Salta- First Two Days

Salta

We flew to Salta. Salta is in the Northwest of Argentina near th eboarders with Bolivia, Peru and Chile. As with Iguazu Falls we had decided to have help from a travel agent. The same one as arranged our Falls trip arranged this trip including lodging, tours and transportation for the first five days of our ten days there. After that we had to find our own lodging but we figured we would do that once we were there and could see which small towns surrounding Salta appealed to us. Things did not turn out exactly as we had planned.

Tour Overload

Okay this is where we all three hit the travel wall at the same time. We were assaulted by Salta. Not that it wasn't a nice place with amazing surrounding areas. No, it had a lot to offer but we did not ask enough questions about the tours, as you will see, and maybe it was just time after eight months to get sick and have to slow down. We have each hit the travel wall at various times during the trip but I think this is the first time we all were there at the same time. When you hit the travel wall you just don't want to go any where or do anything, the food where you are doesn't taste good and you start to want to go home. Often when I get to this point I just don't want to go anywhere, but I still don't want to go home. Now even I was thinking about home longingly.

Route to the clouds

Along the route, amazing colors and geology

Tour Day One

Our tours started at 7:00am the first morning. Anika was too exhausted from traveling the day before to join us. We said stay home and rest for tomorrow. We were so glad we let her do this once we were into our first day of touring. We saw so many things and made so many stops in one day we couldn't remember it all at the end. It was a blur of stimulation, one beautiful and/or interesting sight after another. We went up the route of the Train of the Clouds to Santa Ros, a small village, to see a museum and crafts, then San Antonio a town in the Puna, for lunch.

Museum exterior

Museum interior

Part of the funky collection

Bike made out of cactus

 The Puna is the high altitude desert that is shared by Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. I think at the highest we were at 12,000ft. We saw a very different way of life from the rest of Argentina. The communities up here are poor and mostly indigenous people related to the Inca (who conquered this area) and the peoples that were here before them. They still farm and raise llamas. The food in Salta in influenced by the environment and indigenous traditions so there were some interesting additions to the meat diet. And there was goat and llama meat to go with the beef and lamb.

Salt Flats

Road side alter made out of salt and slabs of salt

We also went to the salt flats, saw vicuna (another wild species of llama), And lots of stunning landscape. But it was along day on dirt roads much of the time up and down in altitude.

Vicuna by the side of the road

We were very high up

The road down from the road to the clouds

 Tour Day Two
The next day was long too and Anika joined us. Luckily there were less dirt roads and altitude changes. We went to some pre Inca ruins that were very similar to what you find in the US southwest. We visited a couple of small towns and churches and stopped at many view points to take photos. Both days we had great partners on the tour, some women from South Africa and a woman from Montreal. The guide was also very good. He was chewing coca all day and encouraged us to do so or to drink the tea. It is supposed to help with the altitude. Coca is the matte for this part of Argentina although we saw people drinking mate too. Coffee, cigarettes, matte and coca these people like their stimulants!

Pumamarca and the Seven colored Mountain

Crafts in Pumamarca

Pre Inca Ruins Tilacar

We were in Humahuaca right before Easter. They were preparing these stages of the cross out of clay just for the event. Adults and young people worked on them together.

Like Dave's new hat?

This was a fun day but it started at 7:00 and ended at 9:00pm. We had dinner all together with the other people from the tour. Again we saw a lot and tried t take it all in. Each night we returned to the city of Salta. Every where we went was very crowded because of Easter coming and the traffic was pretty bad in some places. We were getting tired. But we had one more tour day to go.