Salta

Well I moved on further north to Salta - pretty close to the border with Bolivia, after hearing from numerous people along the way that it wasn´t a bad place to hang out for a few days....and true enough it wasn´t.

This is the first place I had been too which felt like genuine South America, pretty much everywhere else was essentially coloured by its colonial history and hugely influenced by the west (with perhaps a few small exclusions in Patagonia). The first thing that stuck me was the people, very much more indigenous than anywhere else I had been before - the second or maybe the first actually was again the heat, dripping dosen´t even come into it! Anyway I digress - arrived at stupid o´clock in the morning and hotfooted it to my hostel, the imaginatively named Salta Backpackers which turned out to be not a bad little place but operating under a somewhat two tier price system....basically if you were Israeli you got a bed for 10 pesos a night cheaper and then when you challenge it it was a simple shrug of the shoulders which basically meant piss off - you´re not getting it any cheaper! No fair eh? So I checked out the next day into somewhere a bit cheaper and with a one price fits all policy. How annoying is that eh?

OK - moan over, more about the place.....historically it was populated by the Incas until the Spanish arrived in the 16th century and commenced rule and oversaw the collaspe of the Inca empire. The name itself means ´pleasant place to settle down´ and I´d tend to agree. The city is pretty with parks spotted throughout, the mountains around dwarf the city and you´re only a short way from some of the most beautiful scenery that northwest Argentina has to offer. The main square in the city is called 9 de Julio and its here you see the locals come out after the sun sets and relax over a mate with friends or if you´re like me and the other tourists you´ll pick a nice cafe and sup a cup of ´tea´whilst putting the world to rights. The Cathedral is pretty spectacular and goes back to the late 1600´s (so I´m told) and definitely worth a visit. You can also either climb or take the cable car up Mount San Bernardo - particularly beautiful as the sun sets and the city lights start twinkling in the twilight. At the bottom there is also a good local craft or as they are called here - artisan markets, selling all kinds of local products, it must be said that its very difficult to maintain control on the purse strings but the thought of trying to pack anything else into my already overstuffed backpack is a pretty good incentive not to go buying too much. The nightlift is pretty good too and there are lots of options to sample the local cuisine and folk music - Balcarce St is particularly good. So that´s the city, what about the surrounds?

The one activity that draws a lot of visitors to Salta is the opportunity to take a trip on the Tren a las Nubes- the train to the clouds but it hasn´t been running for the last 18 months due to engineering works on a section of the track. The next best alternative is to go by road so that´s just what I did. I booked a 2 day tour to take in the mountains, the local towns and the Salt Flats. As usual an early start was called for - was picked up at 7.30 and on our merry way we went. The trip took in fabulous scenery along the way with the road snaking up through a valley where you can see the tracks of the aforementioned Tren a las Nubes and the El Toro viaduct which stands some 19m high and is 150m wide over the river of the same name.

With the climate being what it is there are also an immense number of cacti on the highlands (the soil not being rich enough in nutrients or moisture to support much else). Some of them were absolutely huge, probably aroung the 7m mark I reckon. And did you know that some cacti are actually made from wood?

Anyway the towns which we went through were San Antonio De Los Cobres, Santa Rosa de Tastil, Chorrillos, Cafayate, Cachi, Tilcara, Pulmamarca & Humahuaca. Tilcara has several interesting museums that hold lots of artefacts from the local area that date back many yeras and show the culture as it was way back when. It also has the ruins of an old Inca settlement which is worth a look if only for the spitting llamas and huge cacti garden. Purmamarca is where I bedded down for the night and what a night it was! When I arrived there was blue sky, hot sun, etc, etc. 2 hours later it was a completely different story - the skies opened, the heavens roared (thunder) and the lightening was something else entirely. The roads in the town (red clay) turned into rushing torrents and the electricity packed in so all you could do was sit back and enjoy the show - and what a show it was. A truly spectacular storm made even more so by being in a small valley with mountains all around - the echoes of the thunder and cracks of lightening seemed trapped by the mountains and the sounds were absolutely awesome - at some stages even shaking the building I was in! Something I won´t forget for a long time - roll on the next one! The only downside was that I went to bed hungry as there was no way that the restaurants were staying open and even if they had been there was no way to get there unless you had a pair of waders handy.

The other thing I didn´t mention was the altitude - at certain stages of this trip you are 4200m above sea level and believe me that can really take it out of you. This kind of height makes it imposible to do anything in a hurry so relaxed and slow is the order of the day- Salta is one of only 2 regions in Arhentina where you can legally buy coca leaves to help overcome the effects so that´s what we did. Can´t say its an entirely pleasing taste or even if they had the desired effect, all I know was that I didn´t feel sick and wasn´t too knackered. For the uneducated this is the plant that cocaine is derived from but believe me you would have to chew a hell of a lot of leaves to get any kind of kick off them whatsoever - I know, I tried!

The scenery that this particular route take in and is particularly famous for is the Hill of Seven Colours and the Skirt - 2 rock formations of natural beauty made up from all the various differnet minerals in the soil - copper, iron, lithium, sulphur, lime, dolomites, etc. As well as these 2 formations you can see the colours dispersed throughout the mountain ranges making it an awe inspiring trip.

The other part of this trip was a visit to the Salinas Grandes and to get there or was it back (can´t remeber it was a little time ago....) we needed to navigate the Lipan Slope which can be found on Route 52. All I can say is that it looked like the most intricate, challenging Formula One track I have ever seen. From a height if 4200 metres it loops its way down the mountain in a series of twists, turns and curves that are a true monument to modern engineering - fantastic! The Salt Flats - well they were reasonably large, very hot and resembled well....salt! pretty impressive all the same.

So that´s that - next time Cordoba.