Finding the salt near Salta!

So I wrote this a while back but had such awful wifi in Puerto Iguazú I wasn't able to upload it so apologies if it reads somewhat oddly but I couldn't be bothered to modify it!!

Since my last post I have been residing in the lovely town of Salta. I hadn't originally planned to come here, it's one of the places that is always recommended to visit but in my desire to not make this a 'ticking the boxes' trip, I had decided not to include it this time. However, so many people had recommended it to me along the way I decided that I needed to go there and so I shaved more time off Brazil to include it. Turned out to be a great move! Since I made the decision to go home a couple of weeks early I have just been so much happier and I'm enjoying myself again and so it's been a really great visit here. 

I arrived on Friday afternoon after a 2 hour journey from Jujuy and checked into my hostel where I met Bronwyn from Australia. We sat and chatted for a while and then I headed into town to get some cash and change the remaining Chilean pesos I'd been carrying around with me for weeks! Then after ambling for a bit, with it being siesta time still, I decided to go get a coffee and when I walked into a place that looked really nice, who should I see in there but Bronwyn! So I ordered a beer instead and some nachos and she and I sat chatting for a couple of hours! We then parted company and I went for a mooch around the city to get a feel for the place. Salta has a lovely atmosphere. It feels very safe thanks to all the police and I found out a couple of days later that it has over 100 CCTV cameras to act as a deterrent to crime and these seem to work well as I didn't feel the slightest bit unsafe there.

This weekend has been the International Day of the Museum (I'm guessing in the UK too but have never heard of this before) and it meant that many of the museums and art galleries had free entry (not that this would be necessary in most museums in the UK which may be why I've not heard of it). So on Saturday I took myself off to the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montaña. It was really interesting but somewhat chilling was the child 'sacrifice' that was on display. The Inca tradition was to periodically take the children to the highest peaks in the mountains, there they would given alcoholic drinks to help them fall asleep and when they did, they would be buried (alive) along with the all the things they may need in the next world. It may seem barbaric or inhumane to us but the Inca believed the children didn't die but would pass into a parallel universe and be united with their Gods, it wasn't seen as a sacrifice how we understand it. Anyway the conditions were such that they were mummified and thereby perfectly preserved. It was quite a weird sensation knowing that you were looking at a human from 100s of years ago; both fascinating and yet macabre at the same time. We weren't allowed to take pictures but if you're interested then take a look at their website http://www.maam.gob.ar After that, as it was such a beautiful day I decided to be lazy and take the cable car up to Cerro San Bernardo which had amazing views out over the city. 

The view from the cafe was stunning and so it was no hardship to sit there with a diet coke and a couple of empanadas for an hour or so! Once back down, I meandered around Salta for a bit and then went to the Museum of Contemporary Art which was fab considering it was free to get in, would have been a bit peeved had I had to pay to get in as there weren't that many exhibits! Then I headed back to the hostel, where I met Daniel and Vanessa and that evening the three of us went out to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. Yes, you read that right, vegetarian which means no meat for once!! I had mushroom risotto and it was divine!!

The next day I had a tour booked to Salinas Grande, the salt flats in the northern part of Argentina. It was a great trip that stopped in a number of places including by the latest bridge that the Tren de las Nubes runs over, which was made in Europe in shipped here!

Tansil, where there was a fab little museum about the history of area

San Antonio de Los Corres, where we stopped for lunch and I had llama milanesa. Won't be eating it again as it wasn't overly tasty.

The grand plateau

Again, beautiful views of the Andes.

Where there were lots of cool cacti!

And then Salinas Grandes which was just incredible. 

If it had rained then it would have been like a massive mirror, but my rain goddess skills must have been a bit off and so we got to see it as salt! It was really strange, it feels like it should be snow and yet it's salt! 

This place was a great example of the very long, very straight roads they have out here!

On the trip we passed the highest point in the Eastern Andes at 4170m. 

By this point I was really starting to feel the altitude, my head was hurting quite a lot and it wasn't eased at all when we then descended over 2000m in the space of 33km down this crazy road!

Our final stop of the day was Pumamarca, the town at the hill of 7 colours (I think this is what it's called) where there was a market in which virtually every stall sold the same thing! But it was a fun place with a lovely atmosphere.

On the way back the clouds were starting to descend over the mountains and it was a little eerie...

We eventually got back around 9.30pm (we'd left at 7am so it was a long day!) and I had an early night.

On Monday I did the walking tour of Salta, you know me, I love a good walking tour, and this was a fab one. It was really relaxed and Omero gave us just the right amount of information but was happy to expand on things if we had questions. On the tour we went to various places such as the Cathedral, 

Franciscan Monastery, 

Guemes statue 

and Carmelite convent 

and then after, Carol, another girl in my dorm room (who I hadn't realised was doing the tour until we both turned up) and I went and got lunch together, then she was heading off to Mendoza and I went for a mooch in another bit of Salta I hadn't been to before. 

Tuesday was another early morning as I was booked on a trip to Cafayate. The scenery on this journey was again, like no other I'd ever seen. 

In parts there were similarities to other areas of the Andes but then we'd go a bit further and it was completely different again. Along the way to Cafayate we stopped at the originally named 'kilometre 69' mirador as it was at kilometre 69 along the highway. 

Our next two stops were at rock crevasses that had been formed from the weight of the rock at the top being so heavy that it cracked the layers beneath it to form the Devil's Throat 

and the Anfitheatre.

Carrying on a bit further along Ruta 68, the highway between Salta and Cafayate, we then stopped at Tres Cruces which had the most amazing view along the valley.

Our final stop before we headed to our wine tasting was at a gypsum mine (the white part of the rock)

and then we went to Vasija Secreta Vineyard 

where we had a tour of the winery and then got to do a tasting of their Torrentes and Tannat wines. These are not your regular wines, they're known as high altitude wines due to - you've guessed it - the fact that the grapes are grown at high altitude! I tried a semi-sweet Torrentes, purely because I don't usually go for sweeter wines so thought it would make a change! The Tannat I'm getting very fond of, I wish this was more available in the UK.

We then made our way into the centre of Cafayate where we had a couple of hours to explore. I started off with lunch and had a Tamal as a starter

Which is sort of a ground corn mixture wrapped around some meat and then that is wrapped in the husk of a corn cob and boiled. I then followed that with Locro, 

a corn and potato stew with bits of meat in it which I must say I won't be having again I don't think as there were too many unidentifiable bits of an animal in there that really turned my stomach and they stayed on the edge of the plate! Following the ubiquitous flan that is always served as dessert here (creme caramel to most of us) I then went for a wander around Cafayate, finding a fantastic craft market where for the first time there was unusual quality goods for sale not the same thing that's sold everywhere else, but weirdly no one to serve you! Could have walked off with stuff without paying I think! Then I tried wine ice cream! The white is Torrentes and the red, Malbec! 

The white was nicer!

On our way back to Salta, we just made on stop at Los Castillos for photos 

We were travelling back along the same road we'd travelled there on, so it was great as it meant we got to see the landscape on both sides. On Sunday we'd done a round trip and I was definitely not on the best side of the bus for the views but returning the way we came meant that it didn't matter which side you were on this trip!

On my return to the hostel, Marc from Adelaide appeared in the dorm room and we had a great chat for a couple of hours before he went off to the hostel's asado. I was just so tired and couldn't face more meat so I gave this one a miss. 

The next day, I had a couple of hours to kill and so decided to head into Salta for a cup of coffee and when I mentioned my plans to Marc at breakfast he decided to accompany me so we spent another couple of hours chatting and putting the world to rights before I headed back o the hostel to pick up my stuff to go to the airport to catch my plane to Iguazu. 

I'm really pleased that I made the decision to go to Salta. The person who finally swung it for me was Kerry (Navimag ferry Kerry) who had said what a good time she'd had there. We obviously have similar tastes in places as I completely agree with her!