side of the road. These vineyards were certainly far better looking than Mendoza! We arrived in Cafayate and checked in at the Hostel de Valle, a beautiful guest house that had an upper level conservatory with a great view.
Not sure what Nelly is trying to do here
I love the layered contrast in this picture
Senor Fluffy and some of the local wine
Foamed 
Snoopy got the treatment too. She also didn't realise that I was telling all the kids to spray her! Snoopy they weren't just picking on you cos you are a girl I'm afraid.
A local walking his pet llama in the morning
The next morning we were on the road again to a town called Cachi. Alison had never driven a manual drive car before so we needed to give a few lessons before she was comfortable. After a few moments of bunny-hopping around town in Cafayate (much to the locals amusement) she got used to using the clutch and we moved on. Again the scenery was stunning. The terrain was very arid and at times resembled a lunar landscape. We stopped off a couple of times to walk around and take it in. We managed to view a local graveyards and chilli pepper plantations as well as the occasional vineyard.
Chomping on some brekkie in the conservatory at Hostal del Valle
The road to Cachi was a bit more "deserty" than the day before
A Llama!!!
A chilli plantation
The river was so muddy it resembled flowing chocolate
ROAD TRIP TO SAN ANTONIA DE LAS COBRES
The next day Nelson left of us to move onto San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Helena decided to join us on our next trip to San Antonio de las Cobres (a small mining town to the northwest of Salta). We chose this route as we had originally intending on taking the Tren de las Nubes (Train to the Clouds) which was closed at the time due to the rain. Our route would follow the train journey for the most part and would be a worthy alternative. This road was fairly bad in parts but The Pacifier handled extremely well throughout. Again the scenery was fantastic with many multi-layered rock formations and large stretchs of desert scrub. The town of San Antonio de las Cobres was a a pretty desolate and depressing place. The mining had apparently stopped a while back and the downcast-looking inhabitants relied almost exlusively on the tourists passing through.
Part of the track of the Tren de las Nubes
The Pacifier, as always, did not complain no matter what we put him through
We moved quickly through the town and onto the Viaducto a fair distance north. We got lost several times and had moments where we were about to turn back, but in the end we managed to find it! The viaduct is situated over 4000m above sea level and the short climb to the top of it left us short of breath with hearts pumping very hard.
The Viaducto
We all took turns to hock loogies off the top with the intention of hitting Riverdance lying below. Helena here is having a shot
Snoopy's turn
Our next plan is to get to Bolivia but we have decided on an interesting route. We have booked a bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. This is a small town situated near the Atacama desert (driest place on earth). From there we will hopefully get onto a 4x4 excursion which will take us through the desert and into Bolivia where we end at the salt flats near the town of Uyuni.
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