Salta

Wednesday 13 - Sunday 17 April 2011

We had our first cama bus experience on our way to Salta - this is meant to mean better reclining seats and better food but we probably won't bother paying the extra again. We arrived at around 10am and booked into our hostel, Salta Por Siempre which is probably the nicest hostel we've stayed in so far.

The first thing we did in Salta was to take the cable car up to the top of one of the hills to look over the city. Salta is the first place we've been to that takes its siestas seriously, so everything closed at 1.30 and didn't reopen until 4. In the evening we had a nice drink on the plaza and watched the people go by, the only uncool thing was the guy across the road who had overdosed on something and was taken away in an ambulance.

Lawrie on the ride up

Looking back down to Salta

The bell tower in Saltas main plaza.

We met some Australian girls who invited us to go hiking the next day so on Thursday we went to San Lorenzo on the outskirts of Salta and had a great lunch by a stream and then went on a hike which eventually took us up a hill that gave us a view of all of Salta and San Lorenzo, very cool.

The creek we followed for part of the hike.

Nice little bridge across another stream.

The next day we went to the next valley across where we spent the day riding horses and hanging out with some Argentine cowboys (gauchos). The views on the ride were absolutely breathtaking, the wildflowers were blooming and they'd had a good wet season so everything was really lush. On our tour we also had two  people from Russian National Geographic who took photos of everything (with a 21 megapixel camera!). It would be absolutely amazing to see those photos.

Kitty on her horse (

Lawrie and Misky (not whisky)

Riding through the flowers

The scenary was beautiful.

The ranches goat.

A group photo of the day.

Lawrie learning to lasso.

Kitty just about to throw

The full gaucho gear.

For lunch we had a traditional parrilla that Lawrie reckons was the best one he had in Argentina (he overdosed a little on the meat) and then went on another ride to the house of General Martin Miguel de Guemes, who is a hero of the Argentine war of independence. The house was built in traditional style of adobe and stucco. It was a beautiful building with lovely views.

General Guemes house.

View along the road as the mist settled.

Looking down into the valley.

We got back to the estancia (ranch) just before dark where we drank some mate and then headed back into Salta, tired and sore but very content.

On Saturday we had some issues trying to post some souvenirs, get clothes washed and change money into USD but after that we had a nice lunch on the plaza and went to the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology of Salta where they have inca mummy remains of three girls and one boy found at 6000m above sea level. It was incredible to see and learn about the ceremonies involved in human sacrifice.

Ceiling in the Museum (Dakar exhibition!)

Gaucho parade (around 100 total)

As this was our last night in Argentina, we (well more Lawrie) went out for a big meat feast. Kitty had pasta. We sat around drinking a nice bottle of Argentine Malbec and had a relatively early night because we had to catch an early bus to La Quiaca and onto Bolivia!